Aston Villa are beginning to look like the man who built his house on sand. If the challenge of John Gregory's team for the championship is to amount to anything more than a nine-week wonder they will surely have to redig their foundations.
They also need to reassess the true worth to the side of Stan Collymore, whose outrageous foul on Liverpool's Steve Harkness at Villa Park on Saturday and subsequent second yellow card and dismissal for a retaliatory shove on Michael Owen, who had tackled him knee-high, confirmed the maverick tendencies of this talented but wayward player.
The Football Association could charge Collymore with misconduct after studying the video replay of an over-the-top lunge which saw Harkness carried off with damaged knee ligaments after 11 minutes. Happily the incident did not spoil the Premiership's most entertaining spectacle of the season so far; helped, it must be said, by mutually inept defending.
The masterful finishing of Robbie Fowler, who announced his return to full form and fitness with a hat-trick, dominated an exhilarating exhibition of attacking football from both teams and inspired Liverpool to the victory which ended the league leaders' 12-match unbeaten Premiership record.
A sharp header which owed everything to anticipation and positioning, a shot potted with a pool hustler's assurance and a first touch which made his third goal a formality confirmed Fowler as one of the country's most dangerous strikers.
Yet Villa, despite conceding two goals in the first six minutes, might have saved or even won the match had the skill and vision of Paul Merson been backed by a return to the defending which saw them let in a similar number in their first nine league games.
"Strikers win matches, defenders win championships," Gregory had declared after Villa forced an efficient scoreless draw at West Ham five weeks earlier. Since then the truth of those words has, quite literally, been brought home to him. His team have now conceded nine goals in three matches at Villa Park.
Yet the problem for Villa lay equally in midfield where, without the suspended Ian Taylor, they simply could not cope.
A one-match ban means Collymore will miss Villa's next home game, against Manchester United, in a fortnight. Four days later they travel to Chelsea and Arsenal are at Villa Park the following Saturday. By then the championship should have a better idea of what the pre-Christmas pretenders, and their manager, are made of.
Aston Villa: Oakes, Wright (Joachim 75), Southgate, Ehiogu, Watson (Charles 86), Draper (Thompson 51), Collymore, Merson, Dublin, Barry, Hendrie. Subs Not Used: Grayson, Rachel. Sent Off: Collymore (68). Booked: Collymore. Goals: Dublin 47, 63.
Liverpool: James, Staunton, Babb, Fowler, Owen (Riedle 78), Redknapp, Harkness (Bjornebye 12), Heggem, Berger (McAteer 63), Ince, Carragher. Subs Not Used: Thompson, Friedel. Booked: Redknapp, James, Babb. Goals: Ince 2, Fowler 7, 58, 66.
Referee: P Jones (Loughborough).
