Liverpool 2-1 Aston Villa: 5 talking points as Reds move into the top four | Premier League 2020-21

#3 Villa are still missing Jack Grealish badly

After last weekend’s come-from-behind win over Fulham, hopes were high for a strong showing from Aston Villa today.

Sure, they were never likely to replicate October’s 7-2 win over Liverpool, but the Fulham result gave them confidence and Jack Grealish was seemingly set to return to action.

However, when it was announced that Grealish would again miss out due to his ongoing shin injury, Dean Smith’s side saw their hopes fade away somewhat.

And indeed, this was not a good showing from Villa from an attacking perspective, despite taking the lead through Ollie Watkins.

Watkins plugged away as Villa’s attacking focal point, but once again, chances for him were few and far between.

Simply put, Smith’s men just didn’t create enough for him. Bertrand Traore was poor on the right side, Trezeguet worked hard on the left but lacked quality, and John McGinn just isn’t a creative playmaker.

In the end, Villa came away from the game with just nine shots overall, five of which were on target. Against a defense as ropy-looking as Liverpool’s right now, it just wasn’t good enough.

Villa should finish in a comfortable mid-table position and should be happy with their progress, but they still look shorn of creativity without Grealish.

Fans of the club will hope they can add more attacking quality in the summer, otherwise, their hopes of pushing into European contention might be scuppered.

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#4 VAR has a stinker again by chalking off Firmino’s goal

Last night’s Fulham vs. Wolves game saw arguably one of the worst VAR decisions of the season, as a goal from Willian Jose was chalked off for an apparent offside by Daniel Podence.

It was a simply ludicrous decision that was made even worse by the fact that the ball appeared to be blurred – and thus in motion – when the VAR lines were added to the still picture of the incident.

Sadly, today’s game saw a VAR decision that was equally bad.

With little time in the first half remaining, a long ball over the top came to Diogo Jota, who aimed a cross into the box. And after a bit of a scramble, the ball was turned home by Roberto Firmino for a Liverpool equalizer.

However, after checking that Villa’s Matty Cash hadn’t touched the ball before it reached Jota, VAR came to the conclusion that the Portuguese was offside, despite Ezri Konsa seemingly playing him on.

Apparently, Jota’s sleeve was offside.

Simply put, this was a ridiculous call to make and Liverpool rightly would’ve felt aggrieved had they failed to win this game.

Something needs to be done about VAR’s use of the offside rule before next season because these calls are genuinely ruining matches.

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#5 Could Watkins sneak into England’s European Championship squad?

While it’s clear that Harry Kane will be England’s main striker at this summer’s European Championship, it’s unclear exactly which forward will also go as the Spurs man’s backup.

Right now, it looks like Dominic Calvert-Lewin is in the driving seat, but there’s still every chance that Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins could sneak ahead of him in the queue.

Watkins was called into the England squad for the first time last month and scored on his Three Lions debut against San Marino.

And after today’s goal – which he took excellently – he’s now got 12 strikes to his name this season, with only Kane, Calvert-Lewin, Jamie Vardy and Patrick Bamford ahead of him when it comes to English players.

When you consider that Watkins has often had to live off scraps – particularly since Jack Grealish has been sidelined – it becomes even more impressive.

And more to the point, the Villa man harasses defenders like few others. Watkins won three of his seven aerial duels today and completed more successful dribbles (three) than any other Villa player.

When you also consider he hasn’t missed a minute of Premier League action and still looks fresh, there’s definitely a case for Southgate considering him.

And even if he doesn’t, the former Brentford man should still go down as one of the 2020-21 season’s best signings.