Aston Villa 0 Liverpool 3
Danny Murphy found the net twice as Liverpool outclassed John Gregory’s Aston Villa in a 3-0 victory at Villa Park today.
Murphy’s brace was added to by a wonderful strike by Steven Gerrard. The youngster scoring his sixth goal of the season.
Defeat means that Villa has only managed just one win, and seven points, in the last nine Premiership matches.
With an FA Cup replay against Newcastle on Wednesday and then successive league matches with Manchester United, Leeds and Ipswich to follow, this is a make-or-break period for the home side.
They hardly managed a shot in anger after a bright opening with only Paul Merson looking capable of prising open the Reds defence.
Liverpool in all honesty won this match in a canter and it was literally a case of men against boys in the centre of the park.
And their victory was achieved without Robbie Fowler, who was left out of the 16 altogether, and Michael Owen who watched all but the last 10 minutes from the bench.
The likes of Steven Gerrard, tipped by Merson to lead England to World Cup glory, and Murphy bossed the middle of the pitch while Emile Heskey covered every blade of grass.
New signing Jari Litmanen could not have had a more comfortable introduction to the Premiership after his move from Barcelona and he showed flashes of his class before being substituted in the 70th minute.
Villa opened positively and a first-time volley from David Ginola had Sander Westerveld back-pedalling behind his line to hold onto his dipping effort.
Then a fine ball over the Liverpool defence from Ginola picked out Merson but he sent his shot well wide.
Liverpool started to turn the screw with Litmanen using the ball intelligently and the Finland captain was only just too high with a shot from the edge of the area.
The deadlock was broken in the 24th minute when a mistake by fit again Villa defender Alpay gifted Murphy the first goal.
He made a complete mess of an attempted clearance and the ball broke to Murphy whose first effort thundered against a post.
The rebound broke to the one-time Crewe player and he gave James no chance with another thumping shot.
Liverpool then assumed complete command and nine minutes later Murphy turned goal provider. A fine pass from Litmanen was flicked on instantly by Murphy to the on-rushing Gerrard and again James was left clasping air as his shot thundered into the roof of the net.
Gregory decided on a half-time shake-up, removing Alpay and Ginola and reverting to a 4-4-2 formation.
But nine minutes into the second half the game was effectively over as Murphy scored his second goal.
Heskey made a run into the right channel and held the ball up before finding Murphy whose low shot took a slight deflection and flew past the exposed James.
The home side were powerless to stop the string of Liverpool attacks and James finger-tipped an effort around the post from Dietmar Hamann.
After that the match died a quiet death, and new signing Juan Pablo Angel, who was at the game, must be wondering what he has let himself in for on the evidence of this showing. PA