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That’s Liverpool’s 24th consecutive home victory in the Premier League. Is that even legal?
Full time: Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa
Peep peep! Liverpool move to 89 points with victory over Aston Villa. They were sluggish for an hour but upped their game after a triple substitution and eventually broke down a diligent Villa defence. Sadio Mane belted the first of the bar, and the young substitute Curtis Jones sealed victory with a couple of minutes remaining.
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90+3 min Neco Williams replaces Andy Robertson for the champions.
90+1 min Alisson makes an outstanding save, showing superb reflexes to dive low to his left and push Grealish’s shot round the post. He is formidably good.
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90 min Five minutes of added time.
It was a good team goal. Robertson floated a cross beyond the far post, Salah cushioned a header back towards Jones, and he adjusted his feet smartly to hit a shot that deflected off Mings and into the net.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa (Jones 89)
Curtis Jones wraps up victory for Liverpool!
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88 min Villa are running out of time. Defeats are not ideal when you’re trying to avoid relegation but they will surely take a fair bit of confidence from this performance. Their next two games - at home to Manchester United and Crystal Palace - are huge. They have to win at least one of those, especially with Watford likely to beat Norwich in the week.
87 min “Completely agree,” says Ronan Fitzgerald. “He’s incredible on the ball. Maybe just his style is so effortless and nobody gets near him so people don’t notice. Brilliant finisher too. And incredibly consistent.”
Superb in the really big games, too.
86 min Jones blasts over the bar from long range.
85 min Villa bring on Indiana Vassilev for Trezeguet.
85 min “Alright Rob, tin hat time,” says Digvijay Yadav. “Stam or Van Dijk?”
That’s a delightful bit of mischief. They are so similar: intimidating strength and speed, oodles of self-confidence and quite brilliant one on one. Probably van Dijk by a nose, simply because of his impact on the rest of the defence. Stam had less midfield protection, van Dijk got more goals. Can you imagine them together.
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84 min Curtis Jones replaces Naby Keita for Liverpool.
79 min Tyrone Mings is struggling after landing awkwardly. He limps to the sidelines for more treatment and then comes back on. Villa really don’t want to lose him for the rest of the season.
77 min “Mane!!” says Matt Dony. “Never in doubt, Rob. It’s what champions do. (As well as being tonked 4-0 by your closest rivals, obviously.)”
There’s a rich tradition of new champions behing hammered in meaningless games. But I doubt any team will do it with as much style as Bayern Munich in 1974: “We arrived fairly drunk and lost 5-0.”
76 min Reina makes a fine save, flying to his left to beat away Firmino’s curling shot. It came after a quick one-two with Salah on the edge of the box. Liverpool are playing some terrific stuff now.
76 min Sadio Mane is a glorious footballer. He’s the best attacking player in the best team in the world, yet it still feels like he’s underrated.
74 min A double change for Villa: Ally Samatta and Jota replace El Ghazi and Davis.
73 min Salah appeals unsuccessfully for a penalty after being touched on the shoulder by Hause.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Aston Villa (Mane 71)
Alexander-Arnold plays an excellent pass into Keita on the edge of the box. He slides an imaginative angled pass across the area to Mane, who hammers it in off the bar from 10 yards. That goal has been coming ever since Jurgen Klopp made those substitutions on the hour.
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68 min Time for the drinks break. A draw wouldn’t lift Villa out of the relegation places, but it would be a helluva result. The last time Liverpool failed to win at home in the league was January 2019.
65 min Another corner to Liverpool, which Reina punches clear. A storm is coming, Frank says.
64 min Villa break four on three, with Grealish on the ball. He moves smoothly past Henderson and hammers a shot from 20 yards that hits van Dijk.
62 min It might be a trick of the mind but it already feels, only a couple of minutes after those substitutions, like the real Liverpool are back. The pace has definitely increased.
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61 min “Liverpool have yet to score a goal as champions,” says Justin Kavanagh. “Clearly they are not up to the pressure on this rarefied perch. KLOPP OUT!”
That is patently ridiculous: nobody in their right mind would claim Liverpool are back on their perch after one league title.
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60 min Jurgen Klopp has seen enough. He makes three changes, bringing on Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and Roberto Firmino for Oxlade-Chamberlain, Fabinho and Origi.
59 min Origi plays in the underlapping Robertson, whose superb low cross is put behind by Taylor.
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58 min van Dijk plays a dreadful pass, straight to Douglas Luiz, but redeems his error with a good tackle on El Ghazi in the area.
56 min Oxlade-Chamberlain’s dangerous cross is well claimed by Reina.
55 min “Happy Sunday Rob,” says Peter Oh. “A decade ago I used to hope for and celebrate Pepe Reina clean sheets. But today I’d like to see him on his back a few times as the ball settles into his net. Heck, get a beach ball on the pitch if that’s what it takes. It is summer after all.”
That’s a great idea. They should exorcise all the ghosts of 1990-2020 - the slip, the PlayStation years, the beach ball, the Istvan Kozma - in one celebratory afternoon.
53 min The resulting corner is headed back across goal by Mings and bounces up kindly for Origi to clear. That could have gone anywhere.
52 min: Chance for Villa! Grealish leads a four-on-two break, waits for the right moment and plays in El Ghazi to his right. He slashes a low shot to the near post that is palmed behind by the diving Alisson.
51 min Grealish’s fierce shot is beaten away by Alisson, though he had been flagged offside.
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50 min Liverpool look a bit busier than they did in the first half. Alexander-Arnold sprays a majestic pass to Origi on the left, but he runs into traffic and eventually Keita wafts a cross out of play. Origi and Mane have swapped positions.
48 min A terrific, trademark cross from Alexander-Arnold is missed by Salah and bounces across the face of goal.
47 min As a former Premier League champion I can assure you it is very difficult to retain the same intensity once you have won the title. And if you don’t believe me, look at this example of Liverpool in 1982-83. I’m not saying they eschewed sobriety for a month, I’m not saying that at all.
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46 min Peep peep! Villa begin the second half, and lump the ball straight out of play.
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Some half-time reading
After watching such a listless first-half performance, on the back of a heavy defeat at Manchester City, it is surely time to ask the most difficult of questions: has Jurgen Klopp taken Liverpool as far as he can?
Half time: Liverpool 0-0 Aston Villa
Peep peep! The good news for Villa is that they are deservedly level at Anfield. The bad news is that there is approximately 0.02 per cent chance of Liverpool playing as poorly in the second half.
45+2 min Keita did brush Douglas Luiz’s heel, but I don’t think it was strong enough to knock him over. It was a delayed fall as well. But Douglas Luiz was convinced it was a penalty.
45+1 min Three added minutes. Villa appeal for a penalty when Douglas Luiz goes over under a challenge from Keita, I think. VAR decides there was nothing in it.
45 min It’s been a dreadful half, in terms of entertainment, but that suits Villa just fine.
44 min Grealish will continue, at least until half-time.
41 min Grealish is struggling again with his right ankle.
40 min Another good low cross, this time from Trezeguet, is claimed by Alisson.
39 min Grealish teases Alexander-Arnold and puts in a terrific cross that is headed behind by Robertson at the far post.
37 min Salah has Liverpool’s first shot, a volley from a narrow angle that Reina saves comfortably to his left.
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36 min McGinn is booked for flattening Oxlade-Chamberlain.
36 min “Sure looks like Reds are super motivated to go for points record,” says George Meikle. “Or maybe not at all.”
I think they are, and I’m certain Klopp is. But the subconscious mind is a funny old game.
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35 min A good break down the right from Trezeguet, whose cross is just too deep for El Ghazi.
33 min Douglas Luiz cracks a bouncing ball straight at Alisson from the edge of the area. Villa, almost unbelievably, will be starting to fancy their chances today.
30 min The corner did hit Konsa on the hand after he missed a stooping header, but I wouldn’t say his arm was in an unnatural position.
28 min Salah wins a corner for Liverpool. There’s an appeal for handball when Alexander-Arnold’s outswinger drops onto the body of a Villa defender. We haven’t seen a replay and play has continued.
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27 min Dean Smith will be thrilled with how the match has gone so far. Despite all Liverpool’s posession, Pepe Reina hasn’t had a save to make.
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23 min The drinks break presents Jurgen Klopp with the opportunity to tell his team what they’re doing wrong.
21 min Grealish’s free-kick is headed over by Konsa near the penalty spot. It was a half chance at best.
20 min Robertson is booked for a foul on Douglas Luiz. Liverpool are well off the pace - or, at least, well off their pace.
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16 min It looks like Grealish is okay. It’s not a great match at the moment, with Liverpool not at their sharpest.
13 min Grealish is going to try to run it off.
12 min Grealish is being treated for a problem with his right ankle. This is a worry for Villa, though he doesn’t look in too much pain.
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10 min Liverpool keep the ball for 90 seconds or so before Oxlade-Chamberlain overhits a pass to Alexander-Arnold.
7 min It’s been a fairly low-key start, with Villa seeing plenty of the ball.
4 min Salah goes down in the area after a slightly clumsy challenge from Douglas Luiz. Paul Tierney waves play on and there’s no suggestion that VAR is going to get involved.
2 min Villa win an early corner down the left. Douglas Luiz works a short one with McGinn and dumps a cross into the middle that is cleared by Oxlade-Chamberlain.
1 min Peep peep! Liverpool kick off from right to left.
Villa’s players have formed a guard of honour for the Liverpool players. No sign of Bernardo Silva though.
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“The end-of-season medals were interesting in the pre-internet era,” says Phil Podolsky. “You suddenly saw some guys you had no idea were part of the team. Just as you had to wait for the first games of the season to learn about all the new players signed during the summer. Good times.”
You mean there was a world before the International Champions Cup?
Liverpool’s 2-1 win at Villa Park in November, when they were a goal down with four minutes remaining, was one of the most important of the season. Had they lost that day they would have been only three points clear of the champions Manchester City. Eight days later, after routing City at Anfield, they were nine clear.
Godspeed, Villa department Liverpool have won their last 23 Premier League games at Anfield, an English top-flighr record. And in the last two league seasons, their record at home is P35 W33 D2 L0 F99 A22.
Pre-match reading
Team news
Liverpool (4-3-3) Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, van Dijk, Robertson; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Fabinho, Keita; Salah, Origi, Mane.
Substitutes: Adrian, Williams, Wijnaldum, Henderson, Jones, Elliott, Firmino, Minamino, Shaqiri.
Aston Villa (4-2-3-1) Reina; Konsa, Hause, Mings, Taylor; McGinn, Douglas Luiz; El Ghazi, Grealish, Trezeguet; Davis.
Substitutes: Nyland, Guilbert, El Mohamady, Lansbury, Nakamba, Hourihane, Jota, Vassilev, Samatta.
Referee Paul Tierney.
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Preamble
Hello. We’re all friends here, so let us speak frankly. This is not the triumphant homecoming that Liverpool envisaged as they rampaged towards their first title in 30 years. But the first game at Anfield since Liverpool were confirmed as champions is still an opportune moment to celebrate an immortal group of players who have climbed Everest in record time. The pubs are open, Britain is Great again; what else are we going to do?
Liverpool would have been of a mind to put on a show even before their 4-0 defeat at Manchester City on Thursday. Now they will want to make Villa - and City - pay for that mild embarrassment. If Liverpool win five of their last six games, they will break City’s records for the most points (100) and wins (32) in an English top-flight season. One thing’s for sure: I wouldn’t fancy being an Aston Villa defender for the next few hours.
Kick off 4.30pm.
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