Preview: Aston Villa vs. Liverpool

Liverpool look to head into the international break with a
fourth straight Premier League win when they travel to take on
Aston Villa.

ASTON VILLA VS. LIVERPOOL

| Sunday, October 4th| Premier League | Villa Park7:15PM
GMT/2:15PM EST

On Friday night, news that Livepool’s beloved winger, Sadio
Mané, tested positive for COVID-19 rocked Reds’ fans who had
otherwise been looking forward to seeing Liverpool travel to Villa Park on Sunday evening. Mané
is the third Liverpool player to test positive and go into
quarantine since the season began.

Nonetheless, the show must go on, and so the rest of the team
remains focused on extending their perfect run in the Premier
League against Aston Villa.

This is the final match before the October international break.
Maintaining good momentum into the break is always very useful,
especially this break where tensions will be running higher than
usual due to pandemic concerns.

Aston Villa have only played two league games this season, but
they’ve won both and kept two clean sheets against Fulham and
Sheffield United. This is a significant change in
fortunes in the early going of this season, compared to Dean
Smith’s side last season when they barely escaped relegation.

New Liverpool player Diogo Jota will likely get his first
Premier League start due to the absence of Mané in the line up.
Jota opened his account with the team within 10 minutes of being
substituted into the game against Arsenal. There will be some excitement to see how Jota
slots into that attack with Salah and Firmino for 90 minutes.

Projected Liverpool Lineup (4-3-3)

Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson;
Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Keita; Salah, Firmino, Jota

In addition to Mané, new player Thiago Alcantara is also in
quarantine from a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. Joel Matip, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Kostas Tsimikas are
all injured. Captain Jordan Henderson is doubtful, but would start
on the bench, if at all.

For Villa, Engels , Heaton, Wesley and Nyland will all be
missing.

What the Managers Had to Say

Jurgen Klopp: “All teams got stronger with the
signings they made and Villa are one of these. Other teams improved
massively, so we have to improve so we can be in a similar
position.”

Dean Smith: “Everybody is beatable on the day.
We’ve just got beaten by a Championship team, so that proves
everybody is beatable. Their cumulative record over the past two
seasons is incredible with the points tally that they’ve got. Them
and Manchester City have been way out ahead of
everybody over the last two years.”

The Officials

Referee: Martin Atkinson.
Assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis, Richard West.
Fourth official: David Coote.
VAR: Jonathan Moss. Assistant
VAR: Stephen Child.

Kickoff is set for 7:15PM GMT/2:15PM EST tomorrow, and
television listings for the match can be found on LiveSoccerTV. In the meantime,
we’ll be keeping you updated with all the buildup to the game,
including team news as it’s released, our live matchday thread, and
post-match recaps from The Liverpool Offside staff. If you want to
join the discussion, sign up for an SB Nation account to have your
say on the action as it happens.