Liverpool move five points clear after Núñez and Salah beat Aston Villa | Premier League

Manchester City is weak, Liverpool is flawless. The Premier League leaders took full advantage of the reigning champions’ defeat at Brighton and extended their lead at the top with a comfortable, emphatic victory over Aston Villa. It was Liverpool’s 15th win in 17 games under Arne Slot and they head into the international break with momentum, confidence and form.

A first-half goal from Darwin Núñez and a late finish from Mohamed Salah secured victory over Unai Emery’s stubborn side, who lacked quality in the final third to cause Liverpool serious trouble. Liverpool have bettered their tally of 28 points from their first 11 games only once in the last 34 seasons, in the 2019/20 season when they won the Premier League.

An unforeseen advantage of the 8pm kick-off, certainly from Liverpool’s perspective, was the time it had to digest City’s recent defeat. Excitement at Anfield was building before kick-off at the prospect of opening up a five-point lead over the champions. Liverpool’s players also felt it and started with the intensity that Slot had lacked from the start against both Brighton and Bayer Leverkusen.

Villa contributed to an open, entertaining first half as they looked to bounce back from three straight defeats in all competitions. The visitors tried to slow down Liverpool’s momentum by taking a long time with each goal kick, but then confidently played around the pressing and broke off dangerously. Leon Bailey headed over from Youri Tielemans’ cross, while Ryan Gravenberch made an important block to parry Jacob Ramsey’s shot from the edge of the box.

Liverpool’s dynamic performance had created no clear opportunities to test Emiliano Martínez in the Villa goal as they launched a devastating counter-attack and opened the scoring in style. The break came after a Villa corner and was largely thanks to the vision of Virgil van Dijk, who released Salah with an excellent through ball behind an unprotected defense.

Salah was thrown to the ground by Bailey, who might have been in serious trouble if referee David Coote had stopped play immediately. However, the referee allowed the game to continue and Núñez pounced on the loose ball, went around Martínez and shot the ball from a tight angle straight into the Kop goal.

Coote also rejected a Villa appeal for a penalty when Ollie Watkins went down in the box following a foul by Ibrahima Konaté. Trent Alexander-Arnold left moments later with an apparent hamstring injury and had to be replaced by Conor Bradley. A withdrawal from the England squad for next week’s Nations League games against Greece and the Republic of Ireland is likely to follow.

Núñez should have had a second as Liverpool collapsed en masse after another Villa corner. Bradley’s free throw allowed Salah to rush the Uruguayan international down the left side, but when he was within reach of Martínez’s goal, the striker shot over the goal.

However, not every Villa corner was a threat in itself and Caoimhín Kelleher needed two good saves in quick succession to prevent the visitors from equalizing on the break. Alisson’s trusted deputy made a flying stop, deflecting in Amadou Onana’s glancing header after an assist from Lucas Digne.

From the resulting corner, again taken by Digne, Diego Carlos scored at the near post and the Liverpool goalkeeper made an excellent save from close range. Watkins couldn’t convert the rebound.

Villa also had an excellent chance to equalize shortly after the restart when Konaté failed to keep out Digne’s long ball and Morgan Rogers escaped in the penalty area. The striker missed his shot wide of Kelleher’s left post. Liverpool survived a VAR review for a potential penalty when Bradley Pau pulled Torres as they battled for a Digne free-kick.

Emery raged at the refusal to punish the Liverpool substitute. His mood was not helped afterwards by Villa wasting several promising counter-attacks with a poor final ball or touch. His well-organized team managed to keep Liverpool in check for most of the second half, but remained extremely vulnerable to counter-attacks. It took a great intervention from Ezri Konsa to stop Salah from putting Luis Díaz on target as the hosts countered from another Villa corner.

With six minutes of regular time remaining and Torres demanding a non-existent foul from Gravenberch in the Liverpool penalty area, the visitors were again disappointed. Carlos tried to clear a long ball on the halfway line but only managed to get a header past Salah, which immediately left the defender behind as he chased the rebound into the Villa half. The Egypt international had opportunities to his left but took advantage of the most tempting ones, beating Martinez with a stunning finish to secure victory and Liverpool’s commanding lead at the top of the Premier League.