Ollie Watkins hits hat-trick as Aston Villa humiliate Liverpool in seven-goal evisceration

The former European champions put on a display of scintillating attacking to maintain their 100 per cent start to the season. Not Liverpool, though, but Aston Villa, who showed the pace and penetration Jurgen Klopp’s side often exhibit and the relentlessness and ruthlessness that can be their trademark. They eviscerated Liverpool on an extraordinary evening. It is they who join Everton in a distinctly old-fashioned top two after a scoreline both plucked from another era and yet fitting on a day when another superpower had already been hit for six.

Liverpool go into the Merseyside derby behind one of their major rivals after knocking another off a particularly ignominious perch. During two decades of dominance at Old Trafford, Liverpool spent years trying to surpass Manchester United. They did so in unwanted fashion; after their rivals sieved six, Liverpool conceded seven. Even the embarrassment of Steven Gerrard’s final game at Stoke only entailed retrieving the ball from their net six times. This was a historic humiliation. For the first time since 1963, Liverpool let in seven. Comparisons between Klopp and Bill Shankly can abound, but this was not the way to emulate him and, with Ollie Watkins hitting the bar, it could have been eight. Liverpool’s defensive horror show rather rendered Mohamed Salah’s brace irrelevant. They were as shambolic as Villa were superb.

Jack Grealish was irresistible and irrepressible, directly involved in five goals on his own; it was a sign of his superiority that, not content with tormenting Trent Alexander-Arnold, he nutmegged Virgil van Dijk with a pass at one point. Yet the first history maker was Watkins. Villa’s record signing began without a top-flight goal to his name. After 39 minutes, he had become the first player to score a hat-trick against Klopp’s Liverpool. Factor in a debut goal for the old Evertonian Ross Barkley and Villa’s evening verged on perfection.

Liverpool’s was awful. They could not cite the absence of Thiago Alcantara or Sadio Mane in mitigation, and not merely because Diogo Jota, the Senegalese’s stand-in, almost scored with a sublime chip and played a part in Salah’s first goal. The problems at the other end were too extensive.

They did miss Alisson Becker, sidelined by a shoulder injury, and Adrian must shoulder some of the blame. Villa had begun the brighter even before he gifted them a fourth-minute opener, but he shovelled the initiative in their direction.

Villa seized it. The ambition of Dean Smith’s footballing philosophy is admirable and the likeability of the everyman of Premier League management should not blind anyone to his part in building such an attractive side. In Grealish, Barkley and John McGinn, he has united three likeminded, ball-playing midfielders. The captain registered a hat-trick of assists before joining his soulmates on the scoresheet with a brace. Watkins savoured the supply line.

Inadvertently, Adrian was part of it, picking out Grealish with a wretched pass. The Villa skipper, with an altogether better ball, set up Watkins for a tap-in and the first real repayment of his £28 million fee. That was a simple finish. His second was Aubameyang-esque. Grealish released Watkins, who sprang the offside trap, beat Joe Gomez and arrowed a shot into the top corner of the net. His third, a close-range. header from Trezeguet’s fired cross, showed a predatory instinct.

Before then, McGinn’s crisp half-volley had taken a telling deflection off Van Dijk to give Alisson no chance. Liverpool allied mistakes with misfortune. Three goals were deflected. Barkley’s long-range strike, coming off Alexander-Arnold but coming after Gomez had given the ball away. Yet it was deserved: liberated from Chelsea, Barkley was elusive and had threatened on three occasions in the first half. Grealish’s first took a huge deflection off Fabinho. His second, though, followed a wonderful, defence-splitting ball from McGinn.

Liverpool may have been aggrieved that Salah was denied a penalty for McGinn’s challenge. As it was, the Egyptian scored twice in classy finish, a half-volley to halve the deficit and a typically clinical finish from Roberto Firmino’s pass. Under other circumstances, there would be paeans to his finishing. Not now, though. It was 7-2, as sensational as it was surreal.