Aston Villa v Liverpool: Premier League – live!

If you’re just tuning in, that’s no typo. I think we all need a drink.

90+2 min: Liverpool might manage one from a centrally-placed free-kick after Nakamba is booked for fouling Salah, who has played well in fairness and deserved his brace. But Alexander-Arnold hits the wall.

90+1 min: Three added minutes here, so time for about six more goals.

90 min: Only a last-ditch Milner tackle denies Traore number eight – he was in.

89 min: My inbox is teeming with various expressions of disbelief. Can’t get to all of them but thank you for engaging – this has been eye-poppingly weird.

87 min: Traore comes on for Trezeguet. Villa have some real depth in key areas now.

85 min: Watkins hits the bar! Trezeguet crosses deep and Watkins, jabbing out a foot, smacks it against the frame. Grealish air kicks the rebound. I have no idea what Liverpool have been playing at here. It’s astonishing. Villa have had enough clear chances to score a dozen.

84 min: Martinez makes a “for the cameras” save from a flashing Jota header. He’s not been as busy in this half.

83 min: Adrian is behind a long-range Nakamba shot, having previously failed to deal with a cross. When I said earlier that the score here could be anything, I wasn’t really expecting this.

81 min: Some Villa changes – Nakamba and Elmohamady on for Cash and Douglas Luiz.

80 min: “This is entertaining as most games have been this season: in a ‘one for the neutrals’ kind of way,” writes Norrie Hernon. “But the elephant in the room is that it shows a glaring drop in standards. Good football relies on good defensive shape and for goals to be – relatively – rare. Otherwise we’re just watching basketball on grass. I’m not usually a miserable b*****d, I swear.”

I know what you mean. I’m not *entirely* sure what is going on but it’s no coincidence, I think, that this is all happening in such unstable and uncertain times – much as there has largely been a trend away from structured defending recently. I suspect the extremes we are currently seeing will level off and in the short term I probably welcome them, because football suffers greatly as a spectacle without fans or atmosphere and needed/needs *something* to keep people hooked at the moment. Habits change so I actually think it’s important. Goodness, there are potentially 1,000 words in this aren’t there.

This is now absolutely absurd. Grealish, holding his run the right side of halfway, is found by a brilliant McGinn pass and is – like Watkins just now – given the freedom of Liverpool’s half. Unlike Watkins, he scores with a cheeky dink and that is seven-two to Aston Villa.

74 min: The title race between Villa and Everton is going to have a very 80s vibe, isn’t it?

72 min: Oh, it should be seven! Watkins is behind the defence yet again and on current form you’d back him overwhelmingly to score, but he allows Adrian to block with a foot.

70 min: “I am going to stick my head out and say that Liverpool have been sloppy and no one can make me take that back,” writes Vibhanshu Bisht, and I think we are all praying Sky have laid on a car for Roy Keane in time for the post-match show.

68 min: I’m not really sure what sport I am watching. This is so strange. Perhaps James Milner will bring proceedings some order: he’s on for Firmino, which suggests Klopp knows the jig is finally up.

My goodness me. Now Grealish gets in on it, jinking in from the left after being fed by Watkins and blasting in via Fabinho’s face! That’s three deflected goals for Villa but they have earned them, and Liverpool have let them get into these shooting positions. This is all beyond belief.

65 min: Barkley *almost* brings down a lofted ball from Grealish but is thwarted by Minamino. Those two have looked bang on the same wavelength today – an incredibly exciting proposition for Villa.

I agree. He has done an excellent job there overall.

62 min: Mings, of all people, rampages into the box after another poor piece of Adrian distribution – but crosses beyond Watkins.

I’m sorry, Villa fans. Very sorry. That was inevitable really and Salah, found by Firmino, whips an excellent near-post finish with Mings backing off to just about keep this alive. Curtis Jones now comes on for Gomez.

59 min: Villa had looked pretty solid in those early moments without really threatening. I’d wager that goal *has* put the game to bed. Even in whatever 2020 is.

The former Everton man gets the goal he deserves! Grealish finds him just outside the box and a little to the left of centre; he looks up and hits one with his left foot, it snicks off a defender and spins up and beyond Adrian! It’s FIVE.

53 min: “Wonder if it’s worth for a big club to invest big money in a reliable backup goalkeeper, just like the big amounts the NFL spends on the backup Quarterback. Clubs like Liverpool and Chelsea have found to their detriment how important a good stopper is,” writes Ezra Finkelstein.

51 min: It has been a fairly scrappy start to the second half. Where’s our entertainment, eh?

49 min: Tom in Chile writes – “In an attempt to balance the half-time commentary from despondent Liverpool fans, can I say as a Villa fan that if the world has turned upside down, the view is looking great from here! Viva 2020!”

48 min: Robertson’s cross is lofted beyond the far post. Will Villa just sit in now?

46 min: Early booking for Douglas Luiz, who clips the just-introduced Minamino.

Minamino is coming on for Liverpool – he replaces

Adrian
Keita.

How does Klopp switch this up? They’ve been OK going forward, but at the back …

A great point from Kari Tulinius: “Not only did Ollie Watkins score a hat trick against Liverpool, in a single half, but it was a perfect hat trick. The first with the left foot, the second with the right, and the last a header. Even if he does nothing ever again of note, he should have earned his place in Aston Villa legend.”

I reckon he’ll be in the England squad very soon.

JR in Illinois writes: “What in fresh hell is going on on this planet right now? The world began going insane in 2016 with Leicester winning the Premier League followed by the Brexit vote followed by the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series for the first time in 108 years and finally the U.S. presidential election. With all that’s happening now it feels like the end of the world could be just about upon us.”

“I feel tired just reading the MBM,” writes Krishnamoorthy V. I feel pretty tired writing it, but it’s streets ahead of what I saw at the Emirates for entertainment today and an absolute joy to cover, I must say.

“Clearly this is the Reds trying very hard to prove that whatever Manchester United can do, Liverpool FC can do better,” says Peter Oh.

“Did Liverpool watch the United match and say, ‘gee, that looks like fun’. The world turned upside down,” offers Mary Waltz.

This has been incredible, or incredible by any other season’s standards. Adrian’s ricket kicked it all off; Watkins has scored a superb hat-trick and I do not exaggerate when I say the score could be 7-5 to Villa. Let’s all have a rest!

45+2 min: Martinez again does really well to save a fierce effort from Robertson, who perhaps should have scored. We all need a breather here.

45 min: Konsa clears a Robertson cross and I bet both teams would happily get in for half-time now.

44 min: Klopp looks as flummoxed as the rest of us. This has been like computer game football, basketball, whatever you want to call it. It’s been end-to-end madness and Villa are coming out well on top.

42 min: This could end up being any score, I really mean that. Can’t rule out Villa bagging more, on this evidence. But I also wouldn’t be discounting Liverpool yet – much as their defence has been all over the show.

This is insane. From the free-kick, Barkley’s delivery goes beyond the far post and is drilled across goal – I didn’t see by whom I’m afraid. Watkins is poised to flash in a header and, via a VAR check the offside, it stands!

38 min: Van Dijk is booked for cleaning out Barkley as he drives into the Liverpool half. Barkley is playing really well, misses notwithstanding.

37 min: It’s an offside Liverpool wanted, in the run-up to that Barkley chance and the corner. But it would have been very tight. They simply played with fire.