Liverpool vs Aston Villa

Liverpool and Aston Villa are set to trade tackles in a mouth-watering Premier League encounter at Anfield.

Liverpool eked out a come-from-behind 2-1 win at AC Milan in midweek en route to becoming the first English side to have completed the Champions League group stage campaign with a 100% record. The ‘Reds’ have now won their last six matches in all competitions since a 3-2 away loss to West Ham on the cusp of November’s international break, including four in the Premier League. Jurgen Klopp’s men have been nothing short of exceptional in the front third this season, notably scoring a league-high 44 Premier League goals to date. Topically, the Merseyside heavyweights have netted 2+ goals in eight competitive home outings on the bounce since being held to a 1-1 draw to Chelsea in August. That should set them up nicely for this fixture as they aim to stretch their top-flight H2H winning streak at Anfield to four games.

Standing in their way will be the club’s icon Steven Gerrard, who has been an architect of Aston Villa’s mini-revival in the Premier League. Since replacing Dean Smith at the helm in late November, Gerrard has navigated Villa to three wins in four Premier League games (L1), as many victories as they had in their opening 11 league outings (W3, D1, L7). Curiously, three of Villa’s four league matches under Gerrard have produced the identical 2-1 scoreline, highlighting the potential for action-packed football.  Though none of the ‘Lions’ seven Premier League away games this season have ended as a draw (W2, L5), five of those results (win/loss) have yielded a single-goal margin. It suggests that emulating a 7-2 H2H thrashing of Liverpool from the first half of last season looks highly improbable.