It is a big night in the race for the various European places in the Premier League on Thursday evening as two matches take place and with fixtures beginning to run out this term for those needing the points these games gain in importance.
It is the two Merseyside clubs who are under pressure to deliver the goods on Thursday as anything but a win will allow their rivals for the top four and top six respectively to have their destiny own hands and leave Liverpool and Everton needing even more results to go their way.
Where to watch
The two matches will be shown live in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League channels with the programme beginning at 5pm and the matches themselves kicking off at 6pm and 8.15pm.
Aston Villa vs Everton (18.00)
The opening match of the evening is one which Everton will look to keep control of their own destiny in their bid to be playing European football next season. They travel to Villa Park to take on an Aston Villa side who beat them at Goodison Park 12 days ago.
Everton have been very hit and miss on their own patch this term so that wasn’t the most surprising result in the world but they are much better on their travels and will probably feel a lot more comfortable here than in that reverse meeting. Their win at West Ham on Sunday showed exactly that. That win over Everton was just the second Villa have achieved in their last 10 matches, the other one a come from behind win against a Fulham team who had them under control until 10 minutes of madness, so this isn’t a confident Villa side, one which is clearly missing their captain Jack Grealish. They will also be without top scorer Ollie Watkins who was sent off at the weekend. That is a huge blow and makes me think that if there is a winner here it will be Everton.
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Manchester United vs Liverpool (20.15)
The match that was meant to take place the weekend before last should finally happen on Thursday evening when Manchester United go up against Liverpool in what is usually billed as one of the matches of the Premier League campaign.
If it wasn’t for the fact they are playing Liverpool here, United would be playing for very little in this match and indeed after this that will be the case until the Europa League final. Liverpool are playing for their Champions League lives and should they lose this match they will be seven points behind Chelsea with just nine points left to play for so this really is a must win match for the 2019 winners of that competition. United rested a lot of star players in their defeat to Leicester in midweek but they’ll all be back for this match and we should see a much better performance from them in this one. That loss on Tuesday was just their second defeat since the beginning of November, the other one being that shock defeat to Sheffield United, so this United side are hard to beat.
Liverpool haven’t really impressed in the pressure matches this season. Pretty much each one they have had in the Premier League they have lost and not looked particularly great while in the second leg against Real Madrid in the Champions League they had nothing in them either. I suspect United are the outsiders for this match on the schedule alone but there won’t be no resting players here and Solskjaer will make sure his men are up for this one. There isn’t a lot between these two but if there is a winner I fancy it will be the home side.
Tips
PUSH – Back Everton (0AH) to beat Aston Villa for a 3/10 stake at 1.74 with BetVictor
Back Man Utd (+0.25AH) to beat Liverpool for a 3/10 stake at 1.87 with BetVictor
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