Aston Villa fans celebrated wildly this bolt from the claret and blue, revelling in the saves of Brad Friedel, the box-to-box dynamism of Stiliyan Petrov, and the success of Martin O’Neill’s contain-and-counter tactics but the real significance of this remarkable upset lay in the blurring of Liverpool’s title vision.
With Alan Hansen and Kenny Dalglish watching, the chances of Liverpool emulating their feat of 1990, the club’s last league success, seemed even less plausible as an own goal from the hapless Lucas, Curtis Davies’ header and Ashley Young’s penalty embarrassed Rafa Benitez’s side. Fernando Torres’ riposte at 2-0 proved a false dawn.
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