It was revenge time for the Reds and they took it in an entertaining clash against Aston Villa who gunned down Liverpool last year in a shocking manner. The win was Liverpool’s first at Anfield in the Premier League since December.

When Villa took the lead late in the first half through Ollie Watkins, who slid the ball under Alisson after a counter-attack, the memories of Villa Park revisited, but the Reds reenergized themselves and started fighting back.

Liverpool thought they had equalized just minutes later, but a controversial VAR call chalked off Roberto Firmino’s goal, apparently deciding Diogo Jota was offside in the build-up.

But the Reds finally drew level after 57 minutes, when a shot from Andrew Robertson was saved, only to land at the feet of Mohamed Salah – who struck home.

The second half saw both sides miss key chances, with Trezeguet hitting the post for Villa.

But with just added time remaining, Trent Alexander-Arnold struck a wonderful goal to hand the Reds all three points, moving them into the top four.

With that goal, surely, TAA would gain his confidence. Recently he has not been in his best form, and for which, he needed enough morale-boosting.

He was left out of Gareth Southgate’s most recent England squad. And earlier this week, he had an absolute stinker as the Reds fell to a Champions League defeat against Real Madrid.

However, with Southgate in attendance today, Alexander-Arnold produced one of his best performances in some time.

It was clear that part of Aston Villa’s game plan was to target the young defender, but Trezeguet and Ollie Watkins didn’t really have much success against him.

The England defender completed three of his five tackles successfully – the most of any Liverpool player. Alexander-Arnold contributed going forward, too, with a 75% pass success rate and three key passes.

And, the goal was the icing on the cake.

While all of the press coverage going into today’s game focused on Aston Villa’s 7-2 win over Liverpool in October, interestingly enough, the result mirrored the game between these two sides in November 2019.

That match took place at Villa Park and saw Dean Smith’s side take a first-half lead through Trezeguet. Liverpool kept plugging away, though, and eventually won 1-2, thanks to Andrew Robertson and Sadio Mane’s late goals.

It was the kind of result that summed up Jurgen Klopp’s so-called ‘mentality monsters.’

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Before the all-important Champions League clash against Real Madrid, Klopp would cash in the points achieved at Anfield.

 

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