- Benteke scored 3 PL goals vs. Liverpool last season, more than any other player
- Only Manchester United have beaten Villa more times than Liverpool’s 10 wins at Villa Park
- Steven Gerrard has scored more goals against the Villans than any other team
Aston Villa and Liverpool will battle it out at Villa Park on Saturday at 12:30pm ET (watch live on NBC and via NBC Sports Live Extra) in England’s second city.
Villa have had an extremely good start to the 2013-14 campaign and were very unlucky to lose against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, just four days after their terrific 3-1 win against Arsenal at the Emirates last Saturday.
As for Liverpool, they outplayed Stoke City for pretty much the entire game at Anfield in the opening game of the Premier League season early last weekend, but almost threw three points away late on.
Daniel Sturridge’s first half strike proved enough for Brendan Rodgers’ men but a whole host of missed chances almost proved costly as newly acquired Belgian ‘keeper Simon Mignolet had to save a last-minute penalty to preserve the win.
This game should be a real battle but good to watch. Paul Lambert’s young Villa side like to stroke the ball around and they will be eager to impress their home fans. Villa have had an incredibly tough start to the season, but two wins from three games against Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool would be a fantastic return.
While the Reds will be gunning to make an impression and win big at Villa Park. They are still without the suspended Luis Suárez and his fellow Uruguayan international Sebastien Coates, as the defender was ruled out of the entire season with a cruciate ligament injury. However their star man in the 1-0 win over Stoke was Brazilian playmaker Philippe Coutinho cutting in form the left, Villa will have to keep a close eye on him.
For Villa Christian Benteke has already scored three goals in two games and will be a real handful for Kolo Toure and Daniel Agger. Injury wise for the home side, Nathan Baker look set to miss out with an ankle injury, while Ciaran Clark should return after a nasty face wound.
You can watch it all unfold live on NBC at 12:30pm ET and online via NBC Sports Live Extra.
What they’re saying
Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert: “We go into the Liverpool game with a lot of confidence. All you can ask is going into a game with a positive mindset that we can win. Brendan Rogers has a really good Liverpool side. We had two good games with them last season. I’m sure this will be no different. The two teams play football. We will see what happens. It will be a great occasion.”
Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge: “They’re a good team, they’ve got good individuals and it’s not going to be an easy game for us. We won there last season, but it’s a new season now – they’ve got a point to prove, we’ve got a point to prove. It’s going to be a very good game for everyone to watch. But I’m going into the game with a positive attitude, just like all the boys are, and we’ll go out there and do our best.”
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers on Aston Villa: “They are very fast, energetic players. Andreas Weimann makes good runs and has a knack for a goal, it is about trying to control the counter-attack. But our focus is really on our own game. Our mind is very good at the moment. The players are continuing from last season and we just want to keep that going. We will go into this game with good confidence but expecting Aston Villa to be a good team and we’ll have to work hard to get a result.”
Prediction
If I had to stick my neck out on the line here, I would say a narrow Liverpool win. But it will be an incredibly entertaining game and I do expect to see plenty of goals. Villa will look to strike early and that may knock Liverpool off their stride, but if the likes of Steven Gerrard and Coutinho get on the ball, it could be game over for Benteke and co.
