Premier League: Slot Needs Answers and Quick as Villa Come to Town

Liverpool vs Aston Villa

Liverpool have only lost one of their last 14 clashes with Aston Villa but that run cannot go on forever and, should it come to an end this weekend, the pressure on the Merseysiders’ boss Arne Slot will ramp up a level

For the Premier League is an unforgiving environment at the best of times, even for the defending champions, and without putting too fine a point on it, the Dutch manager needs a win now more than ever.

Talking Points

Disrespect or common sense – how do you judge the team selection by Slot in their midweek League Cup hammering at home to Crystal Palace in midweek?

Some might think it made sense to rest most of his big players ahead of two home games in four days against Villa and Real Madrid but with such a lavishly assembled squad to choose from, even with a few absentees it was still a surprise to see quite such a weakened team selected.

That result has only added to the pressure on a manager who has overseen six defeats in his last seven games in all competitions.

You suspect the Merseysiders have too much quality in their ranks for their run of form to continue but it has left Slot desperately hoping for some Premier League 2025 highlights this Saturday night.

The turnaround in fortunes over the past month for both the big pre-season title favourites and Unai Emery’s Villa has been telling.

Aston Villa will look for ways to defeat Liverpool in this weekend’s Premier League match — Aston Villa defender Matty Cash celebrates after scoring against Manchester City in the Premier League

By contrast, after a slow start to the season, the Midlanders are flying and last weekend was their fourth successive Premier League win. At the same time it ended Manchester City’s own nine game unbeaten run.

It’s widely known that Villa are unrecognisable since the Spaniard took over from Steven Gerrard in 2022 and, after failing to win any of their first six games this season, scoring just twice during that run, have improved markedly since with six victories in their last seven matches.

They have also become the only team in top-flight history to have a five-game winless start in the league and then win the next four games since Preston in 1936-37.

Emery has faced a difficult task to juggle his resources but they are doing far better than many expected and last Sunday was their third straight league victory over City at a buoyant Villa Park – last doing so in 1960 and 1975 – and the fans are fully behind their manager after their slow start to the campaign.

As for Liverpool, it is clear the League Cup was not the priority for them this season.

But Slot’s comments in midweek that his squad doesn’t have as much depth as he’d like, will not wash with many given their £440 million summer outlay.

As a result, failure to defeat Villa will increase the pressure tenfold and would be their worst since 1953 when they lost five league games in a row.

History

Their most recent meeting in February at Villa Park finished 2-2 and who could forget their meeting in May last year when Jhon Duran became an instant hero and sparked a series of puns relating to the famous British pop group Duran Duran.

A six-goal thriller seemed to be heading the way of the visitors who led 3-1 with five minutes remaining, thanks to an own goal, Cody Gapko and young defender Jarell Quansah.

In his penultimate game in charge, Jurgen Klopp seemed a happy man.

However, a double from Duran, after an early Youri Tielemans equaliser, had Villa Park rocking in one of the games of the season.

When I think of this game, I am also reminded of a contest in 2020 as Villa hit seven to humble the then defending champions at Villa Park under the management of Dean Smith.

Villa have beaten Liverpool on 59 occasions since their very first meeting in 1894. Liverpool have won 103 times, while 42 of the meetings have ended all square.

That also includes the Merseysiders winning 34 of the 58 top-flight clashes, such as this corresponding fixture last season when goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah earned Liverpool a 2-0 home win.