It was the day the media were eagerly waiting for following the appointment of Steven Gerrard as our new gaffer – Aston Villa’s trip to Anfield to face Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side.
The hosts started the brighter as everyone expected, but we were organised and awake and Liverpool’s best chance probably came after Sadio Mane had tried to buy a penalty but it was well saved by Emi Martinez. It was almost one way traffic again and although the ref seemed unable to book them for obvious fouls and dives, he couldn’t wait to book Ollie Watkins for a nothing tackle.
However, he quickly waved away screams for another penalty as Matty Cash brilliantly tackled Robertson, so we couldn’t complain there.
Our chances were few and far between, but Liverpool were frustrated by the half hour mark and they did look dodgy in defence, so if we could make one of them count the away dayers would be in heaven. But that was a big if because our defensive efforts were becoming more last ditch as the half came to a close.
Scoreless at the break and the ref went off to even more moaning in his ears as the poor little children hadn’t had it all their way (in their eyes).
Second half was much the same, Liverpool did all the running and we were defending for our lives and needing Emi to be on top form. Liverpool continued to get all the decisions including a bizarre ‘foul’ by John McGinn when a player bounced off him and went down like he’d been given a right hook.
It was somewhat inevitable that a penalty would feature in this one, but I don’t think Tyrone Mings can have many complaints really even though it was on the softer side of life. 1-0 and all that hard work undone as Mings just got his feet mixed up and Salah was never staying on his feet.
Heads didn’t go though and we went more on the attack and after some great play from Ollie, Meatball and Buendia, Matty Cash was presented with a great chance but for some reason he just didn’t hit it first time and the chance was lost. We were now spending a bit of time in and around their box though, which made a nice change and Ezri Konsa did well when they broke.
We then had two cast iron penalty shouts of our own as Danny Ings tussled with the keeper, and following that Ollie was barged down in the follow up – but naturally VAR wasn’t interested. Some would argue we didn’t deserve much from the game, but we’ve been cheated out of a point there.
It’s funny what VAR decides to look at it isn’t it.
Anfield
Premier League
11/12/2021 4:00 pm
Referee: Stuart Attwell
| Liverpool | Aston Villa | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salah (pen 67) | |||||||
| Alisson | Martinez | ||||||
| Alexander-Arnold | Cash | ||||||
| Matip | Konsa | ||||||
| van Dijk | Mings | ||||||
| Robertson | Targett | ||||||
| Henderson | McGinn | ||||||
| Fabinho | Nakamba | 57 | |||||
| Thiago Alcantara | 84 | Douglas Luiz | |||||
| Salah | J Ramsey | 74 | |||||
| Oxlade-Chamberlain | 58 | Watkins | |||||
| Mane | 88 | Young | 69 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Konate | Sanson | 57 | |||||
| Milner | 84 | Buendia | 69 | ||||
| Keita | Steer | ||||||
| Gomez | Tuanzebe | ||||||
| Minamino | 88 | Trezeguet | |||||
| Jota | 58 | Ings | 74 | ||||
| Tsimikas | El Ghazi | ||||||
| Kelleher | Hause | ||||||
| Williams | Carney Chukwuemeka | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 20 | Goal attempts | 4 |
| 5 | On Target | 0 |
| 11 | Corners | 3 |
| 13 | Fouls | 6 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 63 | % | 37 |