By Ollie Irish

Improving Liverpool move up to eighth in the table, and the way the big boys are dropping points this season, it’s not fantastical to suggest Roy’s Reds might yet break into the top four at some stage. Okay, it is fantastical, but not impossible. After all, Liverpool are only four points behind Tottenham. Uncle Woy is turning the tanker around, slowly but surely.

With Fernando Torres rushing to be with his pregnant wife – she gave birth last night to a baby boy, reported to be named Leo – it fell to David Ngog and the enigmatic Ryan Babel to lead the line. And they did a pretty good job, albeit against an injury-hit Villa side that is understandably very low on confidence. There may yet be hope for Babel, especially if he’s played up front where his instincts serve him much better than on the wing.

Back in central midfield, the pairing of Lucas and Raul Meireles worked well too – it’s a more disciplined and balanced pairing than Steven Gerrard +1. As I said before, in praising Meireles, Gerrard is most effective in a free role in between the midfield and a lone striker.

Oh, and congrats to Pepe Reina, who kept his 100th clean sheet in a Liverpool shirt. He’s well on the road to the Anfield Hall of Fame.

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