Liverpool beat Villa 3-0

Liverpool’s stand-in strikers shrugged off the absence of Fernando Torres to secure a comfortable 3-0 victory over Aston Villa and make it an unhappy return to Anfield for former Reds manager Gerard Houllier.

With Torres given the night off to be with his wife Olalla, who had gone into labour with their second child, David Ngog and Ryan Babel ensured he was not unduly missed with first-half goals.

Maxi Rodriguez added the third in the 55th minute to make it four successive Premier League victories for Liverpool at Anfield.

Ryan Babel, who impressed in the Europa League draw against Steaua Bucharest, replaced Torres and started alongside David Ngog with Sotirios Kyrgiakos coming into central defence as the only two changes to the side which lost at Tottenham eight days ago.

The hosts were soon on the mark as on 14 minutes Raul Meireles’ clipped delivery picked out Martin Skrtel who speared a header back across goal and the diving Ngog could not fail to nod in from barely three yards.

Two minutes later Liverpool had doubled their lead with Babel justifying Hodgson’s faith to select him up front.

Playing on the shoulder of Stephen Warnock, Babel allowed Lucas Leiva’s lofted ball to drop out to his right and he swivelled to smash a shot across Brad Friedel and inside the far post.

Villa’s defending left a lot to be desired and Kyrgiakos could have made it 3-0 in the 27th minute but planted wide his far-post header from Meireles’ free-kick.

Liverpool sealed the points on 55 minutes when in a swift break, Maxi Rodrigues offloaded to Ngog out to the left and then perfectly timed his run to sidefoot home the return pass after his team-mate had carried the attack 40 yards further forward.