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When the ball bobbled around the penalty with Torres, Gerrard and Benayoun all taking several unsuccessful swipes at it, you had that feeling, despite it being early into to the game, that whatever we did it just wasn't going to happen for us.
And so it proved; an own goal largely against the run of play, a second right before half time and a uncharacteristic challenge from Gerrard to let Villa go 3-1 up just as we were getting back into the game.
Villa scored at crucial points in the game and each one proved to be a blow to our momentum.
Yes we weren't great again, but we created plenty of chances, hit the post and were just generally unlucky in the way the game panned out.
More worrying than the result is that both Gerrard and Torres were poor again; Torres' form and his reaction to challenges are becoming especially worrying but with no replacement striker, our reliance on him is absolute.
In his first game for the club at Anfield Torres was kicked all over the park by John Terry but was not riled, instead just blowing kisses to the Chelsea captain and letting his boots do the talking.
It's frustrating that this season, rather than bouncing up, he's rolling on the ground, arguing with referees and getting himself needlessly booked.
Credit must go to Villa though. Destroyed the last time they visited Anfield and with much the same starting eleven, they were strong in midfield and hard to break down in defence. Reo Coker in particular was excellent rendering both Lucas and Gerrard anonymous for large parts of the game, and making good runs forward, most notably for the penalty.
Lucas' inability to stamp his authority on a game is frustrating, especially as Aquilani is still months away from fitness. The worry remains that by the time Aquilani is fit we'll be too far behind for him to make much of an impact.
But let's not get too despondent. It has to be remembered that from the same three fixtures last year, Tottenham away, Stoke at home and Aston Villa at home, we took just four points, only one more than so far. I remember having the same misconceptions early last season, only for us to finish second and only 4 points from the title.
We were always bound to lose more games this season, but if we can turn six of last season's 11 draws into four wins and two defeats, we'd be six points better off.
So don't give up on our title aspirations just yet…