On the back of a dissapointing defeat to the old enemy last time out in the league, Liverpool’s return to Anfield saw a dominant win against Martin O’Neill’s unbeaten Villa. Has it really happened?

Have Liverpool turned the corner?

I think so.

One of the first things Rafa did on his arrival as manager at Liverpool F.C, was set about to make Anfield a fortress once again, which visiting teams would fear. This season despite their lacklustre start, in 6 home games in the league the reds have won 5 and drawn 1, clearly the trouble lies away from home where in 5 games, they have lost 4 and drawn 1. An alarming statistic for the pre-season title hopefuls.

Previously after good home wins like against West Ham and Newcastle, Liverpool have been thrust right back into an away game, and lost. But after the triumphant victory aganist the Villa, Liverpool have home games against Bordeaux and Reading. The Champions League tie against Bordeaux will mainly be seen as Vladi Smicer’s return to the club for who he scored in a Champions League Final, one night in Istanbul.

Both games should be easy wins and confidence boosts in preparation for Birmingham away in the Carling Cup and the big game at Highbury on November 12. After losing to both Manchester United and Chelsea at home, it is a game against a ‘top 4′ team that Liverpool must win. But there are positive signs that they just might.

Crouch who has been scoring all season whenever he’s played is now being given a starting role alongside Dirk Kuyt who has also looked dangerous. Crouch playing also seems to benefit Gerrard who put in a typical driven performance against Villa, including a surging run that created the 3rd goal for Garcia.

The infamous Board ‘leak’ may also benefit the team, the players seemed determine to reply to the criticism of their manager with their performance against Villa. This may have been just the impulse the team needed to gel, and adopt the siege mentality managers such as Jose Mourinho try so hard to adopt in their players.

It’s also encouraging to see that after the run of poor results, Rafa has not told his team to just get back to scraping out wins with solid defence, on Saturday the team played some beautiful attacking football, the visiting captain Gareth Barry rightly commented “some of the best football, like the Liverpool name, pass and move,”. A lot of that is down to the return to form of Xabi Alonso who’s passing was once again sublime, allowing the likes of Gerrard and Garcia to gallop forward while Riise and Finnan also made a lot more forward runs than in recent weeks.

So here’s to comfortable home wins against Bordeaux and Reading, and a special Anfield ‘welcome back’ to Vladmir Smicer. We rememeber you Vladi.