NO Steven Gerrard, no Jamie Carragher, no Fernado Torres – no problem.

Liverpool brushed aside Aston Villa without three of their most influential starts and whisper it but they look like their levels of performance have been turned up a notch.

They’re creating lots of chances and for the past couple of home games they’ve scored lots of goals.

It’s a bit more like the side we knew they could be.

It’s taken a bit of time but it seems that Roy Hodgson’s message is getting through and all his work on the training ground is starting to pay off.

With Torres away at the birth of his second child, David Ngog and Ryan Babel were handed the chance to form an alternative strike partnership and their performances showed that there is now good competition for places.

A few months ago, Babel was probably drinking in the last chance saloon at Anfield while Ngog is getting better even though there was a lot of improvement to be had.

Their upturn in fortunes could be down to having a manager who is very approachable and talks to his players on a regular basis.

This wouldn’t have happened in the last six months of Rafael Benitez’s reign with the Spaniard having made up his mind over several players.