It was a comfortable afternoon at Anfield as the Reds picked up another three points and their first clean sheet of the season against Aston Villa.
Liverpool took the lead courtesy of a stunning left-footed Dominik Szoboszlai strike early on before Matty Cash doubled the advantage with an unfortunate own goal.
Mohamed Salah rounded off the scoring shortly after the interval to see the Reds head into the international break with 10 points from a possible 12.
Here, Adam Beattie (@beatts94) and Morgan O’Sullivan have a debrief of Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Aston Villa.
That felt comfortable! How pleasing was the performance and the clean sheet?
ADAM: That was about as routine as they come and it was really promising to see us make a good Aston Villa side look so ordinary.
Clean sheets are always a bonus but it’s especially satisfying when we’ve had to cobble something together in the absence of Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk.
Hopefully, that is a sign of things to come because it doesn’t look like we’re going to lack goals this season!
MORGAN: We are getting stronger as the games go by. An early goal always helps!
With injuries and suspensions and new faces to come in, our prospects are looking bright.
We will be a force to be reckoned with if we keep everybody fit.
Darwin looked lively in his first start, should he keep his place in your opinion?
MORGAN: Darwin played well and while there will be people who will say he missed chances, hitting the frame of the goal always has an element of bad luck to it.
The second might have gone down as an own goal but it was really all Darwin’s doing, he is such a handful for defenders.
ADAM: I think once the Europa League kicks in there’s going to be enough minutes for all five of the forwards to go around.
Cody Gakpo offers you something completely different and it’s going to be nice for the manager to be able to pick and choose the games to use him for.
That being said, I’d like to see Nunez get a run of starts to see what he is capable of with a bit of confidence and momentum. No opposition boss is going to want to see his name on the team sheet.
10 points from a tricky opening four games, what do you think this team are capable of this season based on what you’ve seen?
MORGAN: 10 points has been an outstanding start to a very tricky schedule. Considering the injuries, suspensions and players we have not seen, we’ve got lots to be optimistic about this season.
The impact of Champions League football on those around us will be interesting. City are the strongest, but who knows what will happen over the course of the year.
Could this be our year? We should always believe that. Typically, you know by September how the season will go and after such a positive start, this could be the year we surprise people.
ADAM: I’d say we’re better equipped than most were willing to give us credit for and we’re quietly showing it already.
Of course, another defender would have been nice but if we can keep everybody fit our back five are as good as anybody’s in world football.
There’s little point worrying too much about what Man City are doing for the time being, we just need to get ourselves to Christmas in good shape and see where that leaves us.
Finally, who was man of the match for you?
ADAM: The right answer is probably Dominik Szoboszlai, but I thought Trent was excellent again and the armband seems to be a help rather than a hindrance.
It was interesting to see him step inside so often when we were on the ball, his licence to roam has been restricted recently by the red cards but he’s able to control the rhythm of the game almost single-handedly when we’re in possession.
Joe Gomez deserves a shoutout too, he’s been brilliant when called upon this season and it feels like this system suits him perfectly.
MORGAN: Szoboszlai is starting to grow in every game. He is someone I had never heard of before we signed him but he is someone who has all the makings of becoming our next superstar.
