Aston Villa host title-chasing Liverpool in a huge Premier League battle at Villa Park.
Victory will lift Villa above Fulham into eighth position in the table, whilst Liverpool can move ten points clear at the summit with a win.
Team News
Villa could be without Leon Bailey after the Jamaica international missed their 1-1 draw against Ipswich with a knock.
Boubacar Kamara (muscle) is ruled out of selection for this game.
Ezri Konsa (muscle), Amadou Onana (thigh), Ross Barkley, Matty Cash (both calf) and Pau Torres (metatarsal) remain sidelined,
Liverpool will welcome midfielder, Curtis Jones back after he was suspended for their 2-1 home win over Wolves.
Cody Gakpo (knock) is a doubt but Joe Gomez (hamstring) remains absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Villa host Liverpool at Villa Park on Wednesday 19 February at 7:30pm GMT, live on TNT Sports 2 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Villa are winless in their last eight league meetings against Liverpool (D2, L6).
- Liverpool have lost one of their last six league visits to Villa (W4, D1, L1).
- In 59 previous Premier League meetings in this fixture, both Villa and Liverpool have had two players red carded.
- Villa are looking to avoid going five consecutive league games without a win for the second time this season, having done so between October – December 2024.
- Liverpool have won two of their last three away games in the top-flight by 2-0 results which came at Brentford and Bournemouth respectively, whilst they drew 2-2 at Everton in their recent away game.
Prediction
After a gutsy battle to a draw against Ipswich amidst wasteful finishing touches despite their dominance, Villa really need to be more clinical if they want to get anything out of this game because Liverpool otherwise will punish them if they are again sloppy.
Liverpool however were lucky to cling on for their win against Wolves because they were excellent in the first half yet their energy levels seemed to dip after half-time, which is a slight worry because Villa will likely be more clinical than Wolves were given the better attacking quality available.
This is also the Reds’ third game in a hectic run of fixtures with no real respite until March’s international break so finding a way to grind out results will be key, but I do think that Villa will have enough quality to nick a point here.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-1 Liverpool
Result: Aston Villa 2-2 Liverpool