Aston Villa 2-2 Liverpool
by Gene Sylvester
at Villa Park

AN ABSOLUTE belter of a game was played out at Villa Park as the Villains once again looked to derail the hope of a title contender — as they did to Arsenal last season — but with the game ending 2-2, it’s not yet clear if the two dropped points will be detrimental to Liverpool’s title hopes or not.

Arne Slot’s men had the opportunity to stretch their lead at the top of the table to 10 points, but a number of poor finishes from the Liverpool forward line — Darwin Nunez’s 68th miss being the pick of the bunch — meant that they had to settle for a point in the midlands.

A defensive error from Unai Emery’s men gifted the league leaders the opener in the 29th minute, when Villa right-back Andres Garcia’s attempted back pass to his keeper was intercepted by Diogo Jota.

The Portuguese striker bore down on the Villa goal, squaring the ball to Mohammed Salah as Martinez rushed from his goal, leaving the Egyptian with the easy task of firing into an empty net.

Villa were only behind for eight minutes before they drew level courtesy of a rare Youri Tielemans goal, his only previous league goal this season coming at Ashburton Grove against Arsenal last month.

Marcus Rashford, making his first start for the Villains, lofted in a free-kick from the left that was half cleared by Ibrahima Konate to the back post.

Villa captain John Mcginn recycled the ball back across goal, with the ball finally falling to an unmarked Tielemens, who slammed his left-footed shot past the despairing dive of Allison Becker.

The Villa Park faithful were sent into raptures during first half injury time when the home side took the lead through Ollie Watkins.

A good exchange down the left between the England striker and Lucas Digne ended with the French left-back whipping in a cross that Watkins flicked into the far corner of the net with his head.

“I wasn’t happy with going in at half-time 2-1 down as it did not reflect the first half at all, in my opinion,” Liverpool manager Arne Slot said following the final whistle.

The league leaders found themselves level on the hour when Trent Alexander-Arnold broke away from defence, playing a ball out to Salah on the right.

The Egyptian beat the rash challenge of Digne, cutting inside and laying the ball off for Alexander-Arnold who fired in a low shot from the edge of the box, which was deflected and over the dive of Martinez in the Villa goal, via Tyrone Mings’ leg.

Liverpool could have been ahead eight minutes later through Nunez, but the substitute blazed his effort high over an unguarded net from six yards after Szobosali squared the ball to him in the box.

Manager Slot tried to find a reason for the striker’s miss that could have given his side all three points and a ten point lead at the top of the table.

“He [Darwin] was very unlucky as the ball fell on his left foot, and he is right-footed of course.’

Villa boss Unai Emery wasn’t overly happy with the point, but he believed his team came top against the best team in Europe.

“I’m not happy with not winning the match when we play well. We competed with Liverpool, who are the best team in the Premier League and the Champions League.”