STEVIE: VILLA WINNER WAS SO IMPORTANT

Steven Gerrard believes he may already have scored one of the most important goals of Liverpool's season.
The Anfield skipper's brilliantly executed free kick just five minutes from time at Villa Park on Saturday secured all three points for the Reds and ensured they got their campaign off to a winning start. With Villa having levelled just one minute earlier and looking set to deny Liverpool a well deserved opening day success, the importance of the victory - even at this early stage - isn't lost on Gerrard. "I was getting flashbacks to the Middlesbrough game two years ago both from a personal and team point of view," said Gerrard. "I had a load of chances to score, just like in that game, and the one worry when all the celebrations died down is we know we should have had the game won earlier. "But the main thing is we did win and deserved it. The performance was, at times, very good. "I know it's early but I hope it turns out to be one of the most important goals this season because all the lads have been saying through pre-season how much we wanted a good start. "To have not won that game would have been devastating for us after the way we played, but now we feel we can build some momentum, and that's been shown to be so important in this league. "You just can't afford to fall behind to the leaders like we have in the past. "That's why you could see how much it meant to us to win and we were buzzing in the dressing room afterwards. "It was pleasing to see so many good all-round performances on Saturday. Fernando Torres and Ryan Babel did really well."