Three points down, only another hundred and eleven to go. There’s nothing wrong with a little bit – or even a lot – of early season optimism, despite what some people might tell you.
Today we face an Aston Villa team that, for the majority of last season, struggled to claw themselves away from the relegation trap door. This afternoon’s match will be played at Villa Park where last season we came from 1-0 down to come away with a 2-1 win. Having said that, Paul Lambert’s young side have started this season off fairly impressively. Beating Arsenal at the Emirates last Saturday and pushing Chelsea – regarded by many as favourites for the title – close at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. Villa won the match at the Emirates by demonstrating a quick, direct counter-attacking strategy. I would expect Villa to implement the same strategy today as their effective counter-attacking played a significant part in their 3-1 win at Anfield in late 2012. In terms of players to look out for Christian Benteke is the obvious choice, 19 league goals last season and he already has 3 in his first two games of this term – what second season syndrome? Benteke’s partners in crime Andreas Weimann and Gabriel Agbonlahor will both offer pace, incisive movement and will be big goal threats in their own right down either flank. The midfielder Fabian Delph was outstanding against Arsenal.
I expect Brendan Rodgers to go with the same Liverpool line-up he fielded last week at Stoke. Lucas and Jordan Henderson will be especially important in preventing Villa’s counter-attacks while Coutinho was the main man at Villa Park in March and should get some joy again today, especially with Sturridge and Aspas offering frequent, intelligent movement. Kolo Toure put in an encouraging performance against Stoke and it looks as if he’ll be part of the first choice defence for the time being, alongside Daniel Agger, Jose Enrique and Glen Johnson. Aly Cissokho, a left-back, arrived on loan from Valencia this week but Rodgers seemed to indicate in his latest press conference that the Frenchman will initially be playing second fiddle to Enrique: “if anything happens to Jose he can come straight into the team and fight for the position.”
My prediction: Aston Villa 1-2 Liverpool
Although Aston Villa look a much more threatening team these days, Liverpool should be beating them and, after last week’s performance against Stoke, I expect them to. Though Aston Villa offer plenty going forward and I wouldn’t be surprised if they got on the scoresheet.
Below are my five top betting tips for the game courtesy of BetVictor. Good luck!
- Liverpool to win 2-1 –>Bet On This Market HERE
- Daniel Sturridge First Goal Scorer –> Bet On This Market HERE
- Sturridge to score anytime –> Bet On This Market HERE
- Villa to score first –> Bet On This Market HERE
- Benteke to score anytime –> Bet On This Market HERE
