Unai Emery put Arne Slot’s rude words to the sword as Aston Villa drew with Liverpool – here’s why.

Liverpool are without doubt the best team in the Premier League this season but the Reds - and manager Arne Slot in particular - may be getting a little too big for their boots.

Aston Villa were the heavy underdogs on Wednesday night but put in a superb shift to go toe-to-toe with the Premier League title favourites, drawing 2-2 and nearly going on to win against all the odds. Mohamed Salah opened the scoring with his 24th league goal of the season but Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins struck back to get Villa ahead, before Trent Alexander-Arnold’s deflected effort eventually spoiled the shares.

Although Liverpool were definitely the better side in the opening 20 minutes or so, the view from the press box suggested Villa really grew into the game and were able to go man-to-man with some of the best players in the world. The deafening noise from the home crowd spurred on the hosts, too, making it tricky for the visitors to play their usual game.

Liverpool’s squad value of £801 million annihilates Villa’s squad value of £531.7 million but the gulf in quality you’d expect from those contrasting figures wasn’t obvious. The Reds may have missed clear-cut chances through Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota but the overall picture implied a very tight encounter. Villa won 53 of the 97 ground duels (54.6%) and 12 of the 25 aerial duels (48%), indicating they were able to more than match the Reds’ level throughout 90 minutes.

Nonetheless, Slot’s comments post-match suggested Liverpool dominated and deserved all three points. “The only reason we could be happy with the 2-2 is because they had the last chance of the game,” a frustrated Slot said in the press conference. “That was only their third chance after scoring two.

“Ok, a point is good to take but for everything else I’m not happy with the 2-2. I wasn’t happy at all being 2-1 down at half time as that didn’t reflect at all - in my opinion - the first half. But that’s the thing in football, if you concede from a set piece things can change quickly.

“Performance-wise it was not a dip at all today in my opinion. We didn’t get what we deserved. If you look at all the chances, it’s pretty clear who deserved to win this game. Let’s not make a habit out of that because it’s happening a bit too much now.”

Arne Slot continues to disrespect Aston Villa

Slot’s saltiness and disrespectfulness filtered over to Thursday as the Liverpool boss previewed Sunday’s crucial game against Manchester City. The Dutchman agreed with a journalist’s opinion that teams - including Villa on Wednesday - raise their game because they’re against the Reds, and don’t otherwise show up at the same standard.

A crazy reference to the fireworks at Villa Park - used at every single evening home match this season - was particularly condescending. Slot told talkSPORT: “It’s not only because you’re top of the league, it is because you are Liverpool.

“We come over here and I see fireworks. I don’t know if they do this every game, but I assume that it is because it’s Liverpool. I assume every game for Aston Villa is completely sold out. It was again today. Normally teams don’t have injuries because their players want to play against Liverpool.

“That is what we know and this club has known for many years. We can’t complain about that. They want to play their best game against us because we have so many good players. We can’t complain about that.”