Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa
by Gene Sylvester
at Anfield
TWENTY-FOUR hours after Halloween was celebrated across the country, Aston Villa travelled to Anfield on the back of an impressive win against Manchester City the previous week, but goals from Mohamed Salah, courtesy of an Emi Martinez horror show, and the returning Ryan Gravenberch was enough to earn the reds their first Premier League win since mid-September.
With Arne Slot’s side staring down the barrel of a potential seventh defeat in eight games, Unai Emery’s men fancied their chances of stretching their own impressive run to seven wins in eight with a victory at Anfield.
The Anfield crowd, known for making nights under the floodlights a special occasion, created an atmosphere usually reserved for those big European nights.
And their support was not only aimed at the players as they repeatedly sang Arne Slot’s name to show their support for a manager who may have been starting to feel a little bit tight around the collar regarding his team’s recent form.
“It meant a lot to me, hearing the fans sing my name, especially as it started at 0-0, not when we were winning and their team is not top of the league, but going through a difficult moment” stated Slot after the final whistle, praising the support for both himself and the team.
“It’s what makes this club special. They don’t forget if you have been part of something special in the past and help you in the difficult moments.”
Aston Villa played their own part in helping Liverpool take the lead in this match as a ghoulish error from goalkeeper Martinez gifted them the lead in first half stoppage time.
As Villa attempted to see out the first half, having weathered the Red storm from a team who seemed to have found their mojo again, the World Cup winning goalkeeper presented the ball straight to Salah inside his own box with a pass that was intended for his own teammate Pau Torres.
The keeper’s wayward pass seemingly wrong footed the Spanish defender, and the Liverpool striker, who’s own form of late has been under great scrutiny, had the simple task of placing a first time right-footed shot into an unguarded net from 15 yards to score his 250th goal for the club.
“We made a mistake for the first goal when it was very important to go in at half-time 0-0” rued Villa boss Emery after the game.
This was by no means a backs to the wall performance from the away side with them striking the woodwork twice in the first half through a curling effort from Morgan Rogers and a deflected shot from Matty Cash that Reds keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili brilliantly tipped onto the bar at full stretch.
But it was a Liverpool deflected shot that wrapped up the points for the home side after 54 minutes following another attempted clearance that went straight to Virgil van Dijk on the halfway line.
His header back into the Villa half was helped on by Dominik Szoboszlai who in turn played it on to Alexis Mac Allister.
The Argentine then found Gravenberch, returning to the starting lineup after a couple of weeks on the sidelines, who shifted the ball onto his left foot on the edge of the Villa penalty area and hit a shot that deflected off the unlucky Torres and past Martinez.
With the Anfield crowd belting out a rendition of Bob Marley’s ‘Three Little Birds’ to close out the game, it suggested that they believed ‘every little thing is gonna be alright’ for their team.