Although the Premier League has caught up from rearranged games from earlier in the season, there is another one on Wednesday evening because of the Carabao Cup final as Aston Villa host Liverpool in a huge game at Villa Park.
Liverpool have the potential to move 10 points clear at the top of the table with a win here but Aston Villa tend to play up to the bigger sides and will be wanting to pick up a win which would take them to the fringes of the European places.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the TNT Sports 2 channel. The build-up to the match begins at 6.30pm ahead of the kick off at 7.30pm.
Aston Villa
This has been a bit of a bumpy season for Aston Villa domestically but they remain in contention in the FA Cup and although the Premier League campaign has been a little more up and down than they would have wanted, a lot of that is due to the juggling things with the Champions League rather than anything that they do wrong. Nevertheless, the Villans are without a win in four in the league and would love nothing more than to stop that slump in this match.
You would have to say that injuries haven’t helped them, especially in the back line but they have been without some key midfielders along the way too. Despite those struggles, Villa have only lost once at home this season and that was to Arsenal which certainly isn’t a bad result. The criticisms would be that they don’t keep many clean sheets at home and have drawn six of their 13 matches which is a few too many for a team as good as them.
Liverpool
Liverpool have had a brilliant first season under Arne Slot so far and will be looking to complete their title quest but there have just been one or two chinks in the armour over the last couple of weeks to give the chasing pack a semblance of hope that the league isn’t won yet. Slot took the FA Cup for granted and paid the price at Plymouth and then the Reds were held late on in the Merseyside derby last week and failed to register a single shot on target in the narrow win over Wolves at the weekend.
Liverpool are in the middle of a hectic schedule and will probably need to rotate their players in this one as you would imagine they will be looking to be at full strength when they go to the Etihad Stadium at the weekend. The Reds have suddenly looked a little less tight at the back once again and that would be a concern here, although that second 45 minutes against Wolves aside, they look very good in attack. Liverpool are yet to be beaten on their travels which is a huge positive.
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Team News
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has a few selection issues to deal with. Boubacar Kamara has joined the list of injured players while Leon Bailey, Matty Cash and Ezri Konsa will all be assessed ahead of the match to see if they are able to go.
Liverpool will be without Cody Gakpo for this match while Joe Gomez is out for a lot longer with the injury that he sustained at Plymouth last weekend. Arne Slot will be able to call upon Curtis Jones though after he has completed his suspension.
Betting
All of a sudden Liverpool are starting to look a little vulnerable and if there is a side who can take advantage of that then they might well be meeting it in Aston Villa. That said, with the current Villa form and the defensive injuries that they carry along with the lack of home clean sheets they have, I’m not sure I want to be getting Villa on side. I don’t really want to back either in this match but the recent evidence is that we are going to see goals in this one because both defences look fragile.
Three of the last four Liverpool matches have had both teams scoring and over 2.5 goals including the matches against Wolves and Ipswich and you would suggest that Villa carry a greater attacking threat than those two sides. Villa have only kept two clean sheets all season and didn’t manage to keep one against Ipswich at the weekend. Both teams to score and over 2.5 goals has landed in the last six matches between these two at Villa Park excluding a Carabao Cup match where both teams made wholesale changes. I like it to land here too.
Tips
Back Both teams to score and over 2.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with William Hill
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