Arne Slot may find it difficult to decipher and digest a draw that ultimately tightens their grip at the top. Given how close Donyell Malen came to snatching a 95th‑minute winner, though, perhaps it will be easy enough. Trent Alexander‑Arnold rattled in a second-half equaliser to maintain Liverpool’s unbeaten away record in the league but a point was a frustrating takeaway given Darwin Núñez missed a glaring chance to put his side 3-2 up.
How much encouragement will this result give Arsenal, eight points behind the leaders with a game in hand? Diogo Jota also missed a brilliant chance for Liverpool, who seized the lead through Mohamed Salah, before goals by Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins put Villa – for whom Marcus Rashford made his first start since joining on loan from Manchester United – in front at the interval.
This evolved into a captivating, seesawing contest once Villa recovered from an early wave of Liverpool attacks. Virgil van Dijk walloped a shot over the bar after collecting Alexander-Arnold’s improvised outside-of-the-boot pass and the next minute Tyrone Mings made a couple of important interventions, first to block Jota’s shot and then Andy Robertson’s cross. Unai Emery gesticulated furiously, demanding his players raise their level.
And so they did. Few would have had Rashford and Marco Asensio doubling up on Ryan Gravenberch in Villa shirts in mid-February on their pre-season bingo card. Rashford’s slide tackle on Ibrahima Konaté on the edge of the Liverpool box lifted the crowd.
Rashford is at his best flying down the left channel, though, and after a one-two with Asensio, also making his first Villa start, the loanee’s low cross cannoned off a Liverpool defender into the back of Alisson’s net. Then came the check from the video assistant referee, replays showing Rashford had strayed offside. It was a decision in keeping with the rest of the game until that point: a procession of nearly moments. Emiliano Martínez made a fine save to thwart Dominik Szoboszlai after Curtis Jones twirled clear, Lucas Digne superbly stopped Salah in his tracks.
Emery warned that Villa would be punished for dropping off for a second and a lapse of concentration gifted Liverpool the lead. Andrés García, the right-back signed from Levante last month, played a blind backward pass straight to the lurking Jota and the Liverpool forward took a pace or two before squaring for Salah to convert. It was surely the easiest of Salah’s 29 goals in all competitions this season. García grimaced, Van Dijk did a double-fist pump.
The goal seemed to galvanise Villa. John McGinn kept a Rashford free-kick alive at the back post after Konaté headed clear and then Mings bopped the ball on again. Szoboszlai’s clearance dropped straight to Tielemans, who volleyed in.
Liverpool should have immediately regained the lead but Jota, played in by Robertson with only Martínez to beat, shanked a shot painfully wide. If Jota was not kicking himself then, he surely was when Villa went ahead. Watkins kickstarted the move himself, spreading play and drifting into the box unmarked to spook Van Dijk and head in Digne’s cross, sparking bedlam in the stands.
This was Rashford’s first league start since December and, although he faded, his direct running caused problems. Alisson rushed out of goal early in the second half and inadvertently presented Rashford with a chance to curl the ball towards an empty net, but the defence covered.
Jota clipped the top of the bar from the edge of the Villa box but Liverpool levelled a minute later. Alexander‑Arnold advanced into a hole of space on halfway and after collecting the ball from Salah his thrashed shot flew into the bottom corner via Mings. Then Liverpool went for the jugular.
Robertson saw a shot deflected wide after magnificent footwork by Salah and Jota sent a header wide from a superb Robertson cross. Then came a rare moment of respite, a double Liverpool substitution before Emery made a triple change, with Rashford among those withdrawn. Slot sent on Conor Bradley and Núñez and the pair almost made an instant impact.
Bradley slipped a through ball into Szoboszlai, who trickled the ball to his left for Núñez, but the Uruguayan skied his effort. Axel Disasi perhaps put him off but Núñez should have scored. Slot hurriedly asked if there had been an offside, presumably to make himself feel better. It was another wasted chance to file away.
It was fraught now. Emery tapped his temples by way of warning. Liverpool survived a scare after Jacob Ramsey rippled the net, only for VAR to confirm he was offside. Morgan Rogers wellied over in stoppage time and then Malen went even closer, drilling wide with 11 seconds to go.
