Villa squandered three more points to a very confident Liverpool side losing 1-0 to a Daniel Sturridge goal in front of over 41000 noisy fans at Villa Park.
Villa made 2 changes from the Chelsea defeat, Okore came in for the still heavily bandaged Clark and Bacuna made his full league debut in place of El Ahmadi to try to give Villa a more attacking look.
It was Liverpool though that had all the early possession and they were content to pass the ball quickly with very good movement off the ball. When Villa would get possession the reds harassed them and forced turnovers, while Villa players laid off their opponents leaving plenty of time for them to work the ball from the back. Rodgers really has his side looking like Swansea, the culture is already paying off.
Villa went behind after another lovely move with Coutinho’s pass not dealt with by Vlaar hit STURRIDGE who turned Luna the wrong way, pulled the ball out of Guzan’s reach and while falling over had the presence of mind to get the ball over Luna’s head and under the bar.
Villa finally had a flurry late in the half and Mignolet made a save from Benteke with a shot he saw very late.
Villa played better in the second half and owned more of the ball. Delph began climbing into the game and Westwood was able to play further up the field. Westwood saw two shots go high and Benteke then Weimann saw headers go wide.
Lowton had not played really well against Countinho and got into 3 or 4 niggly moments with the Brazillian. He finally received a yellow card, so Lambert dropped Bacuna to a right wing back and El Ahmadi moved into midfield.
Tonev came in for Weimann who had a little bit of joy in the second half down the right channel. Finally with 7 minutes left Helenius made his first appearance in Villa colors coming on for Westwood.
Both sides had good appeals for penalties. Benteke was pushed by Toure in the box while Guzan may have taken Sturridge before the ball.
Tonev forced a low, but easy enough save from Mignolet, then Helenius headed to Benteke and the goal looked a dead on certainty but Mignolet guessed correctly to turn the ball around for a corner.
Villa needs to start the games a lot better. It seems the Claret and Blues almost prefer to play from behind. The side is still one player away from a decent side. It is desperate need of a playmaker and motivator. Delph is trying the role as playmaker, but he is not yet a leader. The difference in this game, despite all the expensive players Liverpool fielded in comparison to ours, was Coutinho. That little magic he produced was just what Benteke would be crying out for.
Overall, not terrible. Was no worse than the loss at Villa Park to Liverpool earlier this year.