Aston Villa look to return to winning ways when hosting Liverpool in midweek Premier League action at Villa Park on Wednesday evening (ko 7.30pm).
Unai Emery's side will be hoping to respond from a 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town over the weekend, in the second of three-straight outings on home soil in the Premier League ahead of this weekend's visit of Chelsea.
Villa have still only fallen to just one home league defeat so far this season, that loss coming in the opening home game of the campaign, with seven wins and five draws from their last 12 home outings in all competitions.
In order to maintain this streak, however, they will have to keep out Arne Slot's league-leading Reds, who are still yet to lose on the road in the Premier League this season.
Sitting pretty seven points clear at the top of the table with 13 games to go, Liverpool have dropped just two points from their last five top-flight outings, and enter the clash on a run of 21 league games without defeat.
Stats
Aston Villa’s Marcus Rashford scored five goals in eight home Premier League appearances against Liverpool for Manchester United – his most home goals against any side in the competition. Indeed, excluding penalties, the only players with more home Premier League goals against Liverpool are Sergio Agüero (7), Thierry Henry (6), and Jamie Vardy (6).
With 14 goals and nine assists in Liverpool’s 13 away games in the Premier League this season, Mo Salah has the most ever goal involvements by a player away from home in a single campaign in the competition (23). He is also one assist away from becoming only the third player to assist 10+ goals in away games in a Premier League season, after Muzzy Izzet in 2003/04 (10) and Cesc Fàbregas in 2014/15 (11).
Only against Brighton (7) and Arsenal (6) has Ollie Watkins scored more goals in the Premier League than he has against Liverpool (5). However, after scoring five goals in his first five league appearances against the Reds, the striker has since failed to score in his last four against them.
Aston Villa’s Unai Emery has won just one of his 12 meetings with Liverpool in all competitions (D4 L7), winning the 2016 UEFA Europa League final 3-1 with Sevilla. Among opponents he has faced 5+ times in his managerial career, that win rate of 8% against Liverpool is his lowest.
Liverpool are yet to lose a Premier League away game under Arne Slot, with his 13 games (W9 D4) the outright longest unbeaten start on the road by any manager in the competition’s history, surpassing the record set by John Gregory with Aston Villa of 12 games from March to November 1998.
Liverpool remain the only side yet to lose away from home in the Premier League this season in 13 matches (W9 D4). In English top-flight history, on only five occasions has a side avoided defeat in their first 14+ matches on the road from the start of a campaign: Leeds United in 1973/74 (15), Liverpool in 1987/88 (15), Arsenal in 2001/02 (19), Arsenal in 2003/04 (19), and Manchester United in 2020/21 (19).
Aston Villa have lost six of their last seven Premier League games against sides starting the day top of the table; the exception, however, was their last such home game, beating Arsenal 1-0 in December 2023. They have never won back-to-back home meetings with league leaders in the competition before.
The last seven Premier League meetings between Aston Villa and Liverpool at Villa Park have produced a total of 33 goals, an average of 4.7 per game. Liverpool have scored at least twice in all seven of these games (20 goals in total).
This exact fixture finished 3-3 last season – Liverpool haven’t failed to win consecutive away league games against Aston Villa since December 2004.
Aston Villa have won just one of their last 14 Premier League games against Liverpool (D2 L11), a 7-2 victory at Villa Park in October 2020.
The Last Meeting
The last meeting between these two sides saw the Villans beaten 2-0 at Anfield at the beginning of November.
Despite holding their own for large spells of the first half, and having penalty appeals turned down, Unai Emery's side ultimately succumbed to a goal in each half at the home of the league leaders.
Darwin Núñez struck 20 minutes in after a swift counter attack from a Villa corner to hand the hosts the lead, before Mo Salah notched six minutes from time to finish a similar attack - with the visitors throwing bodies forward in the closing stages in search of an equaliser - ensuring Emery's men would travel home from Merseyside empty handed.
Team News
Unai Emery revealed Leon Bailey, Matty Cash and Ezri Konsa would face late fitness tests ahead of the clash, though Boubacar Kamara would miss out.
The French midfielder was withdrawn just 16 minutes into Saturday's draw with Ipswich, and joins Pau Torres, Ross Barkley and Amadou Onana on the sidelines.
Arne Slot does not expect Cody Gakpo to be fit for the encounter, the Dutch forward having missed Liverpool's win over Wolves at the weekend.
Joe Gomez will also miss out, with youngster Tyler Morton the Reds' only other absentee.
Managers' Pre-Match Thoughts
"We are excited, how we will face them tomorrow. Now, Liverpool, they are the best team in Premier League, they are the best team in Europe and of course being very difficult. Hopefully we can share an exciting moment with our supporters in Villa Park."
Unai Emery
"I think Villa away, when you get the fixture list, you all know that Villa away is one of the tougher ones you can face. Very good manager, always has a very good game plan. They brought in quite a lot of good players in the winter break as well and they already had a very good team."
Arne Slot
