Two Good
Rudy Gestede on target again
Aston Villa struggled from the start against Liverpool, and didn’t deserve to get anything from the game. Although Rudy Gestede was one of the few positives that came out of the match today. Villa never looked like threatening Liverpool until Gestede pulled one back against the run of play. It looked even better for Rudy Gestede’s conversion rate, as Villa only maintained 37% possession, and for the few chances Villa created, Rudy Gestede showed the Villa fans why Tim Sherwood decided to sign him in the summer.
Unfortunately, Gestede’s goals didn’t prove to make an impact for Villa to claim any points from Anfield, and after his first goal, it was cancelled out within a minute by Daniel Sturridge, who scored a fine finish to make it 3-1, to the home side. Again Villa tightened the lead to one goal when Jordan Amavi delivered a superb cross for Gestede to fire the ball home. Tim Sherwood signed Gestede for £6-million, and although Villa haven’t started the season well, Gestede is starting to prove with his goals, why Sherwood has brought the forward in to replace Christian Benteke.
Players returned from injuries
As already mentioned, there was not many positives from today’s game from Villa’s point of view, but the Villa fans will be relieved to see Idrissa Gana Gueye and Adama Traore return from their injuries. Both players signed for Villa in the summer and have been the more promising signings out of the 12, Tim Sherwood recruited.
Gueye started the game today and played average, but it was a tough game to rate the midfielder today, after just returning from injury, and they faced a side which the Villa team struggled to compete against, at times.
Adama Traore returned into the Villa side from the bench, as he came on in place of Jack Grealish. It was quite a coincidence that the last time Traore came on around the 70th minute mark in a game, it was against Crystal Palace, and he made an instant impact, by scoring the equaliser on that day. Today, within moments of Traore coming on for Villa, they nearly repeated that, as Villa scored minutes after the substitution, but this time it was Rudy Gestede, who pulled it back to 3-2 with a bullet header.
Two bad
Disaster of a start
Not only have Villa started the season poor, as they sink into the bottom three of the Premier League today, but Villa conceded within the first minute today from an ex Villa player, James Milner. Villa failed to close him down quick enough and Milner took advantage, with a powerful driven shot into the bottom corner. Aston Villa have now only won one out of their first seven games this season, in the league, and already, some fans are even starting to lose belief with manager Tim Sherwood.
Poor defending…again
Once again Villa had a poor performance in defence. They had the worst start possible after trailing 1-0 within the first minute and failed to get any better for them. Liverpool dominated for most spells of the game, and Villa were lucky to be only losing by the one goal at half-time.
In the second half, Gestede did pull one back for Villa, and straight from the kick-off, Daniel Sturridge played a brilliant one-two with James Milner which was unstoppable for Villa’s back four, as Sturridge hammered home a volley which completed the well-worked move. Before Villa knew it, it was 3-1 and Sturridge completed his comeback to football, with a double against the Villans. Another fine finish by the England international, as Aston Villa couldn’t cope with Liverpool’s tempo for the goals.
It was another poor scoreline for Villa’s defence, as now, in their last five out of seven games, Villa have conceded two or more goals.
