Totally outplayed in the first half and not a great deal better in the second, they were saved by Nolberto Solano's excellent free-kick after Liverpool's Harry Kewell had broken his 10-month goal drought. Villa had to be admired for their resilience, if nothing else.
Liverpool may be in some turmoil off the pitch but they are beginning to look quite formidable on it. Some of their passing was enthralling, especially when Steven Gerrard combined with Xabi Alonso and Kewell. If the Merseysiders had had at least one of their senior strikers available, they would have had the game won by half-time.
While Villa made just the one change, teenager Steven Davis replacing the suspended Lee Hendrie in midfield, Liverpool retained only Neil Mellor and Antonio Nunez from the second-string side that had knocked Tottenham out of the Carling Cup in midweek. There was no starting place, though, for Florent Sinama-Pongolle, scorer of the decisive penalty at White Hart Lane.
Despite being deployed in the 4-4-1-1, safety-first formation manager Rafael Benitez has adopted since losing most of his first-choice strikers, Liverpool took the game to Villa. Indeed, they dominated the opening phase to such a degree that the home side hardly had a kick. So it was no more than the visitors deserved when they went ahead after 16 minutes.
The goal was clearly the product of hours of practice in training. Liverpool having been awarded a free-kick some 25 yards out, John Arne Riise ran over the ball before Gerrard floated it to the far post. There, Jamie Carragher headed back across goal, where Kewell popped up in the six-yard box to nod his side in front with his first goal of any kind since February.
Mellor should have made it 2-0 when Dietmar Hamann picked him out in front of goal with a lovely pass not long after Kewell had opened the scoring. But the hero of the Merseysiders' last-gasp victory over Arsenal slipped as he shot, enabling Thomas Sorensen to get a hand to the ball. The Villa goalkeeper also did well to keep out a blistering shot from Gerrard.
Liverpool's failure to make more of their domination cost them when Villa were awarded a questionable free-kick 25 yards out, for a foul on Gavin McCann by Carragher shortly before the interval. Solano, scorer of an acrobatic winner against Tottenham, took the kick and swerved it superbly into the roof of the net.
Early in the second half Liverpool had a chance to go ahead again from a situation almost identical to the one from which Solano had equalised. Gerrard took the 25-yard free-kick cunningly, but Sorensen got across well to save low to his left. The Villa goalkeeper also caught above his head the shot the Liverpool captain rifled at him from Kewell's pass.
Yet Villa, who had more of the play after the interval than before it, might have taken the lead in the 68th minute. Again it was from a 25-yard free-kick taken by Solano, whose shot was tipped over at full stretch by the otherwise under-employed Chris Kirkland.
Gerrard left the field to a standing ovation with eight minutes remaining, no doubt disappointed that the performance had yielded only one point for his side.