Tough game for Aston villa will be battle Liverpool as a contender EPL this season. All the best both this team.
Aston Villa was beaten in two of the three competitive H2Hs vs Liverpool last season, and in fact, they’ve lost four of the previous five matches against the Merseysiders – conceding an average of 2.6 goals per game across those five meetings. But that is, as they say, in the past, and this season the ‘Villans’ have got off to a bright start in the Premier League (PL), winning their first two matches. In perspective, they had five points after seven PL rounds last season.
To continue the plaudits, Villa is the only PL side yet to concede a goal this season.
They kept seven clean sheets last season, but none of those came against teams that finished in the top seven spots. In these matches (vs ‘Top seven’) they were worse for wear, conceding 2.79 goals on average across 14 matches, and conceding 2+ goals in 13 of them.
Enter reigning champions Liverpool, who’ve won all three league matches so far whilst scoring 3.0 goals on average per game. The first half, in particular, should be entertaining, as six of Liverpool’s last eight PL matches have featured both teams scoring before HT.
Liverpool won 12 of their first 15 PL away matches (D2, L1) in 2019/20. Two-thirds of those wins came by a single-goal margin, with 2-1 the most common result (five times). Last season’s corresponding league clash ended 2-1, with Liverpool recovering from 1-0 down via a brace of late goals (87’, 90+4’).
Players to watch Villa talisman Jack Grealish got off the mark with a first-half goal in the last round. Meanwhile, Liverpool’s new signing Diogo Jota scored the club’s 400th PL goal on his debut under Jürgen Klopp in the last round of league action and might get another chance at some stage after Sadio Mané tested positive for Covid-19.
Hot stat: Liverpool were ahead at HT in 64.23% of their PL away wins last season.
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