The Holy Trinity: Aston Villa conclusions from Premier League loss v Liverpool

Gifted goals gave Liverpool a straightforward win at Anfield

Saturday’s late kick-off in the Premier League was a 2-0 defeat against Liverpool and Aston Villa were culpable for their own downfall on Merseyside.

Villa played into Liverpool’s hands tactically. Villa quickly but briefly had control in the middle of the first half but Liverpool tried to throw everything at them from the start and made it too easy for the Reds generally.

It was an all too predictable way for the respective runs of forms to come to an end and Villa’s performance pointed to some problems that Villa’s recent results have successfully masked.

Villa always lose at Anfield but this loss was especially frustrating. Usually, Villa are bad and Liverpool are good, or Villa are unlucky, or the usual suspects score and there’s no coming back from it.

It’s a tradition that dates back much farther than Steven Gerrard and Robbie Fowler but it wasn’t really the issue on Saturday, when Villa essentially shot themselves in the foot just like they did against Manchester United at the end of last season.

The thing about having a bullet hole in your foot is it makes it hard to kick teams when they’re down.

Here’s your Holy Trinity of match conclusions.