Mohamed Salah scored as Liverpool easily defeated Aston Villa to maintain their impressive start to the Premier League season and shut down rumours about his future.
When Salah scored Liverpool’s third goal in the second half at Anfield, finishing at the back post from Darwin Nunez’s cross to secure a third straight league victory, he further demonstrated his value and loyalty to the club.
After just three minutes, Dominik Szoboszlai gave the hosts a boost by scoring his first goal for the team with a precise strike through a packed box. Villa were way too exposed at the back as they battled to prevent Liverpool’s strikers from scoring, despite the fact that they had been scoring past the net like crazy since losing 5-1 to Newcastle in their season opener.
When Nunez’s shot hit the post and rebounded in off the unfortunate Matty Cash in the 22nd minute, the hosts doubled their advantage. In a raging first half, Liverpool appeared balanced in scoring on every attack, but Villa’s situation was made worse by a forced substitution as centre-back Diego Carlos hobbled out with an injury after just 20 seconds.
As his attempt bounced off the crossbar, the energetic Nunez came dangerously close to scoring his third goal in as many games. Cash’s header in the second half was well blocked by goalkeeper Alisson, but Salah’s second goal of the year sealed the victory and pushed Liverpool up to third in the Premier League, two points behind league leaders Manchester City.
Villa will attempt to chalk up this performance and outcome to a poor day at the office after winning their previous four games in all competitions.
Although the early goal and loss of Carlos did not assist their cause, they never really got going and looked like a shell of the team that had scored 15 goals and given up just one during the previously stated run of triumphs.
There’s little question that Aston Villa is firmly moving in the right path under Unai Emery because only Manchester City had gathered more Premier League points in 2023 than the 49 that Aston Villa had as of this game. The primary lesson learned by the Villa manager from their early-season play may be how they fare against teams that are likely to be competing for the top six spots.
Emery should be concerned with the losses to Newcastle and Liverpool which were 5-1 and 3-0, respectively.
