Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa: Reds go FIVE factors away from Man City as Darwin Nunez baggage much-needed aim and Mohamed Salah steals the present – however Trent Alexander-Arnold comes off injured

 Liverpool fans serenaded Arne Slot after a perfect Saturday night breakaway sent them five points clear at the top of the Premier League.

Darwin Nunez and Mo Salah were the beneficiaries of some breathtaking counter-attacks as the home side took full advantage of closest rivals Manchester City losing at Brighton earlier in the evening.

Nunez’s opener 20 minutes came from an Aston Villa corner and remarkably he nearly added a carbon copy later in the first half.

It was left to Salah to finish the job near the end after another quick transition with the majority of Villa’s players were stuck up the other end of the pitch.

It was Slot’s 15th win in 17 games since replacing the great Jurgen Klopp and he is in line to become the club’s first manager since Kenny Dalglish to lift the league title in his debut season.

He doesn’t fist pump The Kop like his predecessor but the acclaim he received when he came onto the pitch at full-time was still euphoric.

There is no doubt the Dutchman likes his teams to be more controlled than Klopp’s heavy metal but he’s not sacrificed all the thrills and spills – particularly when Liverpool are breaking at speed like the red arrows.

‘We did put effort in preventing Villa from scoring at corners. It is their main threat,’ said Slot. ‘The counter-breaks were pure quality and what the players come up with in these transition moments.’

Champions League Villa were better than the leggy lot who surrendered meekly at Spurs and Bruges in the previous week.

If anything, they were perhaps too ambitious at an Anfield crackling with night-time atmosphere.

They had early chances for Jacob Ramsey and Leon Bailey. In retrospect it was foolhardy to send up all his defenders for a corner after 20 minutes leaving Youri Tielemans and Leon Bailey to guard the back door.

Ramsey inadvertently cleared his own side’s set-piece to Virgil van Dijk and he in turn released Salah to charge across the halfway line and towards the Villa penalty area.

Bailey rugby-tackled the Egyptian to the floor but with referee David Coote not blowing his whistle, the ball rolled to Nunez who rounded Emi Martinez and powered a shot into the roof of the net.

The recalled Uruguayan celebrated his third goal of the season by sucking his thumb and shoving the ball up his jersey, presumably denoting happy family news.

The flip side for Liverpool was Trent Alexander-Arnold having to withdraw soon afterwards holding his hamstring – Slot says he is a major doubt for England – and plucky Villa were foiled an equaliser just before the interval when Caoimhin Kelleher made outstanding saves from Amadou Onana and Diego Carlos.

Liverpool’s best moments came after they were pinned inside their own box. Another Villa corner nearly led to a repeat of the first goal.

Salah, who now has 20 goal contributions this season, released Nunez who had time to weigh up his finish on this occasion and skied it. He also missed a couple of headers to boost his goal tally.

Villa sent on super sub Jhon Duran midway through the second half and shouted for a penalty when Conor Bradley tugged Pau Torres.

‘In Europe it is a penalty,’ he said. ‘It was clear to me,’ complained Emery.

In reality, Villa lost because they failed to cope with Liverpool’s transitions.

The game was settled after 84 minutes when Salah broke from inside his own half. Carlos came across but only succeeded in heading against the Egyptian.

Salah is currently so full of confidence, he hardly broke stride to latch onto the mistake and once inside the penalty area finished low at Martinez’s near post.

‘He is on fire,’ celebrated Slot. ‘He has the best numbers from all our attackers. I am also happy for Darwin to score.

‘We are really happy after such a difficult period. You know margins are small in the Premier League.’

Slot always said people should wait until they’d had a difficult run of fixtures against Chelsea, Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen and now Villa. Three wins and a draw suggests they are the real deal.

While City are over-reliant on Erling Haaland, Liverpool have attacking threats from all over the pitch, with Diogo Jota still to return from injury.

In contrast, Villa’s England centre-forward Ollie Watkins has now gone six games without a goal.

‘He was battling with one of the best defenders in the world, van Dijk,’ said Emery sympathetically. ‘I am confident in my players.’