Aston Villa qualified for the Champions League at Liverpool’s expense, but Arne Slott’s side were forced to wait for a top-five finish after losing 4-2 and being ‘taken to the cleaners’.
Watkins’ second-half double capped off a performance for Unai Emery’s side. The team can go into Wednesday’s Europa League final having already secured a seat at Europe’s top table.
Liverpool capitulated in the second period and Slott’s side face the prospect of needing to beat Brentford on the final day to qualify for the Champions League.
“Liverpool are not good at anything,” Jamie Carragher said after a sluggish display. “They look like a really, really average team.
“The only time Liverpool looked threatening was from set pieces.”
Liverpool’s defense is at an all-time low.
Villa showed they were better than Liverpool in that regard as well, when Morgan Rodgers curled Villa forward with a deft short corner routine just before half-time. It happened at a time when the team in the slot was in the lead but failed to capitalize on its chances.
Liverpool came out of the break and Van Dijk and Matty Cash combined in the build-up before Virgil van Dijk headed home Dominik Szoboszlai’s free-kick, overcoming a VAR check.
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Virgil van Dijk was in charge against Liverpool
However, Liverpool lost their composure, despite the brilliant Rio Ngumoha hitting the post shortly after the equalizer. Szoboszlai slipped deep in Liverpool’s half and Rodgers set up Watkins for his first goal.
Villa then went into top gear. Emiliano Buendia’s curling shot hit the inside of the post, but after Pau Torres’ shot was saved, Watkins scored the second goal from close range.
The best held until the end, with John McGinn scoring his fourth goal with a brilliant effort from the edge of the box.
Van Dijk got one back for Liverpool, but it was a disappointing night to end what has been a disappointing season for Liverpool.
Liverpool are struggling away against the best team
Liverpool may qualify for the Champions League before they play their final game, but there is still a lot of work to do.
Spotlight: Aston Villa’s four stunning goals
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Morgan Rogers curled up in the opener.
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Ollie Watkins returns Aston Villa to first place
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Ollie Watkins scores his second goal of the night.
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John McGinn scores a great fourth goal.
Liverpool’s terrifying defensive stats
Liverpool conceded four goals in a Premier League game for the first time since drawing 4-4 with Southampton in the final game of the 2022-23 season. The Reds also conceded 50 or more goals for the first time in 38 Premier League games (52 goals conceded). Liverpool lost their 19th game of the season in all competitions. Since they were last promoted to the top flight in 1962, the Reds have only lost 20 more games in a season (19 in 2004-05 and 2009-10). Excluding penalties, Liverpool have conceded the most goals from set pieces in the Premier League this season (20), while the Reds have conceded 11 from corners for the first time. premier league campaign. Liverpool have conceded 77 goals in all competitions this season. This is Liverpool’s second highest result since the start of the Premier League.
Carragher: ‘Liverpool have too many weak players’
Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher at Villa Park:
“This happened on Friday night against Bournemouth on the first day of the season.
“Liverpool have too many weaknesses, both physically and mentally, that have to be corrected. Arne Slott is likely to be the one who has to correct them next season. But this result does nothing in terms of supporter sentiment surrounding his current position.”
Liverpool are struggling with visits with first-team teams
“When you look at these results away from home, I always think it says a lot about your character and character.
“It’s actually unbelievable that Liverpool are fifth in the league. If you look at the number of goals they concede, they never look like a threat going forward, and that away record and Liverpool are fifth in the Premier League? That’s amazing.
“This is the first season that I saw Virgil van Dijk look like a human being. And that affected others too. When you look at his partners, people tell you how good they are. But when Van Dijk is not at his best, sometimes you need them to step up and help him a little bit. That doesn’t happen.”
Slott asked if the cause of his troubles was spirituality.
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Arne Slott admitted Liverpool struggled to cope with Aston Villa’s quality and strength
Liverpool head coach Arne Slott told Sky Sports:
“Now you’re referring to the period when we were struggling after the 2-1 win, but overall I don’t think the players deserve what you’re saying.
“They could have coped with this difficult away game and given it their all and got the result. But I agree with you, we struggled after going down 2-1.
“They didn’t give up as we got back to 4-2 in the end, but we struggled to control their pace, intensity and quality.
“We have definitely conceded too many goals. Two goals at Villa Park is not bad, but we haven’t scored enough goals either. If you had told me before the game that we had done that, you would have thought we were not far from a good result.”
“When we are the better team, we struggle to find that goal. The main reason is that we don’t create enough big chances when we are the better team.
“When we have periods where we are struggling or when the other team is better, we tend to concede goals easily.
“Before this game, only Bournemouth had conceded more goals from set pieces than us. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were number one after this. That’s never a good thing.”
Emery ‘proud’ of qualifying for Villashir Champions League
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery told Sky Sports:
“It’s great. This match was very important for us because our priority was the Premier League and achieving our first goal of being in the Champions League and currently in fourth place.”
“It was a tough game in the first half, but we did a great job in the second half. We are very grateful for the support of our fans and the atmosphere they create.”
“We’ve been in the Champions League, which is great. Four years here, four years in Europe, one year in the conference, two years in the Champions League, one year in the Europa League and now we’re in the final.
“It’s not easy to be consistent in both competitions and we struggled with this, but we did a great job in the Premier League all year long. I’m very proud.”
