Hou Are Ya?: Liverpool 3-0 Aston Villa 6/12/10

Liverpool line-up: Reina (c), Johnson, Konchesky, Kyrgiakos (Kelly, 83), Skrtel, Meireles, Rodriguez (Aurelio, 76), Lucas, Kuyt (Cole, 80), Babel, Ngog
Aston Villa line-up: Friedel, L.Young, Warnock, Dunne (c), Clark (Delfouneso, HT), Collins, Downing, Ireland, Albrighton (Pires, 65), Hogg, Agbonlahor (Carew, 66)

This week's Monday Night Football was at Anfield as Liverpool welcomed back former manager Gerard Houllier. Good news for Villa was that Gerrard and Carragher were both injured with Torres away on paternity leave. Also Marc Albrighton had come back from appendicitis quicker than expected to replace the suspended Ashley Young. The problem for Villa all game though was their fragile looking defence. Straight from the off Liverpool's makeshift strike partnership of Babel and Ngog were finding spaces between Villa's defenders and causing a lot of trouble. It didn't help that Villa's defence tried playing out of trouble all the time instead hoofing it to safety. It took fourteen minutes for Liverpool to take full advantage of Villa's poor defending when Babel was played through, but just marginally offside, and after already getting goal side of Warnock he was one-on-one with Friedel and the Dutchman wasn't going to miss. Villa didn't learn from their mistakes as Warnock again tried to play himself out of trouble before ending up conceding a corner. Liverpool were first to every aerial ball and Skrtel headed the corner towards the six yard box where Ngog was unmarked as he headed past Friedel to make it 2-0 within two minutes of breaking the deadlock. From there the first half petered out with neither team looking terribly confident on the ball and failing to find that killer pass.

Villa came out in the second half a lot more positive and began to dominate possession, although it was only mainly in there half and around the halfway line. Any time they did venture forward the final cross was always too close to Reina, who had a good bout of catching practice. The only killer cross came early in the second half but Agbonlahor failed to make the most meaningful of contacts and Reina was able parry clear. With Villa pressing they were always vulnerable to a counter-attack and that was what ultimately caused there downfall. Another poor cross from Downing went straight into Reina's arms, he expertly distributed the ball quickly to the mid-field. Ngog played a great through ball into the path of Maxi Rodriguez and the Argentine put the score beyond all doubt.