Unai Emery is relishing Wednesday’s meeting against Premier League leaders Liverpool, preparing his Aston Villa side to host the “best team in Europe”.
Liverpool are seven points clear of second-placed Arsenal, who will have a game in hand over Arne Slot’s side after this upcoming trip to Villa Park.
Wolves produced a spirited display in Liverpool’s last outing, though the league leaders still scraped to a 2-1 win at Anfield after Luis Diaz’s opener and a Mohamed Salah penalty.
Emery lauded Slot’s side as the best on the continent, though that will not distract the Villa boss from the upcoming task at hand.
“We are excited, how we will face them,” Emery said on Tuesday. “Now, Liverpool, they are the best team in Premier League, they are the best team in Europe and of course being 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 trying to get confidence for ourselves.
“But we are excited, and hopefully we can share tomorrow an exciting moment with our supporters in Villa Park.”
The top two are on the longest undefeated runs
Only Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton, Spurs and Fulham are unbeaten in their last two or more matches! pic.twitter.com/4vtPsRn6h1
— Premier League (@premierleague) February 18, 2025
Emery’s side were held to a frustrating 1-1 draw with relegation-threatened Ipswich Town in their last outing, leaving them ninth in the table.
“Of course, we are demanding of ourselves, how we increase our demands, our objective, but when we are not getting those objectives during the way, we are being frustrated, but we have to accept it,” Emery said of that performance.
“The last match we played at home against Ipswich Town, we faced one team, they were resilient and defended well.
“We have the opportunity as well to take information after that match. Liverpool is going to 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 forward has failed to score in his last four league games against Wednesday’s visitors, however, after striking five times across his first five meetings with Liverpool.
Liverpool – Mohamed Salah
Salah has already broken the record for the most goal involvements away from home in a single Premier League campaign, with 14 goals and nine assists taking him to 23 in total this season.
The Liverpool star is also one away from becoming only the third player to assist 10+ goals in away games in a Premier League season, after Muzzy Izzet in 2003-04 (10) and Cesc Fabregas in 2014-15 (11).
pic.twitter.com/BzCfUfPsUf
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) February 18, 2025
MATCH PREDICTION – LIVERPOOL WIN
Unsurprisingly, the league leaders are backed as the favourites by the Opta supercomputer for this clash, owing to their dominant form and head-to-head record with Emery’s side.
Villa have won just one of their last 14 Premier League games against Liverpool (D2 L11), though that was a 7-2 victory at Villa Park in October 2020, in front of no supporters due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
Expect goals, too, given the last seven Premier League meetings between these two sides at Villa Park have produced a total of 33 goals, an average of 4.7 per game.
Liverpool have scored at least twice in all seven of these games (20 goals in total), most recently sharing a 3-3 draw in this exact fixture last season.
Slot’s side will fancy their chances of gaining all three points here, too, since they have not failed to win back-to-back away league games against Villa since December 2004.
Their away record is also impressive, remaining as the only Premier League side this term yet to lose on the road (W9 D4). There have only been five top-flight instances when a team has avoided defeat in their first 14 games from the start of a campaign, and Liverpool will hope to become the sixth on Wednesday.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Aston Villa win – 26.8%
Draw – 23.8%
Liverpool win – 49.4%
