Liverpool vs Aston Villa Match Report: Reds win Ugly on Gerrard’s Anfield Return

Liverpool impressed once again with their win against Aston Villa, but much like their last league match against Wolves, they were made to fight for all three points after Mo Salah slotted his penalty past Emiliano Martinez.

Jurgen Klopp described his team’s performance as “"outstanding for 75 minutes” and said when they went ahead, they struggled to get back into a rhythm and gave Villa a chance back into the game. Villa manager Steven Gerrard said that his team were “unfortunate” to not get a penalty themselves, after a series of errors in one moment of the second half, where Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson seemed to have swiped Danny Ings’ legs. Better angles showed that the Brazilian shot stopper got a full hand on the ball. Liverpool huffed and puffed throughout the whole game, but the match could’ve been a lot easier for them if their forwards were more clinical, with decent opportunities missed by Mo Salah and Diogo Jota.

Mo Salah and Virgil Van Dijk vs Gerrard’s Villa

There was much discussion about the officiating throughout the game, with many contentious decisions being talking points. Klopp played down talks that he had an argument with the fourth official when discussing of the game, describing it as just a “talk” regarding certain moments in the game.

Steven Gerrard said that his team done well to stay in the game for so long and commended his team’s organisation to shut out Liverpool for large chunks of the match. He said: ”The idea was to get to 60 or 70 minutes and then throw things at them when the crowd got nervous and it opened up.”

Liverpool knew they had to win this game to keep up with Manchester City in the title race, and no matter how they play, there will be a massive relief that they got 3 points to remain a point off the top. The Reds remain on a fantastic goal scoring run after their win, with the last game where they didn’t score coming in the Champions League against Real Madrid in April of this year.

Steven Gerrard certainly didn’t let the occasion get to him as for the first time in his footballing life he returned to Anfield for the opposite side, he will be proud of the display his team put on and much like their defeat to Manchester City, there were more positives than negatives despite losing.