Matt Maher gives his take on Aston Villa's draw with leaders Liverpool.
Villa fell behind early on but hit back with two goals before the break from Ollie Watkins and Youri Tielemans.
Liverpool levelled it in the second hand before Villa had a chance to win it late on.
Villa fell behind early on but hit back with two goals before the break from Ollie Watkins and Youri Tielemans.
Liverpool levelled it in the second hand before Villa had a chance to win it late on.
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00:00Good evening from Villa Park, where it finished. Villa 2, Liverpool 2, an enthralling game.
00:07Unai Emery's team went toe-to-toe with the Premier League leaders.
00:11They were 2-1 up at the break, Ulrich Tielemans and Olly Watkins scoring to cancel out Mo Salah's opener for the Reds.
00:19Trent Arnold equalised for the visitors just past the hour mark and then neither side could find a winner.
00:27Darwin Nunes, for Liverpool, probably should have found a winner.
00:30He served up a contender for miss of the season, blazing over from six yards out with 20 minutes remaining.
00:37But then it was Villa who looked the most likely winners in stoppage time.
00:40Daniel Marlon shooting just wide.
00:43Villa, this was probably a fair result.
00:47It's a good result for them, albeit not one that perhaps will spark a push towards the top five.
00:53The gap between them and Chelsea now stands at four points heading into Saturday's game.
00:58Villa obviously played a game more.
01:00I really just feel like Saturday's game has become a bit of a must-win for Emery's team.
01:05But there were positives here, undoubtedly.
01:07Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio both started for the first time since joining Villa on loan and both performed pretty well.
01:14Rashford delivered the free-kick from which Uwe Tielemans got the equaliser.
01:18Asensio showed some nice touches.
01:20And then Jacob Ramsey and Daniel Marlon were really good off the bench as well.
01:25Defensively, it wasn't so great.
01:27This is a real patchwork for the defence.
01:29Andres Garcia obviously signed last month.
01:32He's only played a handful of top-flight games in his career.
01:36Now, he made a big mistake for the opener.
01:38But Axel Desarze, another January loan signing, played well alongside Tyrone Mings.
01:44The only issue is that Desarze can't play against Chelsea on Saturday.
01:48So they'll need another reshuffle at the back.
01:52Villa gave up chances.
01:54They can see goals.
01:55That's the kind of team they are now.
01:57But you saw enough positives going forward tonight to think that this attack,
02:04that has also faltered and not scored as many goals as it should, can click into gear in the coming weeks.