Aston Villa

• 22 Guzan
• 04 Vlaar
• 27 Bennett
• 32 Baker
• 34 Lowton
• 15 Westwood Booked
• 18 Sylla (El Ahmadi – 76′ )
• 25 Bannan (Delph – 62′ )
• 11 Agbonlahor
• 20 Benteke
• 26 Weimann (N’Zogbia – 62′ )

Substitutes

• 01 Given
• 30 Lichaj
• 08 El Ahmadi
• 10 N’Zogbia
• 16 Delph
• 24 Dawkins
• 21 Bowery

Liverpool

• 25 Reina
• 02 Johnson
• 03 Jose Enrique
• 05 Agger
• 23 Carragher
• 08 Gerrard Booked
• 10 Phillippe Coutinho (Sterling – 77′ )
• 14 Henderson
• 19 Downing
• 21 Lucas
• 07 Suarez

Substitutes

• 01 Jones
• 16 Coates
• 37 Skrtel
• 31 Sterling
• 33 Shelvey
• 15 Sturridge
• 30 Suso

No real surprises in the Villa line up but Liverpool sprung a surprise with Coutinho playing in behind Suarez instead of Sturridge.  Carragher at £5.0m and Henderson at £4.6m offer value at the expense of Skrtel who’s out of favour and Allen who’s injured.

Defensive stats:   Extremely good defensive stats from Liverpool, poor from Villa.

Player shooting stats:   Suarez was a one man shooting machine with some of the best underlying stats you’ll see.  Benteke and Gerrard followed

Pen box touches:     Suarez Benteke and Weiman

Chances created:      Downing Henderson Gerrard and Suarez

Most advanced midfielders for each team:    Sylla and Downing for Liverpool

Most involved players in attacking positions for each team:  Suarez and Benteke

Comments on important fantasy premier league players:

Suarez did everything except score and underlined the fact that in underlying stats he is an essential fantasy premier league asset.  With Bale a must have irrespective of fixtures.  The relegation of Sturridge to the bench ostensibly not because of injury sees off for the moment the threat of Sturridge holding the central advanced position for tap ins.

Gerrard had a reasonable all round game in underlying stats with good shooting and chances created stats.  However his pen box touches were low and his average position pretty deep so youre relying on the odd screamer plus penalties and freekicks to get your points.  With Suarez falling every time the wind changes direction that has potential for returns as you can see from 10 goals and 12 assists.  Him and Silva do create more chances than anyone to be fair though.  He’s a good fixture player for me rather than a must have but have someone so deep who barely gets in the box is against my natural instincts.

Coutinho despite a mini bandwagon which may increase with his advanced position and an assist did little in underlying stats to sugges he will get consistent returns outside of good fixture runs.

Downing created the most chances in the game although when playing as wide a he does that is a stat that doesn’t really return to any great degree.  he didnt get in the box enough and his shooting was pretty much all outside the box.

Despite the goal I didn’t see enough i pen box touches average position and shooting stats to warrant Henderson getting in to anyones fantasy premier league team.  He’s a pretty inconsistent starter as well although the Allen injury may give him more of a run.

Benteke continues his fantastic form.  A great all round player who contributes in shooting and assists he’s good value as a 3rd striking option although the DGW may see him dropped for the likes of Berba.