Hot off their first win of the Women’s Super League season against Tottenham on January 25th, Liverpool took on Manchester United last weekend knowing they faced a far tougher opponent but hopeful they could earn some kind of a result and perhaps drag themselves off the bottom of the table.
That didn’t happen, with the Reds losing 3-1 to the Red Devils. To make matters worse, Everton, a point ahead heading into the weekend, won their match. Fortunately, West Ham didn’t and remain just a point up. Still, time is running out if the goal is to avoid relegation, and Aston Villa are up next.
“It was a frustrating day for us against Manchester United because we weren’t at our best,” [noted](https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/gareth-taylor-column-lessons-learn-facing-aston-villa-and-anna-josendal-update) head coach Gareth Taylor. “There are things for us to improve on, for sure, and lessons to be learned. Aston Villa are a tough proposition but we are at St Helens with our supporters behind us again.
“This is a good opportunity for us and we owe them one after what happened at Villa Park. They caught us in a poor moment with the tight schedule of games we had that week and we were a little bit depleted with the squad. We are looking forward to it, we will get the focus back, and go again.”
Liverpool suffered a heavy 3-0 defeat away at Villa when the two sides met in December, but a string of January signings, that win over Spurs, and the game being at home all give at least some cause for hope. Meanwhile, Villa sit eighth in the 12-team league, better than the Reds but hardly untouchable.
A point against them at home, then, will have to be the absolute minimum. Fail to earn even that, and with perennial title chasers Chelsea up next there’s a real risk a gap will start to form that could prove insurmountable for this group—and with it, a second relegation in recent seasons will beckon.
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