Manchester City done, Liverpool next and match facts from the BBC

It was a very good result and performance at the weekend and Matty Cash is in the spotlight for a second week running. This time, scoring the goal with his weaker foot to win us the game.

That said, if he turned water into wine, there would still be some that could find a reason as to why he's not good enough. I like to think of football as a team game, and each component of that team has a part to play, sometimes more than others.

And if each player on the team made an impact to win two games a season, we'd win the League. Some might say, Matty Cash has now done that this season and we're only a quarter of the way through. He does it twice again, he's our player of the season.

But I shouldn't harp on, but I will say it was a very important three points. It will be harder on Saturday evening because Anfield is never an easy place to go and they're going to be like a wounded animal after losing so many League matches on the bounce.

But it's ours for the taking. Not because they've lost so many but because we are in a good run of form and on our day, we can beat anyone. We don't play the same way every match. It feels to me like the manager knows what he wants against each side and we approach games slightly differently.

The core is the same, but the role of the components changes slightly. Maybe that's giving a little extra space or getting tight. Sometimes it might be looking for something long or looking for something short. 

And when it all clicks and when the opposition approach the game how Unai Emery has predicted, that's when we get our best results. And I wasn't going to write this and I could get into trouble for it, I don't think Arne Slot has it in the locker to adapt this way at this level and I suspect that's why there are mutterings online that he might not have long left.

And if we lose to them, that doesn't rescue his season, it merely proves that a wounded animal isn't something you pet. And likely we have a bad day. But if we don't and it is our day, I think we can go to Liverpool this weekend and get something. And something is better than nothing.

So on that, I need to get some work done. It's been a long week and it's only Wednesday and I've got to participate in an online workshop this afternoon, to and I quote 'provide institutional knowledge' and I don't even work at the company (we have worked with them for a number of years and our tentacles go deep, but it was a strange although somewhat nice request).  

So, I leave you with my thoughts and if anyone is in Northern Sweden this weekend, I'll be in a certain sports bar for Saturday evening in either Skellefteå or Umeå. Find a way to reach out if you'd like to join. I've got a good feeling.

Match facts from the BBC

• Liverpool have won six of their last seven Premier League home games against Aston Villa (D1), having been winless against them in four at Anfield before this (D2 L2).

• Aston Villa have won just one of their last 15 Premier League games against Liverpool (D3 L11), a 7-2 victory at Villa Park in October 2020.

• Aston Villa have won just one of their 30 Premier League away games against reigning champions (D5 L24), beating Man Utd 1-0 at Old Trafford in December 2009. The Villans have lost their last 11 such games, conceding 35 goals in the process.

• Liverpool are looking to avoid losing five consecutive league matches for the first time since September 1953 – they are the first side in English top-flight history to win their first five matches in a season but then lose each of their next four.

• While no side is on a longer losing run in the Premier League than Liverpool (4), no side is on a longer winning run than Aston Villa (4). The Villans could become the second side in top-flight history to win none of their first five games in a season then win five in a row, after Preston North End in 1936-37.

• Liverpool have lost their last four Premier League matches, with Leicester in 2016-17 the only reigning champions to lose five in a row. In top-flight history there has been seven occasions a reigning champion has lost five games in a row and three have been Liverpool (in 1906-07, 1923-24 and 1947-48).

• Liverpool’s opponents have played 571 long passes against them in the Premier League this season, the most any side have faced, while that works out as 20.5% of their opponents’ passes coming via long passes, also the highest percentage any side has faced.

• Having beaten Manchester City 1-0 last time out, Aston Villa could become the first team since Leicester’s title-winners in February 2016 to beat Man City and Liverpool in consecutive matches (2-0 vs Liverpool, 3-1 vs Man City). The last side to beat Man City and then Liverpool in that order were Sheffield Wednesday in November/December 1993.

• Mohamed Salah has 275 goals and assists combined in the Premier League for Liverpool (187 goals, 88 assists), one behind the record for a single club, set by Wayne Rooney at Manchester United (183 goals, 93 assists).

• Only Bournemouth (6) have scored more Premier League goals from outside the box this season than Aston Villa (5), with Matty Cash responsible for two of those, making the Villa full-back one of four players with multiple goals from distance this season (also Antoine Semenyo, Danny Welbeck and Moisés Caicedo on two).