Why is Rafael Benitez so popular with Liverpool fans? Is it the European Cup on his CV? The fact Liverpool are in with a real shout for this season's title (albeit accidentally, given the manager's habit of playing eight holding midfielders at home against the likes of Wigan)? His highly amusing ability to get under the skin of Alex Ferguson? Or because he looks so damned good on banners? It's because he looks so damned good on banners, isn't it.

Why Rafael Benitez looks so damned good on banners: This is a result of being unencumbered with a busy face. Arsene Wenger's boat, for example, is covered in tightly-packed lines and furrows, like a relief map of the Peak District. Ferguson's coupon, meanwhile, takes in most of the warmer colours of the visible spectrum, similar to a plasma screen someone's just put their boot through. But Rafa's face is reasonably feature-free, and therefore comes up nicely when rendered white-on-red. (It also helps that he's blessed with a distinguished and handsome look, reminiscent of a high-ranking official in a tinpot military dictatorship, but that's another story altogether.)

Anyway, kick off is at: 4pm.

Liverpool, who can close to within a point of leaders Manchester United this afternoon - scrub that, have to close to within a point of leaders Manchester United this afternoon - are going for broke with pretty much their first XI: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Kuyt, Riera, Torres.

Subs: Cavalieri, The £7m bundle of goalscoring fun that is Andrea Dossena, Hyypia, Agger, Lucas, Ngog, El Zhar.

Aston Villa, who have one point from the last 12 and will be looking to keep their Champions League hopes alive, will be pumping it up to the big boys: Friedel, Reo-Coker, Cuellar, Davies, Luke Young, Milner, Petrov, Barry, Ashley Young, Heskey, Carew.

Subs: Guzan, Agbonlahor, Delfouneso, Knight, Salifou, Shorey, Gardner.

Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire)

A minute's silence: The Liverpool club secretary Bryce Morrison, who had been at Anfield since 1992, died suddenly this morning. Anfield pays its respects.

And we're off! Villa set the ball rolling, kicking towards the Kop in the first half. Liverpool soon steal the ball, stroke it around for a bit, then win a corner after 48 seconds, Gerrard nearly racing free down the left. From it. Skrtel gets his head to the ball, but only to waft it towards the top-left corner for Friedel to claim with ease.

3 min: Heskey latches onto a long ball and should really bomb clear on goal. However with great indecision - something Anfield may be reasonably familiar with - he turns back, laying the ball off to Milner, whose weak shot is deflected wide. The corner is useless.

5 min: Torres sends Gerrard bombing clear down the inside-right channel. There's a chance of a shot, but the Liverpool skipper decides to cut inside Cuellar. He overhits the ball and Friedel is able to come out and claim. This is a bright, open start to the game.

7 min: GOAL!!! Liverpool 1-0 Aston Villa. Reina hoofs a long ball upfield. Reo-Coker, chasing towards his own area down the inside-left channel, hesitates, allows Riera to toe-poke it away, and upends his challenger. That's a free kick, just outside the box to the left of goal. Gerrard whips it in towards the far post, Alonso flicks a header onto the crossbar - and Kuyt hammers in the rebound with a perfectly steered low volley. Shades of Torres v Vidic last weekend there; naughty Reo-Coker.

9 min: Wow this is a wild, open start to this match. From a well-directed Alonso header, Gerrard has a half-chance just to the left of goal but can only poke wide left. Then up the other end, Barry guides a difficult volley over the bar from 12 yards. And then, Alonso nearly slips Gerrard free on goal down the right with a tasty reverse pass, but there's too much on the ball and the chance evaporates.

12 min: Mascherano nearly breaks clear after a crunching tackle on Barry - but Cuellar is over quickly to cover. Villa are really rocking here.

15 min: Riera zips down the left. His cross is deflected by Reo-Coker and spins up then down towards the far post. Gerrard contorts his body in an attempt to guide a volley into the right-hand side of the Villa net, but can't quite get over the spooning ball and slices it wide right.

18 min: Liverpool stream forward yet again, but with Liverpool five-on-three at the back, Kuyt fannies his pass out wide right to Arbeloa and the chance is gone. "Are you sure you can hammer and steer the ball at the same time?" asks Mac Millings. Oh I don't know. I get confused, you should know that by now. "I'm pretty certain Kuyt can't. Now Dossena, on the other hand - are you sure it wasn't him?"

20 min: A little chink of light for Villa: Ashley Young screams down the right and dispatches a low, hard cross into the six-yard box. Reina claims confidently, but Carew wasn't too far from sliding in on that.

21 min: Petrov and Milner work the ball well down the left. The ball's clipped to the near post. Carew steers the ball with the side of his foot towards the top-left corner from close range; Reina palms instinctively over the bar. Villa have come right back into this.

23 min: Gerrard is booked for flipping Davies into the air with a desperate lunge for the ball down the Liverpool right.

24 min: Arbeloa wins a block tackle down the right wing and scampers free. He's only got Torres up with him, and though he finds the striker with a pass to the edge of the area, the resulting effort is weak and easily claimed by Friedel.

25 min: This is a really open, exciting match. A long ball is pumped into the Liverpool box. Standing on the penalty spot, Carew outmuscles Skrtel and sends a header zooming towards the top-right corner. Reina dives at full length and palms the ball wide. After a terrible start, Villa are the better side now.

28 min: Torres can't make the ball stick up front at all. After a really impressive start, Liverpool have blown themselves out a bit. No Real Madrid, Villa. "Success has many fathers but failure is a complete bastard," opines Neil Clough, epigrammatic wizard and Oscar Wilde de nos jours.

30 min: Carew wins yet another long ball, brings it down, and juggles it awhile. Nothing comes of the cameo. Liverpool have completely lost their way.

32 min: Riera attempts to get something going for the home side by twisting and turning down the left. He manages to confuse Reo-Coker, but then confuses himself, and Gerrard in the centre, by pinging a terrible cross high into the stand behind the goal.

33 min: GOAL!!! Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa. Reina set Dossena up last week, now he does the same thing for Riera. The build-up - if I may describe a punt and chase like that - is a carbon copy of Dossena's United-bothering, but the finish here is even more spectacular: a crashing shot past Friedel into the top left, and the roof of the net.

35 min: Gerrard takes down another long ball, 30 yards out, checks inside from the left and whips a low shot just wide left of goal.

36 min: Villa have fallen apart again. Friedel attempts to pass the ball out left to Luke Young, but only succeeds in rolling it to Arbeloa. The right back should score, but opts to pull the ball back for the inrushing Torres. The pass is misplaced and Cuellar slides in to clear. What a chance!

39 min: GOAL!!! Liverpool 3-0 Aston Villa. Oh, naughty Nigel Reo-Coker! From the right, Kuyt sprays a long crossfield pass to Reira, who tears into the box and is immediately clumsily upended by Reo-Coker. That's a nailed-on penalty - and one Gerrard hammers into the right-hand side of the net.

40 min: Luke Young is booked for a lunge on Mascherano. Barry is booked for prattling at the ref. "I'm sorry, but Rafa being distinguished and handsome?" splutters Roland Dehousse. "Does his new contract contain a special secret clause on plastic surgery benefits and liposuction? I love the guy, but... and as far as being reminiscent of a high-ranking official in a dictatorship?!? Well, you must have been thinking about Juande Ramos, who has all the features you mention, but I don't recall him being very popular on banners around White Hart Lane."

42 min: Gerrard swings a long free kick into the area from the left. Torres - who has done bugger all, still Liverpool are three goals to the good! - tries to get a toe on it, but gets nowhere near.

45 min: Riera wallops a crossfield pass, left to right, towards Kuyt, who brings it down and wins a corner. Gerrard pulls it back to the edge of the area for Aurelio, but the volley's sliced well wide left.

HALF TIME: Liverpool 3-0 Aston Villa. A strange half in some respects - Villa were the better team for the middle portion of those 45 minutes - but Liverpool were determined, clinical and, occasionally, swashbuckling. Anyway, that banner. "In light of the top echelons of global finance, success has many bastards," quips Lorcan Mullen. "It's further from Wilde but definitely de nos jours."

And we're off again! Anfield is fairly subdued as the players begin to stroke it around. A quiet satisfaction. "I wonder what the criteria were for inclusion on that banner?" wonders Gary Naylor. "While Souness can have few complaints about his absence and Houllier might have a case, Roy Evans deserves a spot after all his years in the boot room, doesn't he?"

48 min: LIVERPOOL SCORE FOUR FOR THE THIRD GAME IN A ROW!!! Liverpool 4-0 Aston Villa. Kuyt puts his head down and runs - admittedly not with any great velocity - towards the Villa box. Cuellar hacks him down right on the edge of the area, just to the left of the D. That's a free kick. Alonso prods it an inch to the right, allowing Gerrard to sidefoot powerfully into the bottom-right corner. What a free kick. As things stand, Liverpool now have a better goal difference than Manchester United.

51 min: Villa can't get hold of the ball at all. Carew is doing his best to hold up the occasional Villa punt, but can't find a man. "If failure's a complete bastard, and many-fathered success needs a paternity test, then I'm quite happy to sit in my state of utter mediocrity," writes Mac Millings. "I know who my dad is, and am merely a bit of a wanker."

54 min: Heskey gets his head on a deep right-wing cross, but eight yards out can only cushion it forward to Reina. "Juande Ramos is really more of a flamboyant cavalry officer," suggests Lorcan Mullen, poo-pooing claims the former Spurs manager is a fine specimen of junta chic. If this isn't getting homoerotic enough for you, here's Oskar Kostecki: "I must report that Ronald has an extremely poor eye for anything beautiful, and feel it is my duty to defend rafa from any such uneducated criticism. I have no doubt that Rubens would be delighted to the point of ecstasy if only presented with such a magnificent specimen as Benitez."

57 min: Kuyt scampers down the right and slips Alonso into the box. Alonso swivels and wallops a low, hard shot right across the face of goal and well wide left. "Didn't I tell you that Aston Villa playing 4-4-2 would be a disaster?" asks George Templeton. And it's true. He did send me an email before kick off saying exactly this. I didn't publish it because it seemed too rabid. But I'm a mass of contradictions made flesh, so here's his frothing-at-the-mouth follow-up: "How many times does Martin O'Neill need to make this mistake before changing? Aston Villa have to play 4-5-1 against teams that will attack them or they get overrun in midfield like today. And one more message to Martin O'Neill. STOP PLAYING MIDFIELDERS AT RIGHT BACK AND RIGHT BACKS AT LEFT BACK FOR GOD SAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

58 min: Yet another terrible day at the Anfield office for Heskey: he's replaced by Agbonlahor.

60 min: Where's Andrea Dossena? The nation demands Andrea Dossena.

63 min: POOR VILLA. PENALTY FOR LIVERPOOL AND RED CARD FOR FRIEDEL. Torres scampers down the inside-left channel and into the area. He should score, but taps the ball forward a tad too far, allowing Friedel to come out. Torres finds another 1mph, however, and somehow toepokes the ball past the keeper and rounds him. Friedel shoulders Torres to the ground - and while that's a clear penalty, the keeper unluckily sees red as Reo-Coker is right up with play. In fact, that's a terrible decision by the referee. They're four down, for Christ's sake!

65 min: GOAL!!! Liverpool 5-0 Aston Villa. Friedel goes off to warm applause from his former fans. Guzan comes on for Reo Coker - and his first act in Premier League football is to pick the ball from the right-hand side of his net. For that's where Gerrard puts the spot kick, securing his first-ever league hat-trick. This is a rout.

67 min: Lucas comes on for Alonso. "We're gonna win 6-5," sing the Villa fans.

69 min: Lucas drags a low shot wide right of goal. The Villa players look utterly stunned, they can't get hold of the ball at all.

71 min: Anfield is bouncing. Lucas sprays a majestic pass wide to Reira, who races down the left and wins a corner. From it, the ball falls to Skrtel at the far post. His shot is skewed across the face of goal, where Lucas tries to poke home but fails. "Success has many fathers? What the hell does that even mean?" wonders Richard Whittall. "And what does the flipside say? Apologies for the Obstructed View? The guy in the red coat on the top right is giving the long-haired Metallica fan banner-holder death eyes."

73 min: Mascherano switches feet on the edge of the box and fizzes in a shot that Guzan claims with confidence. That really would have put the tin lid on it for Villa; the Argentina captain is many things, but a goal machine he is not.

76 min: Liverpool are stroking it around the back. A lot. Agger comes on for Arbeloa.

78 min: Liverpool are now trying everything to set up Torres. First Lucas selflessly tees him up on the edge of the box, then Gerrard tries to flick him free - but with no success.

80 min: Gerrard is replaced by Ngog. "That banner is bothering a lot of people," writes Julian Menz. "Why is Rodney Trotter in the bottom left, and where is Souness? Surely Liverpool wouldn't be where they are now without his managerial brilliance?"

82 min: Torres toe-pokes the ball into the air past Davies, but Guzan comes out to claim. It's just not going to be the Liverpool striker's day.

84 min: Attempts from first Ngog, then Agger, to set Torres up. They both fail. This is getting ridiculous, especially as both men had chances to keep driving forward themselves.

86 min: Ashley Young skidaddles down the left. For a second, it looks like either Carragher or Skrtel will upend him in the box, but the winger evades the challenges - only to shank his cross into the stands.

89 min: Carew is replaced by Gardner. It doesn't really qualify as a last roll of the dice, does it? "Liverpool banners are a a study in banal pseudo-profundities," argues David O'Connor. "I love them but you shouldn't think about them too much. They never make sense."

90 min: There will be three more minutes of this. The Villa support - who have done their job today, despite it all - cheers.

90 min +2: Gardner is yellow carded for a high-studs challenge on Agger.

FULL TIME: Liverpool 5-0 Aston Villa. The home side ping it around awhile... and that's that. What a performance against the fifth-placed team in the league. This weekend couldn't have turned out any better for Liverpool - although for their fans, there's always going to be that nagging regret at all those silly points dropped, isn't there. Unless Manchester United keep imploding, that is.