Aston Villa & Liverpool go head-to-head this weekend - who will come out on top?
Aston Villa and Liverpool lock horns this weekend and a cracker of a match should be expected.
Villa's impressive win over Arsenal on the opening day of the season was followed by a battling display at Stamford Bridge, however bad luck and some poor decisions cost Villa as they eventually lost 2-1 to Jose Mourinho's Chelsea.
Despite that, Villa are certainly are looking like top 10 finishers this season with Christian Benteke spearheading the attack with three goals in the opening two games.
As for Liverpool, a promising performance against Stoke City, without star striker Luis Suarez, will have given the Anfield crowd a reason to be hopeful and the late penalty save by new keeper Simon Mignolet will have given the Belgian plenty of confidence after a nervy start.
Both teams seem to have a similar attack minded style of play which could lead to a few goals on Saturday - the key will be who can put those chances away.
That in-particular applies to Liverpool who, despite having 26 attempts at goal - 11 of which were on target, only put one in the net.
The bigger factor will be fatigue for Villa who certainly have the hardest opening three games of any team this season, the fluid passing of Arsenal and the tactical nous of Chelsea followed by the similarly passing game of Liverpool will, in the space of a week, catch up with some Villa players.
How will the teams line-up?
I suspect Aston Villa will keep with the 4-3-3 formation with Benteke, the pace of Gabriel Agbonlahor and Andreas Weimann up front, Ciaran Clark was substituted in the first half after sustaining a head injury, it is unknown if he will be okay to play on Saturday, if not Jores Okore, the man who replaced him, would be called up.
As for Liverpool, again I suspect the squad will be largely unchanged from the line-up against Stoke, after impressive displays in the U21 win against Manchester United earlier in the week, Jordan Ibe and Fabio Borini may get a look in should the front three of Philippe Coutinho, Daniel Sturridge and Iago Aspas fail to produce the goals.
Liverpool won the corresponding fixture last season 2-1 and that is my prediction for this time, I think the Reds have a little more fire power up front and should Lucas and the back four keep Benteke quiet I think Liverpool should make it two wins from two
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