Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa: Reds ease past Villans to go five points clear at the top

Liverpool took a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League with a 2-0 home win over Aston Villa after Manchester City suffered their fourth consecutive defeat as Brighton & Hove Albion upset the champions 2-1 at home on Saturday.

Arne Slot's team improved to nine wins from their first 11 league games, with Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah scoring in a dangerous counter-attacking display.

Liverpool head into the international break with 28 points from 11 games, City have 23, and Brighton and Hove Albion have 19 points. Nottingham Forest, in third position, might climb up to 22 points if they beat Newcastle United on Sunday.

Since taking over for the supposedly irreplaceable Jurgen Klopp, Dutchman Slot has had a spectacular start at Liverpool, winning 15 of his first 17 games.

His style is more pragmatic than Klopp's, but it can still be fantastic at times, as demonstrated on Saturday.

Nunez opened the scoring after 20 minutes when Liverpool broke quickly following an Aston Villa corner, and after Mohamed Salah was knocked over by Leon Bailey, Nunez took matters into his own hands, rounding Emiliano Martinez and blasting home a shot from a tight angle.

Villa, who have had a difficult season, were denied an equaliser by Caoimhin Kelleher's great saves, but were floored late on when Salah broke free to finish in style following another counter-attack from deep in Liverpool's half.

"In general we had control over the game and scored from two counter-attacks which is maybe not what we would expect," Slot said. "Margins are small, we have a margin but it is small.

"There are many challenges to come for us."

SportsLigue