Date
11 December 2021
Time
10:00 ET Canada-USA | 17:00 Cairo Local Time
Venue
Anfield
Referee
Stuart Attwell (England)
Liverpool are set to welcome Aston Villa to Anfield on Saturday in the 16th round of the Premier League season.
It means they’ll get to see Steven Gerrard again, the hero who spent 17 years as their star, most of them as the captain. He is considered a club icon by every Reds supporter around the globe, but this time he comes as the man leading the opposing team. It’ll be up to both sides to put all emotion aside and try and win.
Regardless of the man in the visitors’ dugout, Liverpool should be extremely motivated against this particular opponent, having suffered arguably the most embarrassing defeat of the era under Jurgen Klopp at their hands last season at Villa Park. Quite apart from that, every point is vital for their ambition to win the title again.
As it stands, Liverpool are in second place at the moment with 34 points, one less than title defenders Manchester City at the top and one more than Champions League holders Chelsea in third, need some extra cash why not try your luck playing casino online?
The Merseysiders have been on fine form lately. The defeat away to West Ham, the only they’ve endured this season in any competition so far, is now far away, and they won all of their last six matches. The run starts with a 4-0 home triumph over Arsenal. Then they beat FC Porto in the Champions League, also at home, by 2-0. Then Southampton came to Anfield and suffered the same result as Arsenal. They beat city rivals Everton away in the Merseyside Derby by 1-4, Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Molineux by 0-1, and eventually, AC Milan at San Siro by 1-2 earlier this week.
It was a heavily rotated side that took on the Rossoneri due to the fact that Liverpool had already secured the top spot in their group. Nonetheless, after former Chelsea defender Fikayo Tomori broke the deadlock after 28 minutes, Mohamed Salah equalized in the 36th and Divock Origi, the hero of the win over Wolves a few days earlier, snatched the win for his team in the 55th, condemning the seven-time European champions to play domestic football for the rest of the season.
Aston Villa
Aston Villa invested significant funds into their team during the last couple of transfer windows, though the overall impression of them strengthening was marred by the departure of Jack Grealish, their arguably best player in recent years, to Manchester City at the end of this summer. Still, you don’t get £100 million for one player every day, do you?
Their season started decently enough, not great, but not too bad either. However, a run of five defeats in a row starting in early October and ending in early November eventually caused the club to part ways with Dean Smith and prize Gerrard away from Rangers to take his place. The former Liverpool and England captain has managed to stabilize the team to an extent, with every player obviously keen to prove himself in his eyes.
Villa’s last six matches include a 1-4 defeat at home to West Ham, followed by another, 1-0 away to Southampton, which was Smith’s last game in charge. The Gerrard era began with a 2-0 triumph at home over Brighton and Hove Albion. Then came a 1-2 win away to Crystal Palace, a 1-2 defeat at home against Manchester City, and a 2-1 win at home over Leicester City, led by Gerrard’s former manager at Liverpool and subsequent rival in Scotland, Brendan Rodgers.
Villa are 10th in the league table at the moment, with the same number of points (19) as the Foxes in 11th. They will be pleased about the fact that they are closer to West Ham in fourth place with 27 points, than Burnley, Newcastle and Norwich City, who form the relegation zone with 10 points each.
LIVE: Liverpool vs Aston Villa | Premier League
10:00 ET Canada-USA | 17:00 Cairo Local Time
