Dave Woodhall watches a familiar story as Villa lose to Liverpool.
Here we go again. When you’re in a bad run there are some grounds where you want to be going next – Villa Park, for one. And there are some you most definitely don’t want to be going anywhere near. Top of the list is Anfield, so naturally that was where Villa were heading on that most annoying of times, Saturday evening.
It wasn’t so much a date with destiny as a date with the best team in the league at the moment, forty-odd thousand daytrippers, a referee, two assistants, a fourth official, a VAR hit squad and a TV crew. At least you know what you’re getting – none of them are on your side; all of them want a straightforward home win, preferably with a lot of goals, and no drama.
Unai reshuffled the team again in an attempt to at least try to stop the goals that have brought a temporary halt in Villa’s inexorable rise to the heights of compliant referees, enthralled media and extensive Scandinvaian support. He also dropped John McGinn, probably not for the last time, and Leon Bailey was yet again given a last chance. And so we were off.
The match went pretty much as expected. Liverpool were on top, opening the scoring after twenty minutes. They could have had more but to their credit Villa came back with both Amadou Onana and Diego Carlos both unlucky not to score, bringing out the best in the Liverpool keeper.
Morgan Rogers should have equalised soon after the start of the second half and that was the big difference between the sides. Liverpool took their chance, Villa wasted theirs. We should have had another chance when Pau Torres didn’t so much have his shirt pulled as became the victim of shoplifting, but this is Anfield. VAR had a casual look, saw the colour of the shirt being pulled and that was the end of that.
Just in case there was any prospect of an equaliser, Liverpool got their second with six minutes remaining. The script had been followed to the letter – they got that straightforward win and went five points clear at the top of the table without much fuss. The penalty that never was didn’t got a mention, either. Villa dropped to eighth, although we can always gain a bit of consolation as we’re bottom of a group of six clubs with a point btween them. It isn’t a disaster but neither is it anything to be plaased with.
The big story is that this was the first time Unai’s lost four in a row. So did Pep Guardiola a couple of hours earlier but nobody’s suggesting Manchester City are doomed to slide down the table. Villa are definitely failing to hit the heights of last season and part of the reason is that we were unable to strengthen the squad during the summer thanks to PSR – another advantage that Liverpool have got. We’ve an international break coming up and rarely has one arrived at a more convenient time.