I’m probably not alone in feeling this loss a bit harder than the previous losses this season. I’m trying to put my finger on why and I can come up with little more than Liverpool probably deserved to take the three points the least out of the 5 teams who have beaten us so far this term. I don’t know, maybe it’s just the freshest wound since we probably should have got something from the Blackburn and West Ham games, but this one really stings.

There’s also the significance of what this could do for Liverpool’s season, this being the classic six pointer it was. A luxurious gap of 8 points would have opened up with a win, but the loss closed the gap to just 2 points and Liverpool may well feel their luck has changed. They will certainly feel they were very, very fortunate to have been gifted the opportunity to steal the points deep into injury time last night at Villa Park. Or if they don’t, they bloody well should.

I don’t think there was anything fundamentally wrong with the way Villa approached the game and, in fact, after the nature of the recent loss to Arsenal there’s a lot to be proud about from last night. With Ashley Young suspended, I was pleased to see Reo-Coker given the nod in the middle as his dogged style would be useful in breaking up Liverpool’s central threat with both Gerrard and Aquilani starting.

Heskey was still feeling his groin strain and was also injured so the home support would no doubt have been delighted to see John Carew on the team sheet. 4-5-1 proponents may have some mileage to their argument for 5 in the middle against Liverpool, but since they’re generally the same people bemoaning what they perceive to be route one football they should see the benefits of Carew in the side given the weather conditions.

The snow on the pitch was clearly effecting the speed of the ball when passed across the deck so, in theory, that should have effected Liverpool’s game more than Villa’s. That is of course, if you buy the argument that Villa are predominantly a team that just lumps it up the pitch to the big man. The reality was that both sides were hampered by the conditions with errant passes across the board.

As I said in my brief reaction post, the first half was a pretty even affair, perhaps shaded overall by Liverpool, but the best chance was clearly Stewart Downing’s sweetly hit volley from Milner’s corner around the half hour mark. I’ve no idea how Pepe Reina kept it out and there’s little point asking him as I doubt he’s any the wiser. Downing connected with the ball so well that just a matter of inches above, below or to the right of Reina’s glove would surely have opened the scoring.

The second half continued in a scrappy, disjointed fashion, clearly being hampered by the weather, until just after the hour when Villa seemed to spring into life with a period of applied pressure. Both Gabby and Carew went very close.

MON looked to capitalize on the advantage in the 72nd minute with a very positive and encouraging substitution that made it clear that he felt Liverpool were there for the taking. Reo-Coker, who did an excellent job in the middle keeping his nose clean in the tackle, despite the conditions, and held on to possession very well, made way for Marc Albrighton. Obviously this meant that Milner would return to the middle making a very attacking foursome across the middle.

Unfortunately on this occasion Albrighton’s crossing wasn’t quite his best, but coming back to the earlier point about the weather and pinging balls to the big man, this was exactly the right thing to do and could easily have delivered the win. On another day it probably will, so please MON: more of the same.

As we entered the extended injury time created by Reina’s boot change I was still optimistic that a late mistake at the back, perhaps created by the snow, might give Villa the chance to steal it. I should have lived up to my own first half Tweet and not been surprised, but I couldn’t help numbly staring at my screen, mouth open, aghast as Torres was sent through clear on goal through a combination of errors at the back.

We could hold an inquisition into the events that presented the last person you’d want to have the ball at his feet with acres of space in front of goal, but there’s little point. If anyone has earned the right to the odd mistake through his sheer commitment and bravery it’s Stephen Warnock. His under strength back pass was unfortunate, but these things happen. It was probably Gabby’s tackle that ricocheted the ball to Torres, but our striker’s willingness to help out in defense to the very last is something we’d usually commend instead of questioning why he was so deep.

Overall, I’m encouraged with the fact that MON’s men seemed to have bounced back from what was a second half mauling at the Emirates. They certainly deserved to take at least a point from what is arguably Liverpool’s strongest line up and if not for some excellent saves from Pepe Reina, they could easily have won this. The last thing Villa deserved from this game was a defeat, so they should keep their heads up and look forward to the new year and a couple of cup games against Blackburn.

This post started out as a Statshack, but as it got a little lengthy I’ll post the stats in a separate post coming up later.