<!-- Article Start -->
My old club Liverpool bounced back from their disappointing
opening day defeat at Tottenham to rout Stoke 4-0 in midweek. Next
up is an Aston Villa side who still seem to still be suffering from
a hangover from last season’s poor end to the campaign. Rafa
Benitez’ will be pleased to see how his team responded in midweek
and they should be strong favourites this weekend as Villa look a
weaker side than they did last season.
I was surprised at Villa’s defeat by Wigan but I wouldn’t be
surprised if they were beaten at Anfield as their record against
the Reds is not great. Aston Villa haven’t beaten Liverpool in
their last 15 league clashes dating back to September 2001. This is
a run of 9 defeats and 6 draws.
From what I’ve seen of both teams so far this season, I can’t
believe that poor run is about to come to an end. Liverpool won
this fixture 5-0 back in March after a Steven Gerrard hat-trick and
he will be the man Villa need to watch out for again. After all, he
has scored more goals against them (9) than any other team.
Villa need to recapture their early season form of last season
when they produced some superb away results. However, the Villans
have not won any of their last six away trips after previously
winning seven on the bounce. The loss of Martin Laursen and Gareth
Barry has left the team far more open defensively as both were key
players in Martin O’Neill’s side. They were also two of the more
experienced members of last season’s squad which suggests they may
lack leadership and presence on the field.
Liverpool’s record at Anfield is very good; it’s been nearly 5
years since they last lost a home Premier League game to any team
other than Chelsea or Manchester United and that was against
Villa’s fierce rivals Birmingham. They’ve also been scoring goals
for fun at Anfield too with 23 goals netted in the last six Premier
League games so Villa face a real stern test particularly from
Fernando Torres. The Spaniard has now scored six goals in his last
4 games at Anfield.
The momentum is with Liverpool so I’m backing Rafa’s team to win
this match on Premier 10.