Heroes and Villains in Villa Park stalemate
Aston Villa 2 Liverpool 2, 19th February 2025
ASTON VILLA 2 (Tielemans 38, Watkins 45+3)
LIVERPOOL 2 (Salah 29, Alexander-Arnold 61)
On a Premier League evening in the English Midlands where heroes and villains were in plentiful supply (as well as the easiest of opportunities to appropriate the use of Aston Villa’s nickname) perhaps the occasion to be both the ultimate hero AND villain fell to Villa substitute Donyell Malen who with the very last kick of the game, and the game and destination of the result on the line at 2–2, shaved the outside of the Reds far post with a stinging drive with Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker beaten. Had the 26 year old Dutchman scored and been both hero and villain (and broken the heart of his countryman and Reds boss Arne Slot too) it would have been cruel on a Liverpool team who deserved all 3 Premier League points themselves, a welcome victory for both the villains of Aston Villa and especially Arsenal watching with interest from afar and all told, it was a single point apiece, another added to the Reds Premier league tally to stretch their lead over Arsenal to 8 points and yet it could and should have been 10. But there were heroes and villains wherever you looked last evening and the Reds defence arguably gifted both of the home team’s goals and whilst a point is gratefully accepted, two more were squandered by a villainous Liverpool defence who have been so magnificent all season long.
Such is the footballing story of last evening and of the Reds if not faltering, but certainly stalling start to the final third of the season and where all before them were consecutive and comprehensive wins, now we have the fourth Premier League draw in eight games since the turn of the year and a paper thin squad lacking the goals of an injured Cody Gakpo, the defensive cover of Joe Gomez and last evening, another injury to add to the list and a muscle injury that will surely sideline Conor Bradley for days if not weeks. Meanwhile Slot is trying to manage the game time of returnees from injury such as Diogo Jota and Trent Alexander-Arnold but Luis Díaz needs a rest too, Darwin Núñez (for all his chaos magic) missed an open goal when it was easier to score than blaze the ball into the crowd and Conor Bradley’s injury ensures Trent Alexander-Arnold will almost certainly play every game until his back-up returns. Manchester City and Newcastle United await to round off an unconvincing February full to the brim of Premier League fixtures that will end with the Reds still topping the league come March but by how many points remains to be seen, and will the scourge of injuries relent on the run-in until season’s end?
This was supposed to be a lament to villains and heroes and we seem to have veered away into tangential waters so let’s keep swimming in that vein by stating that Liverpool were far, far better in a drawn game last evening with Aston Villa than they were in victory against their near Midlands neighbours Wolves on Sunday. There was far more energy and zip about their play, far more urgency on the ball to create goal scoring opportunities and had their defensive lapses not manifested in Dominik Szoboszlai’s weak defensive header that presented Youri Tielemans with Villa’s equalising goal on 38 minutes and the Reds defence as a whole sleeping on the job for Ollie Watkins to score 10 minutes later, Liverpool would have enjoyed a 1–0 half-time lead rather than a tongue lashing from the boss for squandering their game dominance. So returning to our theme once more, here we have the first of our game’s heroes and villains — Dominik Szoboszlai, for the Hungarian (in league with Curtis Jones) was the Reds best player in the first half and arguably the entire game, but his lapse led to Tielemans equaliser, a goal that cancelled out Mo Salah’s opening goal and a gift presented to him by another of last night’s heroes and villains, Andrés García. The 22 year old from Valencia was arguably Villa’s best player in the first half and his ongoing tussle with Andy Robertson a true highlight of the game. But a panicked, thoughtless back pass was easily intercepted by Diogo Jota who squared a simple pass to Mo Salah and the Egyptian King couldn’t miss and didn’t. Salah’s 29th goal of the season sees him edge ever closer to Gordon Hodgson’s all time goal scoring tally for the Reds of 241 and two more from the evergreen master will snag a forever 3rd spot (at least) in the annals of Liverpool history.
The second half last evening was all Liverpool red (in their forever pleasing white and black away strip) and albeit deflected, Trent Alexander-Arnold’s equalising goal on 61 minutes was a gem of a free-flowing move he instigated before continuing his run from deep inside his own half for a return pass from Mo Salah (and yet another assist for the Egyptian King) and a deserved if deflected goal that gave Emi Martínez in the Villa goal no chance. Then the heroes and villains returned: Darwin Núñez for Liverpool and an open goal blunder no-one needs to see again, and Donyell Malen who could have been the home team hero but thankfully for all concerned, remained a home team villain.
Still 8 points clear but buckle up for a wild ride to the finish. Let’s see what the boss thought of it all.
Arne’s Afterword
“The only reason why we could, could, could be happy with a 2–2 is because they got the last chance of the game, maybe their third chance after scoring two. So, that could be the only reason that we would say, ‘OK, a point is good to take.’ But for the rest, I think for everything else I am not happy with the 2–2. I wasn’t happy at all being 2–1 down at half-time — that didn’t reflect, in my opinion, the first half at all. But that’s the thing in football — if you concede a set-piece things can change quite quickly”.
“I think every game has its own story. I think in terms of performance we weren’t brilliant at all at Everton but for obvious reasons we were very unlucky to come away with a draw over there. Today, I liked our performance a lot — much, much, much more than I liked our performance against Wolves — from what I like the most: playing the ball, bringing the ball out from the back, creating chances. I think if you go away at Villa that’s always a difficult fixture. If you start the season you say, ‘Oh, Villa away, that’s a difficult one, City away, that’s a difficult one,’ so performance-wise, not a dip at all today in my opinion”.
Thanks for reading. I pen my thoughts on every Liverpool game and in recent seasons, with the addition of numerous pieces of retro writing on Reds games of the past, I’ve curated and created the following two self-published books:
"A final word from The Boss" - link to Amazon
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books too. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon