Liverpool 3-0 Aston Villa

Villa boss Houlier concerned with his teams form.

The live televised game on Monday night took place at Anfield where Liverpool took on out of form Aston Villa. It was the return of former Liverpool manager Gerard Houlier who is currently in charge of Villa. He recieved a warm reception from the home supporters. There was some unfortunate news for the home side as Fernando Torres was unavailable to the side due to his wife being in labour as he awaits the birth of his child. Therefore Ryan Babel took his place.

Liverpool started the brighter and had some good opportunities early on with Dirk Kuyt having a half volley effort just sail wide. The home side continued to pressurise their opponents and tested Brad Friedel. However despite the Villa defence staying reasonably strong, Liverpool's hard work paid off and David Ngog got the opener. It resulted from a corner which was headed on by Martin Skrtel which looked to be going wide bu Ngog popped up and sent the ball in the other direction into the back of the net sending the home fans into delirium. It was a good goal and gave Liverpool an important lead.

This wasn't it as Liverpool wanted more, two minutes later the man replacing Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel grabbed the second goal. It was a very well taken goal. Villa lost possession from the restart and Liverpool pounced on the attack, a nicely floated ball over the top found Ryan Babel, who appeared to be offside, smash it across the keeper Friedel and double the lead.

For the remainder of the first half, Liverpool remained the dominant side. However when Martin Skrtel and Gabriel Agbonlahor collided in the penalty area, Villa had a good shout for a penalty. Replays showed that Skrtel slipped when in front of the Villa striker who then slipped over Skrtel so the referee made the right decision to not give the penalty.

Ngog gets the first goal of the night.

At half-time it was Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa.

Aston Villa needed something in the second half- they had to score the next goal otherwise it would be game over. This was not the case and Liverpool started the way they ended the first 45 minutes by attacking a Villa side who looked very weak in contrast to their impressive form and team last season.  It was just damage limitation for Villa after Maxi Rodriguez put the game to bed with a third goal. It was thanks to the Villa defence leaving a gap at the back, allowing Liverpool to break through. Maxi played it to Ngog, who returned it to Maxi from about 20 yards, Maxi made the run into the box, opened his body and curled it into the corner.

It was game over for Villa, Liverpool were cruising. The game remained with Liverpool looking for a 4th goal, Glen Johnson had a few good chances but couldn't find the goal. It finished Liverpool 3-0 Aston Villa. Liverpool move up to eighth in the table with this comfortable victory.