Aston Villa 0 Liverpool 1

Sun, 18 Aug, 2002 - 17:22

Liverpool got off to the flying start they wanted thanks to John Arne Riise’s strike but they will know the margin of victory should have been much greater.

Michael Owen had a penalty saved and Villa keeper Peter Enckelman made three stunning point-blank saves, twice from Owen and once from the outstanding Steven Gerrard.

After an indifferent pre-season and last weekend’s Community Shield defeat against Arsenal, Liverpool could ill-afford to start their campaign any other way.

Villa toiled, fought manfully and missed a few chances, but despite all their sweat they were second best on the day.

Their disruptive summer finally came to an end with George Boateng and Paul Merson gone, Alpay firmly at the heart of defence despite his transfer demand, while new signing Ulises de la Cruz made his league debut and new boys Stefan Postma, Marcus Allback and Michael Boulding were on the bench.

Houllier dumped the three-man attack he used in the Community Shield defeat by Arsenal and relegated Emile Heskey to the bench, pairing Owen and El Hadji Diouf in attack.

The visitors’ tried and trusted 4-4-2 formation produced an immediate impact, and they controlled the early stages with some positive movement and neat passing.

But while Liverpool were in command, Diouf got himself into hot water with his theatrical diving and complaining.

Referee Andy D’Urso was not impressed despite the Senegal World Cup star deserving more after Alpay and Olof Mellberg steamed in from behind.

Alpay was booked for sending Diouf spinning again after 13 minutes but the striker was soon in the book too.

He had been sent tumbling into the dug-out and angrily gestured at D’Urso. The Essex referee quickly brandished the yellow card.

Villa almost took the lead after 21 minutes when, after Alpay had won a corner, the ball bounced around with Steve Staunton’s header touched onto the bar and the Irishman hooking the rebound onto a post as he lay on the deck.

Villa were now in the game and Barry tested Jerzy Dudek with a 20-yard shot heading for the top corner, with Darius Vassell and de la Cruz getting plenty of encouragement to attack down the lines.

Diouf then missed a glorious chance at the far post from a Gerrard cross and Owen was was thwarted by a first-class save from Enckelman after 36 minutes.

The Liverpool man spun away from Mellberg and from six yards stabbed a shot which the Villa keeper somehow deflected wide.

Liverpool emerged after the break to take the lead inside two minutes of the re-start.

Riise, who had fought a running battle with Mark Delaney during the first half, came charging in on the left to take a Danny Murphy pass and drill a low shot inside Enckelman’s near post with the keeper going the other way, clearly expecting a shot across his body.

Villa’s response was a Vassell cross that Peter Crouch touched back for Lee Hendrie to mis-hit wide from a good position.

Vassell got another ball in from the right and Crouch hurled himself into an acrobatic over-head kick which saw the ball flash well wide.

Enckelman made two fine saves to stop Liverpool taking an even firmer grip on the game. First he somehow got in the way of another close-range Owen effort, and then dived to fingertip away a Riise cross hot.

Substitute Marcus Allback hopelessly mis-hit wide in front of an open goal, but Liverpool squandered an even better chance after 76 minutes.

Sami Hyypia’s excellent 30-yard, cross-field ball sent Gerrard away and as he cut inside Gareth Barry in the box, the full-back sent him tumbling.

But when Owen stepped up to take the penalty, Enckelman managed to block the fierce drive with his legs. The England striker was replaced by Heskey a minute later.

Enckelman came to Villa’s rescue again in the dying seconds with another wonder save, this time after man of the match Gerrard had jinked his way into the box.

But Liverpool did not need any more goals, the points were in the bag and the title race is on.