Game Details
Game: Liverpool vs Aston Villa
Date: Sunday 5th July
Competition: Premier League
Venue: Anfield
Kick-off: 4:30pm
At a Glance
Aston Villa journey to Merseyside on Sunday afternoon for a date with the newly crowned Premier League Champions.
Last time out, a 1-0 loss against Wolves made it two draws and two defeats from Villa’s four games since the top flight’s resumption last month.
Bournemouth’s heavy loss in midweek moved Dean Smith’s side up one place to 18th in the table ahead of the trip to Anfield.
𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘 days until our trip to Anfield... ⏳#ThrowbackThursday #AVFC pic.twitter.com/qXqrFMdxlN
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) July 2, 2020
Liverpool stumbled on their first outing since being confirmed as champions on Thursday night when they fell to a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester City.
That result was only the second league defeat of the season for Jurgen Klopp’s team, who are 20 points clear at the top.
The Reds have been formidable at Anfield this season, winning all 16 of their Premier League encounters there.
Standout Stats
Aston Villa have only lost one of their last five Premier League away games against Liverpool (W2 D2), though it was in their last such visit in September 2015 (2-3).
Five of Aston Villa’s last six Premier League wins against Liverpool have been at Anfield, in a run stretching back to April 1999.
Liverpool versus Aston Villa has seen more away wins than any other fixture in Premier League history (20 – 14 for Liverpool, 6 for Aston Villa).
Head-to-Head
Aston Villa and Liverpool have met on 193 occasions, dating back to their first game in 1894.
Villa have won 58 times, drawn 40 and lost 95 games against the Reds.
"Any obstacle strengthens the determination." - @FredGuilbert24 👊 #AVFC pic.twitter.com/2UsSdmDvHY
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) July 2, 2020
Team News
Dean Smith ruled Matt Targett out of the game after the defender picked up an injury against Wolves.
Frederic Guilbert has been training hard ahead of the match and could return to the squad. Smith also said that Ezri Konsa had not trained all week but the boss was hopeful he would be ready for Sunday.
Meanwhile, Liverpool defender Joel Matip is out for the rest of the season and winger Xherdan Shaqiri has not played for the Reds since January due to a calf injury.
The Boss
“I think we will see similar to what we have seen week in, week out.
“They will be a little bit sore from getting beat 4-0, but we know that their attitude is going to be there.
“I saw it as he [Klopp] did – they had as many chances as Manchester City and their attitude was spot on.
“We have a chance, we made Liverpool work really hard [at Villa Park] and we were three minutes away from getting the victory ourselves.”
