Aston Villa will head to Anfield on the back of four dismal results, their latest coming against Club Brugge – and ex-Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.
Villa began the campaign in strong form – including a 1-0 victory over Bayern Munich in the Champions League – but an expanded fixture list looks to already be taking its toll.
Ahead of their trip to Liverpool on Saturday night, Unai Emery’s side are now on a run of four games without a win and now three consecutive defeats.
After a last-minute collapse to draw 1-1 with Bournemouth they exited the Carabao Cup at the hands of Crystal Palace, before a 4-1 thrashing away to Tottenham.
Wednesday night brought their fourth game of the Champions League, having gone into the gameweek as one of only two sides to have won all three of their previous fixtures along with Liverpool.
But while the Reds were able to comfortably see off Bayer Leverkusen at Anfield, Villa suffered a 1-0 defeat away to Club Brugge.
It came in bizarre circumstances, with Tyrone Mings picking up the ball in the penalty area after a short goal kick from Emi Martinez – the centre-back thinking he was taking it himself.
There was no sympathy from the referee and Hans Vanaken stepped up from the penalty spot to put Club Brugge ahead early in the second half.
Club Brugge dominated after that, seeing out a 1-0 victory to ensure Liverpool are now the only side with a 100 percent record in this season’s Champions League.
Mignolet, who left Anfield to return to Belgium in 2019, made his 260th start for Club Brugge, keeping his 101st clean sheet.
It was a quiet night for the goalkeeper, who according to FotMob faced just 0.09 expected goals on target – in other words, Villa had a nine percent chance of scoring with their attempts on target in total.
Liverpool will be minded not to underestimate Villa, of course, but the form guide shows two teams in very different moods heading into Saturday.
Arne Slot‘s side have won 11 of their last 12 games, drawing the other away to Arsenal, while Villa’s winless run will make the underdogs.
To make matters worse, Emery is currently without both Matty Cash and Ross Barkley due to injury – though, of course, Liverpool have their own problems with Alisson, Diogo Jota, Harvey Elliott and Federico Chiesa all out.
