Unai Emery enjoys Wednesday's meeting against Premier League leaders Liverpool and prepares his Aston Villa side for the “Best Team in Europe”.
Liverpool is seven points free from second place Arsenal, who will have a competition in hand on the side of Arne Slot after this coming trip to Villa Park.
Wolves produced a spicy display in the last outing of Liverpool, although the League leaders were still going to a 2-1 win in Anfield Schraapten after the opener of Luis Diaz and a Mohamed Salah-Penalty.
Emery praised Slot's side as the best on the continent, although that will not distract the villa boss from the coming task that must be performed.
“We are excited how we will face them,” said Emery Tuesday. “Now, Liverpool, they are the best team in Premier League, they are the best team in Europe and are of course very difficult.
“Our challenge tomorrow is how we can face them, how we can respond with our qualities against them, how we can play in this level to gain confidence for ourselves.
“But we are enthusiastic, and hopefully we can share an exciting moment tomorrow with our supporters in Villa Park.”
The top two are on the longest unbeaten runs
Only Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton, Spurs and Fulham are unbeaten in their last two or more competitions! pic.twitter.com/4vtpsrn6h1
– Premier League (@premierleague) February 18, 2025
Emery's side was held on to a frustrating 1-1 draw with relegation-threatened Ipswich city in their last outing, leaving them in the table ninth.
“Of course we demand ourselves how we increase our requirements, our objective, but if we don't get those goals, we are frustrated, but we have to accept it,” Emery said about those performance.
“The last game we played at home against Ipswich Town, we stood opposite one team, they were resilient and defended well.
“We also have the chance to take information after that match. Liverpool will be difficult, different.”
Players to watch
Aston Villa – Ollie Watkins
Watkins has scored five Premier League goals against Liverpool, only managing more against Brighton (seven) and Arsenal (six) in his career.
The England attacker did not score in his last four league matches against the visitors of Wednesday, after having beaten five times during his first five meetings with Liverpool.
Liverpool – Mohamed Salah
Salah has already broken the record for most target involvement away from home in a single Premier League campaign, with 14 goals and nine assists that bring him a total of 23 this season.
The Liverpool star is also a path of becoming only the third player who helps 10+ goals in Way matches in a Premier League season, after Muzzy Izzet in 2003-04 (10) and Cesc Fabegas in 2014-15 ( 11).
pic.twitter.com/bzcfufpsufufsufup
– Liverpool FC (@LFC) February 18, 2025
Match forecast – Liverpool Win
It is not surprising that the League leaders are supported as the favorites of the OPTA Supercomputer for this collision, because of their dominant form and right-to-head record with Emery's side.
Villa has only won one of their last 14 Premier League matches against Liverpool (D2 L11), although that was a 7-2 victory in Villa Park in October 2020, for no supporters due to the current COVID-19 outbreak.
Also expect goals, given the last seven Premier League meetings between these two parties in Villa Park, a total of 33 goals have produced an average of 4.7 per match.
Liverpool has scored at least twice in all seven of these games (a total of 20 goals), with the most recently shared a 3-3 draw in this exact game last season.
The side of Slot will also win all three points here, because they have no longer won back-to-back competition matches against Villa since December 2004.
Their road record is also impressive and this term remains this period that can still be losing on the road (W9 D4). There have only been five copies in which a team has avoided the defeat in their first 14 games from the start of a campaign, and Liverpool hopes to be the sixth on Wednesday.
Opta wins probability
Aston Villa Win – 26.8%
Drawing – 23.8%
Liverpool Win – 49.4%
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