*Villa stun Liverpool*

Villa inflicted a second successive Premiership defeat on ten-man Liverpool after Steven Gerrard was sent off for a reckless challenge on George Boateng.

Darius Vassell scored late on to give the score a fairer reflection of Villa’s superiority after Liverpool had struggled to find their form.

And Liverpool’s England contingent were brought back down to earth following their victories against Germany and Albania.

Significantly, England’s biggest hero, Michael Owen, was a surprise exclusion from Liverpool’s starting line-up.
And it had a negative effect on Liverpool’s attacking potency.

Despite boasting two other England scorers, Houllier’s front line looked laboured and Villa took full advantage - and three points from the match. Heskey in particular was out-of-sorts, and perhaps not fully fit.

But Villa’s Dion Dublin looked sharp and was involved in two of his side’s goals. He scored Villa’s opener with a bullet header from Paul Merson’s cross in the first-half. And, on 55 minutes, he helped the ball on to Hendrie, who stabbed the ball home to restore Villa’s lead.

In between Gerrard had equalised with a header from Gary McAllister’s corner seconds after the restart. Liverpool had no doubt been on the end of some stern criticism from Houllier at half-time.

Villa’s midfield had bossed the match for the first 45 minutes, with Boateng impressively dictating proceedings. But poor finishing from Paul Merson prevented them underlining their advantage with more goals.

There was a spring about Villa’s game and they were quicker and harder into the tackle and Liverpool were unable to raise the pace of their own efforts.

Owen was introduced on 59 minutes to cheers from everyone in the ground and even the Villa fans chanted “England, England”.

However, Owen was unable to rescue Liverpool and five minutes from the time the Kop was silenced when Vassell compounded Liverpool’s misery with Villa’s third goal.

Liverpool’s new signing, goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, was given no time to settle into the Premiership. And the out-of-favour Sander Westerveld must have been relieved he was not the one picking the ball out of the net on three occasions.

Given Houllier’s response to Westerveld’s error against Bolton, there is almost certain to be a backlash from the Frenchman after this disappointing display. Not least against Gerrard, who has learned that three days can be an awful long time in football.