Liverpool respond to Arsenal message as Arne Slot undroppable emerges - 5 talking points
LIVERPOOL 2-0 ASTON VILLA: Ryan Gravenberch and Mohamed Salah were on target as Arne Slot's side showed signs of Premier League champions
Liverpool returned to winning ways on Saturday evening with a strong performance against Aston Villa at Anfield. Goals from Mohamed Salah and the returning Ryan Gravenberch sealed the win with the champions keeping a clean sheet for the first time in 11 games.
Villa were actually the better team in the early stages with Morgan Rogers and Matty Cash both going close. Liverpool thought they'd taken the lead through Hugo Ekitike's header after 43 minutes, but he received Dominik Szoboszlai's cross in an offside position.
Mohamed Salah struck just a 180 seconds later though as he pounced on Emiliano Martinez's awry pass to Pau Torres with a clinical first-time effort. Ryan Gravenberch then doubled the hosts' advantage as he drove through the centre of the pitch before his strike was deflected past Martinez.
Unai Emery's side pushed for a way back into the game but failed to overly trouble Giorgi Mamardashvili with three points for Liverpool taking them up to third. Here are Mirror Football's talking points from Anfield.
Result over performance
Considering how the last few weeks have gone for Liverpool, three points against Villa was the main priority regardless of the performance put in.
The first 20 minutes suggested it would be a similar story for Slot's side, but they grew into the game and were arguably deserved winners. Following Ekitike's disallowed goal, there was really only one team threatening.
While in very different fashion as they rarely look like conceding, title rivals Arsenal look as though they still have another gear to hit. Liverpool have not yet hit heights reached last season, but this was arguably their most dominant display of the last few months.
Slot's undroppable
No Liverpool player has covered themselves in glory over the last few weeks, but it's fair to say considering he has missed a large chunk of that, Ryan Gravenberch cannot really face much blame and Liverpool looked far better with him in the starting XI.
An ankle injury has seen him miss Liverpool's last three games but he was back in the spine against Villa. While he predominantly plays as the deepest midfielder, the Netherlands international often found himself leading attacks with his presence making Liverpool better in both boxes.
He took some time to adjust, with that showcased by Villa dominating the early stages but once he settled, there was arguably no better player on the pitch with his six duels won and nine passes into the final third proving his dominance in every area.
While Slot will not want to run Gravenberch into the ground, he quite simply has to feature in all of Liverpool's games going forward.
Salah at his best
Despite being one of the best goal-scorers in the Premier League's modern era, Salah is at his lethal best when he has not had enough time to overthink his shot with his last two goals fitting that remit perfectly.
A sublime touch and first-time finish against Brentford has been followed up by a low right-footed effort into an empty net after a mistake by Emiliano Martinez. That goal took him to a staggering 250 for Liverpool.
If Liverpool are to get themselves back into the title race, Salah needs to be in the oppositions penalty area as much as possible. On too many occasions this season, the Egypt international has been shunted out wide and been unable to make an impact.
Get Salah into the right positions and he will start scoring goals more consistently with that likely to lead to Liverpool winning again.
Real Madrid blueprint
Liverpool have kicked off a challenging next eight days in superb fashion and almost everything from their performance against Villa should be taken into the Champions League clash against Real Madrid.
Gravenberch playing another 90 minutes may not be possible on his return from injury with the same being said for Mac Allister, who has struggled so far this season. However, if there are no major injury or fitness concerns, Slot should name an unchanged team for the visit of Xabi Alonso's side.
That would mean another benching for Florian Wirtz but his best performances for Liverpool have arguably come as a substitute which certainly makes him an exciting option to turn to.
Midfield and defence issues persist
Slot absolutely went back to basics with his team selection as Alexis Mac Allister and Andy Robertson came into the starting XI for Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez.
However, that did not even remotely matter on several occasions as Villa regularly strode past Liverpool's midfield with Giorgi Mamardashvili forced to make a number of saves. Morgan Rogers was in particularly a thorn in their side during the first 45 minutes with the Villa star striking the post after great work between him and Ollie Watkins.
There is no denying Villa are a good side but it is concerning how easy teams find it to both break and pass through the lines. There were a number of moments when Villa players were running into so much space with at least 30 yards between Liverpool's midfield and defence.
It has been a problem all season and it still needs fixing.
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