Their fans sang of winning the league but Gabriel Agbonlahor refused to make predictions for Aston Villa. His reticence was understandable having witnessed several false dawns at Anfield but something more impressive than the dishevelled beards of Paul Lambert and Roy Keane is evidently growing at Villa. As the victorious manager put it: “They have become men.”

Lambert has not tasted defeat in four visits to Liverpool as a Premier League manager but his latest rewarding trip felt different, with more substance, guile and experience to Villa’s performance than the previous two encounters that proved no more than brief highlights in seasons of gloom. More incisive than Liverpool when on the front foot in the opening 25 minutes and more resilient under pressure throughout the second half, this was further evidence that Villa have come of age. With 10 points from the 12 available they have made an emphatic start to silencing the pre-season doubters.

Philippe Senderos excelled against a varied but limited Liverpool attack, a sentence that cannot have been written before, while alongside him the 23-year-old Nathan Baker deputised for the injured Ron Vlaar with an imperious display. “Everything about his game was great,” his manager purred. Sitting in front of Villa’s immovable central defenders was a 24-year-old Englishman, Ashley Westwood, whose calm authority suggested Roy Hodgson’s options for a holding midfielder do not have to be limited to Jack Wilshere. “Westy’s a very clever player, he goes unnoticed,” Lambert said. “He doesn’t get talked about because he makes the game look so easy at times. He does the easy things brilliantly.”

Westwood, with the new England international Fabian Delph to his left and Villa’s new signing Tom Cleverley to his right, led a midfield trio that cut off Liverpool’s supply route and stretched the home side’s vulnerable defence when in possession. Brendan Rodgers’ team had no answer. True, they had 18 attempts on Brad Guzan’s goal and were unfortunate when Philippe Coutinho’s 82nd-minute drive struck the inside of a post, but only one effort was on target. Guzan did not have a save to make beyond punching clear a Steven Gerrard free-kick and dropping on to Coutinho’s header with the final act of a merited away win.

“I think they’ve grown up now and they’ve become men this season,” Lambert said. “You can only be a young boy for so long. Jack Grealish is young at 19 but the other players are in their early 20s. They’re not classified as young now. Every one of them have been performing great. Delph’s just come back from England and has been exceptional. He looks as though he’s grown in stature.

“The football club is a better place for it. If they can grow together and we get one or two back from injury we’ll be really strong. It’s early days but the chairman saying what he’s said [about wanting to sell the club] has helped.

“It has galvanised the supporters, who’ve been brilliant anyway since I’ve been here. Everybody, as a group, has been excellent. My staff have been outstanding and we’ve had a new chief executive come in and that’s helped too. The feelgood factor is there at the minute. We’re doing really well.”

Villa took the lead for the third season in succession at Anfield when Mamadou Sakho was harried into conceding a needless corner by the tireless Agbonlahor. The striker bundled Westwood’s resulting corner over the line after Senderos lost Dejan Lovren to head goalwards and his team caused Liverpool problems at set pieces throughout. Senderos, twice, and Andreas Weimann should have extended the visitors’ advantage but with Rodgers’ side lacking the menace of last season, the slender advantage sufficed.

Agbonlahor, fresh from signing a new four-year contract with Villa, said: “I think there is more togetherness now, that’s the main thing, and a bit more experience to a good group of young players. We’re not getting carried away. It’s four games. We’ve got 34 to go.

“We’ve had a tough few years as a team but the younger players have stuck together. The young players have not thrown in the towel, they’ve kept going. This season, in the first four games, we are reaping the benefits of it. It shows how strong-minded the young players are here that they can go through the tough times we’ve had. We’ve had some real lows. Hopefully now we can keep enjoying our football and get results like this.”

Rodgers cut a dejected figure after Liverpool’s second league defeat of the new season, a tally they did not reach until November last term. Their performance owed as much to a squad adapting to the demands of a Champions League campaign for the first time as the absence of last season’s prolific strike-force, with Daniel Sturridge looking frustrated in the stands after injury on international duty with England. Mario Balotelli was subdued and bruised by Senderos and Alan Hutton on his home bow but Rodgers, to his credit, was not interested in excuses. “It is a man’s game,” he said, and Villa have them.

Man of the match Philippe Senderos (Aston Villa)