Aston Villa 7 (seven) Liverpool 2 - Report and pictures
There are words you can use to describe this match, though the one which would truly do it justice is probably still to be invented.
Suffice to say Villa 7 Liverpool 2 is easily the most eye-popping scoreline of a Premier League season so far not exactly short of them.
For Villa, it ranks among the greatest results in their modern history. It may well be the club’s most extraordinary since Brian Little, Andy Gray and John Deehan put five past a Liverpool team who were also reigning champions in 1976.
That win came when Ron Saunders was just beginning to build Villa into a club which went on to conquer Europe.
No-one is suggesting Dean Smith is about to do the same, though the ultimate ambitions of the club's owners are that lofty. Yet after promising his team would not get complacent after opening the Premier League season with two wins, it may now be hard for the head coach to keep a lid on expectations. Villa, on this evidence, do not look like also-rans.
Granted, this was a night when everything seemed to fall their way. The visitors were without the influential Sadio Mane while Adrian, who replaced the injured Alisson Becker in the visitors goal, made an awful error to gift Villa the lead. John McGinn was fortunate not to concede a penalty when he barged Mo Salah over in the box when the lead was just 1-0. Three of Villa’s goals were deflected.
But Smith’s team earned their luck on a night when they went toe-to-toe with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool juggernaut and won.
Ollie Watkins opened the scoring inside four minutes and went on to become the first Villa player since Christian Benteke to score a Premier League hat-trick. Ross Barkley, who netted on debut, might have had a treble himself. Then there was Jack Grealish, who set up the opening two goals for Watkins and then scored two in the second half himself as Villa became the first team since Tottenham, in 1963, to score seven past Liverpool.
John McGinn was the other man on the mark for the hosts, with Mo Salah hitting two for the visitors who had numerous chances themselves in the first-half but in the end were simply outgunned. With better finishing, the hosts could have hit double figures.
Villa showed attacking intent from the start and their willingness to press the visitors at every opportunity prompted Adrian’s error for the opening goal.
With Watkins racing toward him, the keeper overhit his pass intended for Joe Gomez and Grealish pounced. The skipper squared the ball back into the middle where Watkins was able to steer home for his first Premier League goal.
It was the second successive match Villa had opened the scoring in the fourth minute and they should soon have been further ahead, Barkley pulling a finish wide of the post after Trent Alexander-Arnold had misjudged an Emiliano Martinez goal kick, allowing Grealish to scamper away down the left and tee up the debutant.
It briefly looked like being a costly miss as Liverpool began to find their stride and threaten an equaliser. Martinez did superbly to deny Roberto Firmino one-on-one while seconds later McGinn was fortunate not to concede a penalty when he appeared to barge Salah over in the box.
Having been handed a gift for the opener, Villa then nearly returned it when Ezri Konsa over-hit a pass out of defence and Matty Cash had to dive in to block Naby Keita’s shot.
Yet just when a leveller was starting to look inevitable, Villa doubled their lead.
Watkins showed great patience to hold the ball up on the right before a through pass from Grealish sent him scampering away down the left. The striker had options in the middle but after cutting inside had only one thing on his mind and fired a powerful right-footed shot into the top corner.
Diogo Jota had replaced Mane in the Reds line-up and the former Wolves man brought a smart save out of Martinez with a delicate lob which the keeper tipped over the bar.
Then came Barkley’s next big chance, the midfielder latching on to a Grealish pass and holding off the attentions of van Dijk only to pull his shot wide of the target.
That miss was quickly punished, Salah bringing the visitors back into the match by hammering home from close range after great work by Jota down the left.
But just when many might have predicted Villa to wilt, they duly put their foot on the gas again.
Adrian did well to deny Barkley with his legs but was then left powerless when the resulting corner fell to McGinn on the edge of the box and the Scot’s first-time volley took a wicked deflection into the net.
Villa were not done there. Six minutes before the break van Dijk was booked for upending Barkley and when the free-kick ran to Trezeguet on the left flank, he drilled in a cross which Watkins headed home from close range to complete his hat-trick and the scoring for the most extraordinary of halves.
The second period began in somewhat pedestrian fashion until Villa grabbed their fifth 10 minutes in. This goal owed much to fortune, Barkley letting fly with a long range effort which clipped the legs of Alexander-Arnold and looped wickedly over Adrian into the far corner.
Salah brought the deficit back to three when he finished smartly after collecting a smart Firmino pass but for the third time in the match Villa then profited from a deflection, as Grealish’s shot struck Fabinho and flew inside the near post to make it 6-2.
The skipper made it seven when he collected McGinn’s pass and sent a dinked finish beyond Adrian. By the final whistle the winning margin might have been more, Watkins hitting the bar from Trezeguet’s cross.
Teams
Villa (4-3-3): Martinez, Cash (Elmohamady 80), Konsa, Mings, Targett, McGinn, Luiz (Nakamba 80), Barkley, Trezeguet (Traore 87), Watkins, Grealish Subs not used: Hourihane, El Ghazi, Davis, Steer (gk).
Liverpool (4-3-3): Adrian, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez (Jones 61), van Dijk, Robertson, Keita (Minamino HT), Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Salah, Firmino (Milner 68), Jota Subs not used: Henderson, Origi, Williams, Kelleher (gk).
