Liverpool are looking to maintain their lead at the summit of the Premier League.
The Premier League leaders have sparkled under Arne Slot at the beginning of his debut season, winning 14 of their 16 matches under the Dutchman. The Reds’ 4-0 thrashing of Bayer Leverkusen on Xabi Alonso’s return to Merseyside was the highlight of a mightily impressive reign to date.
Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 12 matches, winning 11 of those clashes, and will fancy their chances of extending that streak on Saturday. Aston Villa promise to be tricky opposition, even if they are without a win in four games.
Unai Emery’s side are enduring a minor blip in what has been an exceptional start to the season. Three successive defeats, including Wednesday’s 1-0 loss at Club Brugge following Tyrone Mings’ comical handball, have slightly thrown the Villans off course.
Liverpool didn’t suffer any fresh injury concerns during the win over Leverkusen but they are still missing several important first-teamers. That includes Diogo Jota, who won’t return until a week or two after the November international break according to Slot.
Alisson Becker and Harvey Elliott are also sidelined with long-term issues and Federico Chiesa will miss out again having endured an injury-hit start to his Anfield career.
Despite suffering a nasty-looking arm injury last weekend, Ibrahima Konate featured against Leverkusen. Kostas Tsimikas will push Andy Robertson for the left-back spot once again having started the last two matches.
Luis Diaz’s midweek hat-trick mean he’s likely to start again this weekend, but the Colombian may move back to the left-hand side after leading the line against the German champions. That threatens the position of the in-form Cody Gakpo, with Darwin Nunez also pushing for a starting role.
