Premier League | Boxing Day | Aston Villa – Liverpool: Mo Salah and Virgil Van Dijk scorers, the Reds win

In Birmingham, Liverpool got back on track. Beaten last week in the English League Cup against Manchester City, the Reds won with authority on the lawn of Aston Villa (3-1). Despite a period of doubt when Ollie Watkins closed the gap, Jürgen Klopp’s men maintained their lead and avoided a stressful end to the game to get closer to qualifying for the Champions League. Here they are in sixth place in this Premier League 2022-2023, five points behind Tottenham, fourth.

If Mohamed Salah did not play the World Cup at the end of the calendar year, the Egyptian international did not wait to start scoring again in this resumption of the Premier League. At the end of a magnificent combination with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson, Liverpool’s number 10 scored his seventh goal in fifteen league appearances this season with a flat left foot (5th, 0-1).

Salah then Van Dijk

What logically extinguish the burning atmosphere at Villa Park and allow the last finalist of the Champions League to take his marks in this meeting. On the other side of the pitch, Alisson Becker did the job to prevent the Villans from equalising. Very restless on the front of the attack, Watkins tried but his pricked header lacked power (17th).

Without success, Darwin Nunez lost his duel with Robin Olsen, in goal in the absence of an Emiliano Martinez still in the festive Argentine atmosphere (28th). Despite a good performance, the Swedish goalkeeper had to bow a second time on a cross recovery from Virgil Van Dijk, on the lookout for a second ball from a corner after a discount from Salah (37th, 0-2).

More opportunistic, Liverpool took a definite advantage over the meeting. Of course, Aston Villa has not been unworthy, far from it. Rewarded for his very good individual performance, Watkins ended up deceiving Alisson with a magnificent header just before the hour mark (59th, 1-2). But the bench of the Reds, long questioned during the first part of the season, responded with a fourth goal in this wild game. His author ? Stefan Bajčetić, 18 years old and promising Spanish defensive midfielder (81st, 1-3). For Liverpool, success also depends on the future.