Next Saturday, 13th of September 2014, Liverpool will take on Aston Villa at the emblematic Anfield Road for round 4 of the English Premier League.

It was a Liverpool side with great attacking verve the team that hammered Tottenham 3-0 at White Hart Lane last week. The Reds managed to bounce back from a painful defeat at the hands of Manchester City during the previous round and built a comfortable result against a Spurs’ team that had been unbeaten at the Premier League up until then.

Liverpool’s new attacking man, the erratic Mario Balotelli, wasted several goal chances throughout the match and was unable to erase, from the supporters’ minds, the quality of their previous sharpshooter, Luis Suárez, in front of the goal.

The Reds only needed less than ten minutes to open the score against a team that had not yet conceded any goals on their first two matches and such an early advantage caused some unrest at the Spurs defence line, something that Liverpool knew how to explore perfectly.

For the next home match against Aston Villa, Liverpool’s boss, Brendan Rodgers, will probably still not be able to count on the contribution of Henderson, Flanagan, Johnson, Daniel Sturridge and Martin Skrtel, all sidelined due to injury.

As for Aston Villa, the team from Birmingham are going through a very positive moment at the English Premier League, with two wins and one draw on their previous matches. Last weekend, Paul Lambert’s boys managed to bounce back from their Cup match slip up against Leyton Orient and granted a very important home win when they faced the always complicated Hull side. Villa ended the match with only ten men, after Ron Vlaar abandoned the pitch due to injury, but they managed to hold their narrow 2-1 win until the final whistle.

Paul Lambert received some good news after the end of the transfer window as he learnt that he would be able to count on the services of the English international Tom Cleverley, who arrived on a short term loan from Manchester United.

For the match against the Reds, Lambert will not be able to rely on the contribution of some important players, such as Benteke, Ron Vlaar and Kozak, all of them sidelined due to injury.

When both sides measured forces at Anfield Road last season, the visitors granted a very important 2-2 draw thanks to goals from Weimann and Benteke.

Although the Villans are going through a good moment at the English Premier League, Liverpool are to be considered firm favourites for the next Saturday’s match.

Liverpool

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

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Aston Villa

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

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Possible Line-ups

Liverpool (4-3-3) – Mignolet - Manquillo - Sahko - Lovren - Moreno - Gerrard - Henderson - Coutinho - Allen - Sterling - Balotelli

Aston Villa (4-4-1-1) – Guzan - Hutton - Cissokho - Senderos - Okore - Westwood - Cleverley - Delph - N’Zogbia - Weimann - Agbonlahor

Prediction

Liverpool 2 Aston Villa 1