Philippe Coutinho continued his impressive start to life at Liverpool as he helped the Reds come from behind to win 2-1 at Aston Villa on Sunday.
Both sides squandered good opportunities during the first 30 minutes before Christian Benteke opened the scoring with a powerful first-time half volley that Pepe Reina could only help into the corner of his net.
Liverpool came close to forcing an equaliser just before half-time as Stewart Downing and Philippe Coutinho combined to lay off Steven Gerrard, but his dipping right-foot shot was pushed away by goalkeeper Brad Guzan.
The visitors didn’t have to wait long after the break to get back into the game, however, as two minutes after the restart Coutinho’s fantastic defence-splitting pass was seized on by Jordan Henderson, who flicked the ball into the corner of the net for his fourth goal of the season.
Coutinho should have given the Reds the lead in the 56th-minute after beating the offside trap to run onto a pass from Luis Suarez, but he dinked his shot agonisingly wide of the post.
However, Liverpool went on to take the lead just three minutes later after Suarez was brought down in the box by Nathan Baker and the resulting spot-kick was converted by Gerrard.
The Liverpool captain was then instrumental at the other end as he headed Benteke’s header off the line before Matthew Lowton had Reina scrambling with a cross-shot that forced the Spaniard to tip over the bar.
Benteke did find the net again in stoppage time but the goal was rightly disallowed for offside and Liverpool saw out the game to move within three points of Merseyside rivals Everton in sixth.
