Liverpool were comfortable winners on Sunday as they cruised past Aston Villa with an impressive 3-0 victory. It was probably the best performance of the season for the Reds. Let’s take a look at some things we saw from the win.
Trent Alexander-Arnold has his best outing of the season – Before being removed in the 70th minute for a knock, Trent had put on a master class of the highest order.
His passing was back to the elite level we’ve come to know. His sensational over the top ball led directly to the Aston Villa own goal. He was spraying passes from all angles. This was the Alexander-Arnold we saw down the stretch of last season.
His confidence was clear as he was driving at the Villa defense while on the ball and showed little hesitation taking shots on from distance.
While nothing came of those efforts, it’s a telltale sign he is feeling good about his game when he gives those strikes a proper go. Defensively he was solid and made a few nice interceptions as well.
Darwin Nunez gets the start, but can’t capitalize on chances – Following his heroics against Newcastle United last week, there was a big clamor for Darwin to get his first start. Jurgen Klopp agreed and ran him out from the kickoff against Villa.
While his running and physical style were on full display yet again, he reverted back to no-end-product Darwin.
Granted, his shot that deflected off the post did cause the own goal, but it’s something he would have liked to bury into the back of the net. In the second half, Mo Salah put him in with a beautiful ball to the far post but Nunez headed it just wide of the open net.
He did record an assist as he flicked on a corner kick for Salah to finish, but you could tell there was something missing from the overall performance. Goals were definitely left on the field.
Matip-Gomez pairing gets Liverpool their first clean sheet – With Ibrahima Konate out injured and Virgil Van Dijk suspended, Klopp was forced to go with Joel Matip and Joe Gomez in the heart of defense.
Gomez was the better player of the two as he stood up to almost anything Aston Villa threw at him. Matip had some shaky moments with his ball distribution and he also missed a free header, but overall he was solid at the back.
Liverpool dominated for large portions of the match so it was not as if Villa had a plethora of chances to test the Reds defense. However, a clean sheet is never anything to scoff at.
With long-term goals in mind, this won’t be the center defensive pairing we put out in marquee matches, but for today it got the job done.