Aston Villa will head into the first international break of the season off the back of a 3-0 defeat to Liverpool as they failed to pick up any points in the Premier League on Sunday.

How did Aston Villa lose to Liverpool?

The hosts opened the scoring through Hungary international Dominik Szoboszlai as he was afforded too much room on the edge of the box and his left-footed strike floated into the far corner.

It did not take long for the Reds to double their lead as Darwin Nunez’s strike from around 12 yards cannoned back off the post and into the net off the unfortunate Matty Cash, who had little time to get out of the way.

Mohamed Salah then made it 3-0 in the 55th minute as he pounced at the back post from Nunez's flick-on to tap into a virtually empty net, with Villa's defenders completely switching off from the corner.

That said, the backline weren't the only members of the Villa squad to underperform, with Ollie Watkins also out of sorts.

How did Ollie Watkins perform against Liverpool?

Whilst there were a number of less-than-impressive performers for Unai Emery's side on Sunday, Watkins stood out as the true villain for the head coach with his display at the top end of the pitch.

Cash did score an own goal to help put Liverpool on their way to a comfortable win but the Poland international was not without his redeeming qualities.

The former Nottingham Forest man won four of his six ground duels and made two clearances alongside four tackles to win possession back for his team, which shows that he was – at least – strong in his physical battles.

Watkins, meanwhile, was worse than Cash as he struggled with both sides of the game, failing to offer enough in and out of possession throughout his 73 minutes on the pitch.

The England international racked up 0.20 xG during the game and the best opportunity came when Lucas Digne's cross found him in the box but he was only able to scuff his effort wide of the post instead of testing Alisson.

As per Sofascore, the £75k-per-week earner only completed seven passes out of nine attempted and no other starter for Villa – including Diego Carlos who came off injured after 19 minutes – made fewer than ten passes.

This shows that Watkins was unable to get himself into the game and was left isolated at the top end of the pitch. He did not do enough to get involved in the match, leading to his lack of effectiveness in the final third.

Whilst you could point to Liverpool's dominance, with 64% possession, as an explanation for his lack of involvement, the 27-year-old did not help himself with a lack of physicality up against Joe Gomez and Joel Matip as he lost three of his four (75%) duels and was pushed aside far too easily.

Indeed, it's clear to see that Watkins produced a disappointing display with his contributions on and off the ball. He did not offer the strength to hold the ball up to be an out ball to relieve pressure for his side and wasted the one presentable chance that did fall his way to get the team back into the match.