Firstly, Liverpool were below par, but take nothing away from Aston Villa, they truly delivered on their promises tonight at Anfield. This was a demonstration in grit, determination, spirit and skill and proved the detractors wrong.

However, football matches can so often pivot on a single incident and had Benayoun nodded in his first minute effort, it’s difficult to believe a Villa side so lacking in confidence would have pulled the game back. It sailed wide though and Villa pushed on triumphantly.

Liverpool had the better of the opening 15 minutes with a tenth minute cluster in the penalty box creating multiple chances for the Reds to take the lead, but for some goal line heroics from Brad Friedel. Maybe a point to prove from the last visit, the American was making it clear up front that he didn’t intend to be beaten cheaply this time.

From that moment on, Villa were able to get a foothold in the game and the central midfield trio of Petrov, Reo-Coker and Sidwell began showing glimpses that these three could genuinely strike up an understanding capable of dominating many a midfield in the Premiership. That’s not hyperbole either. Individually, all three have had their critics, myself included, but as a unit they could be as strong as anything out there.

The key to translating this strong platform into results will be how the forward three are linked in. As the first half progressed, it appeared that they were still trying to solve this problem as Young, Milner and Gabby were sent on runs probing at the Liverpool defense, looking for a weakness.

As the game passed the 30 minute mark the breakthrough came from a set piece – Ashley Young’s free kick fed into the danger area nodded into his own net by the hapless Lucas. 1-0 Villa.

Villa didn’t sit back to defend this lead either. Although Liverpool did set out in search of the equalizer, as you might expect, Villa wisely looked to exploit the extra space that provided. Reo-Coker notably making good use of the ball just inside the final third.

Liverpool’s frustration began to manifest itself. Although referee Martin Atkinson had shown Villa no favouritism early on, booking Ashley Young for a minor infringement while showing Liverpool players greater leniency, Gerrard and Torres began taking every spare moment to berate his decisions. The Anfield crowd too became muted. It’s unsettling to see your side losing control of the game and have little reply beyond blatantly hauling down the attackers and complaining about being harshly done by afterward.

Liverpool’s frustrations became their own undoing on the stroke of half-time. An obvious corner was awarded inside the single minute of extra time that had been indicated. For reasons only known to Pepe Reina, the goal keeper became incensed with the decision and petulantly hoofed the ball away. He was rightly awarded a yellow card and Villa were given the opportunity to take the corner.

Rafa appeared incredulous on the sidelines that having wasted the remainder of the indicated minimum additional time, the visiting side would nevertheless be allowed to take the corner they had earned.

It really was some kind of sweet justice that the ball was whipped to the near post and nodded firmly into the top corner by Curtis Davies. Rafa’s recriminations with the fourth official will surely be replayed on highlights shows throughout the week.

Liverpool kicked off the second half and soon showed their intent to get back into the game. Villa’s defense remained defiant, with Brad Friedel called to make some desperate saves from Gerrard and Torres. But the real battle remained in the centre with our trio holding firm and steady. Reo-Coker had a few opportunities to show off his engine, having out muscled an opponent, and surged into the open spaces. On one occasion, like Reina, he too violently kicked the ball away to pick up a booking after harshly being adjudged to have used a little too much muscle to win the ball. This was more a case of genuine passion than petulance though.

Eventually, with about 18 minutes to go, Liverpool did find a way to unlock Villa with left back Insua breaking into the box and pushing a ball through to the far post, leaving Torres a relatively simple tap in. Again, at this point you might expect Villa to curl up to defend the lead with Liverpool on the ascendancy, but not so this time. The space would be there, they had the speed to take advantage and they knew it.

Fittingly, it was Reo-Coker’s surging run into the Liverpool penalty area that forced Steven Gerrard to recklessly slide in to gift Villa a penalty just 3 minutes later. Ashley Young stepped up and confidently dispatched the ball into the right hand side of goal before charging off to lead the celebrations in front of the traveling Villa fans.

A few minute later, Jamie Carragher’s clumsy challenge on Ashley Young left the winger in obvious pain, immediately raising an indicative arm while prone. Carragher’s frustration got the better of him and he attempt to use Ash’s up stretched arm as a handle to pull him back to his feet, but was told in no uncertain terms that he was misjudging the situation.

Young managed to hobble back on after some attention on the sidelines, but didn’t last long before Emile Heskey was brought on in his place. It was refreshing to see MON keep it a simple like-for-like replacement with 10 minutes left instead of multiple position swaps in order to put Heskey up front. Heskey’s more than capable of doing a job on the left to close out a game.

As the game drifted into the four minutes of added time, Liverpool looked a dejected, beaten side accepting their fate. The fans had already begun pouring out and it was clear that Martin O’Neill would lead Villa to victory at Anfield for the first time since 2001 and coincidentally by the same scoreline.

There wasn’t a poor performance from a single player in Claret and Blue, but Friedel and Reo-Coker deserve singling out for extra credit. At the back, Friedel made numerous age-defying saves and Reo-Coker seemed to revel in finally being given the license to play his preferred role in middle.

There’s been lot of talk about formation lately, largely fueled by the stark difference in performance between the early part of last season, when apparently favouring a 4-5-1, and the latter part – post-Heskey – when Villa adopted a more traditional 4-4-2 that failed to deliver the results. I doubt there will be a Villa fan with active brain cells who would have been disappointed to see MON revert to five across the middle tonight.

I wouldn’t be lulled into thinking that it really is as simple as playing 4-5-1 and winning, or playing 4-4-2 and losing, but we’ve certainly showed that with the right five we can boss the middle, which is encouraging.

The most important thing was to come out of this game with some confidence restored, if not an actual result. A win might be more than could have been reasonably expected, but a resounding victory, such as this was, will definitely be seen as a massive result when we are in a position to review the season.

We now have the opportunity to exit the month with 6 Premiership points and a place in the group stage of the Europa League, which will mean at least six more European nights. There’s still two games to go, but if Villa achieve that I’ll be pretty happy with the month of August…. assuming that the defense gets bolstered before the transfer window closes.

But for once, however briefly, I imagine that the vast majority of Villa fans are simply enjoying this fantastic victory and aren’t thinking about new signings. That won’t last long though – it’s going to be a very busy week indeed!!