Aston Villa 7-2 Liverpool: Reds ship seven for first time in 57 years

Liverpool played out their third fixture to end 7-2 since returning from their shortened summer break.

Sadly, on this third occasion it was the reds on the wrong end of it.

A peculiar Sunday night 7:15pm kick off led to more peculiarity as the reds conceded seven goals in a competitive game for the first time in 57 years.

You'd have to go all the way back to April 1963 for a Liverpool goalkeeper to fetch the ball out of his net seven times.

Alisson Becker was not included in the squad as the result of a shoulder injury which could put him out for the best part of two months, so in stepped understudy Adrian who had kept a clean sheet in midweek as well as saving a vital penalty.

He was at fault for the first goal, when a sloppy backpass wasn't in the zone of Joe Gomez, allowing new boy Ollie Watkins to drill Villa ahead.

But there had already been plenty of warnings as Liverpool spent the first three minutes unable to get out of their own half.

The first goal may have been a huge gift, but a strange performance saw the reds literally shower their opponents with gifts throughout the game.

Liverpool had got it back to 2-1 thanks in part to Diogo Jota who was probably the best of the front three on his first Premier League start for the reds, replacing the covid-19 positive Sadio Mane.  Salah with the goal.

But the reds didn't build on it as the first of three deflected Villa goals immediately knocked the stuffing out of them.

It was 4-1 by half time and Ollie Watkins had a dream first half hat-trick.  It would have been tempting to throw in the towel then but more punishment awaited.

Ross Barkley and Jack Grealish got their names added to the scoresheet in the eventual 7-2 result.

The scoreline flattered Liverpool.

As it happened: Villa 7-2 LFC

But for Adrian's important save on a one v one and Villa hitting the bar this could have got astronomically humiliating.

International football now takes centre-stage, meaning Klopp will have just two days before the reds travel to an in-form Everton.

There could be very little worse occasions to be facing the old enemy.

However, the reds will hopefully be boosted by the full return of Jordan Henderson, Sadio Mane and Thiago Alcantara for the fixture, and Adrian and Jordan Pickford should provide the essence of a goalkeeping score draw.

Liverpool end the weekend in fifth place but must quickly adapt to football as it is now.  The crowd are currently unable to provide them with a lift so they need to draw on all their famously quoted strengths in the mentality department.

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