I wasn’t going to bother posting on this one, but how can I not write on what is a pretty historic result?
This is the first time Liverpool have conceded seven goals since around 1963, after all.
Not that I’m bothered by that.
But given that the consensus amongst a lot of Villa fans is that we’re aiming for maybe midtable, this was an outstanding result that nobody expected.
So what happened? Were Liverpool poor or were we really good?
Well, I think it was both.
I asked in the preview that we get at them and we did from the off. The whole midfield were like terriers and didn’t give Liverpool any time at all, which totally unsettled them.
This, in turn gave Watkins room to play and get a well deserved hat-trick. His workrate and movement is exactly what we missed last season and while I hadn’t seen a lot of him previously, I can now fully understand why Smith was willing to spend so much money on him.
And then add in Barkley too, whose driving runs gave him many opportunities. His aggressiveness and power also make him look a bargain too.
I think a mention for Dean Smith is warranted here, because I think he got the tactics absolutely perfect today.
Liverpool play a very high line in defence and it’s proved very successful previously as they caught a lot of other teams out for offside last season.
I’m assuming it was a deliberate tactic, but we managed to get in behind the defence a few times.
How Liverpool didn’t start to defend a little deeper, I don’t know, but I’m not complaining.
Very little went right for Liverpool, as three major deflections in our favour attested, but we weren’t lucky as such.
From memory I think it’s fair to say we could quite easily have scored a nice round dozen on a better day.
Heh, a better day.
That sounds crazy when you’ve just destroyed the champions, but it’s absolutely true.
Barkley missed a sitter and had two other very good chances along with the one he scored.
Watkins hit the bar.
That’s eleven and I’m sure there were more chances that I can’t remember.
The interesting thing was that Liverpools confidence was evidently shot to pieces, while this must have done the world of good for our lads.
We’re now second in the league on nine points while having a game in hand over the rest of the top ten.
It’s perhaps a bit fortuitous that our first two games were against teams that look like they might seriously struggle this time round, but there was no questioning todays result.
Was there any downside?
Well there’s very little off the top of my head and even less worth mentioning.
Heck, I even admitted that Matt Targett was having a good game and you won’t hear that from me very often unless he maintains that sort of standard.
I’m not at work tomorrow, but if I was, I’d be going in with a massive smile on my face.
I’m sure a few of you definitely will.
And it’ll be totally justified.
Happy days and UTV!!!
