English premier league results - Liverpool lose to QPR

Aston Villa exposed Liverpool's flaws and the flakiness of their challenge for a top-four place by inflicting the Reds' worst home defeat for more than three years. Christian Benteke scored twice, either side of Andreas Weimann's well-worked goal, before Steven Gerrard's late consolation as the hosts' three-match winning run was ended in surprising fashion. It was the first time Villa had scored more than once in any half of league football this season and extended their own unbeaten run to five matches, with only a second away win in 17 away league games. Villa inflicted the same scoreline in August 2009, and although both sides are at a lower level now, this was a result no-one would have predicted. The visitors almost doubled their league away goals tally for the campaign, which now stands at seven, in recording only their fifth Anfield victory in 34 visits. Yet barely 24 hours earlier Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers had been talking about targeting second-placed Manchester City so high was the confidence in his squad. City are now 14 points ahead and, worse still, Liverpool failed to take advantage of Everton's draw at Stoke to close the gap on fourth place with many of...