When Arne Slot boarded a plane to the Netherlands shortly before midnight to join his family for a few days, he might have had the chant of ‘Liverpool, top of the league’ still ringing in his ears.
He knew that this run of seven games between the October and November international breaks would provide a little more clarity on his team’s current capabilities and it is no exaggeration to say that they have barely put a foot wrong and seamlessly manoeuvred themselves into a commanding position at the top of the pile.
Liverpool’s only dropped points came in the draw away at Arsenal and, overall, this is turning out to be some start for Slot. Their tally of 28 points from the opening 11 Premier League games has only been matched once in the last 34 seasons, in 2019/20 when they went on to win the title.
Slot has taken the opportunity to use the international breaks as a way to disconnect from his early tenure at Liverpool, travelling back to Rotterdam and spending time with his wife and children. But although he will have deserved to crack open a beer on the short journey across the North Sea, he may have wished this latest stop in league action hadn’t come now.
By defeating Aston Villa 2-0, Liverpool took advantage of Manchester City dropping points in their loss away to Brighton & Hove Albion and moved five points ahead of the current league champions. With Arsenal and Chelsea facing off on Sunday, one of those two will drop further back too.
Slot is making it all look easy. He brought Darwin Nunez back into the starting lineup and the Uruguayan scored his first goal in five appearances. Still, this being Nunez, it was one of those Saturday evening variety performances from him and he missed chances that were far easier than the one he converted in the 20th minute.
Mohamed Salah added a second late on to settle any nerves and secure Liverpool’s 15th win from 17 games.
Both of the home team’s goals came from counter-attacks, which was something that appeared to be a Villa vulnerability throughout, and so did Nunez’s other golden chance which he spurned when one-on-one with Emiliano Martinez.
Apart from those breaks Villa were well organised, difficult to grind down and would have been on the scoresheet themselves had Caoimhin Kelleher not produced a fine double save before half time.
Whereas Liverpool will hope this international window does not check their momentum, Unai Emery will be glad for a reset. Villa have lost four successive matches in all competitions and last won in the league four games ago.
Story of the game
This was always going to be a big occasion for Slot and his team as they aimed to maintain they imperious form through to this latest staging post. But City losing, for the fourth consecutive game, only increased the anticipation around Anfield.
Villa attempted to keep the tempo in check by taking an age over every goal kick but the visitors were dangerous themselves. Leon Bailey headed over a Youri Tielemans cross and Ryan Gravenberch made an important block to deny Jacob Ramsey’s effort. Ibrahima Konate put in an impressive display and pre-empted much of the Villa’s attacking threats.
Liverpool hadn’t tested Martinez before they succeeded in exploiting a Villa folly of not keeping a player back to prevent the counter-attack from their own corner kicks. For all the attention to detail Emery’s side tend to place on set-plays, this was an obvious error.
Virgil van Dijk’s pass released Salah with a superb through ball and although the Egyptian was sent tumbling by Bailey running back, Nunez took the loose ball, rounded Martinez and clipped a clinical finish from a difficult angle.
Liverpool players rightly questioned referee David Coote’s decision not to punish Bailey’s foul as the last defender when they walked back to take the restart, but the official was equally as dismissive when Ollie Watkins went down in the penalty area minutes later after a challenge from Konate.
The one sour note for the hosts came when Trent Alexander-Arnold was forced off with a hamstring injury midway through the half and was replaced by Conor Bradley.
Having opened the scoring, Nunez should have doubled Liverpool’s lead when they again broke from a Villa corner. The striker was even better placed from his Salah pass but he blazed over with only the goalkeeper to beat.
Villa did have success with their corners. Kelleher tipped over Amadou Onana’s glancing header and then denied Diego Carlos with a fine reaction save from the resulting corner. And at the start of the second half, Morgan Rogers placed a shot wide following a long pass from Lucas Digne.
Another Nunez chance went begging with a header that flew past Martinez’s post and Emery was not happy with how the striker had been afforded the opportunity. The Villa manager was also riled when Pau Torres went to ground following a tug from Bradley at a free-kick, but again the referee and VAR were not interested.
It seemed as though Liverpool were content to play out the single-goal victory but it was as Villa started to up the ante in the final 10 minutes that the home team struck again.
Carlos attempted to clear a long ball on the halfway line but succeeded in only heading the ball against Salah, who promptly left the defender railing as they pursued the rebound into the Villa half.
Salah had options to his left but this was his chance, and he took it by thrashing a finish beyond Martinez to send Anfield giddy and Slot on his mini-break with a start beyond his wildest dreams.
