Liverpool v Aston Villa: Premier League – live | Premier League

Unai Emery speaks to TNT. “We are managing every player … we are confident with Ollie Watkins … even if he is not scoring he is successful in everything we need … he is very important not only for scoring goals but everything else as well … Jhon Duran is getting comfortable … hopefully we can use both … our support is fantastic … we are playing for them.”

Tonight’s 5.30pm kick-off has just finished … and, now then, how about this for a result … Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 Manchester City. That’s the four-in-a-row champions’ fourth defeat in a row in all competitions. City haven’t been on such a miserable run since the spring of 2006, when Stuart Pearce was manager and Micah Richards was an 18-year-old prodigy just breaking through. That run eventually stretched to six defeats on the spin, and when they snapped that sorry sequence they went and lost their next four as well. Don’t expect things to pan out like that again this time, even if their next three games are against Spurs, Feyenoord and … Liverpool, who now have a chance to stretch their lead at the top of the Premier League table to five points.

Slot also goes some way to explaining why Liverpool have been slow starters in most matches this season, picking up speed significantly in the second half. “There are many things we can do better … the threshold is quite high for us … I see that certain things are done better by other teams than us … you wonder which ones? … that’s what we talk about during the week … hopefully we keep improving … it’s necessary in a difficult league like this … Xabi Alonso has played the same style for one, two years I think … he came here playing Boniface as a left winger … that is a compliment to our players … every team that comes here feels they need a special plan … the good thing for us is that’s mostly the first time they play it, so you could argue it’s not an advantage for them to do that … but they feel it’s an advantage … in the first half we have to adjust a bit … then it’s a disadvantage for us that we have only worked together for three or four months, because if you work with a team for three or four years, you’ve faced every system … everyone just knows what to do … sometimes now we need half-time for that … but it’s a matter of time before we’re adjusting faster than that.”

Arne Slot speaks to TNT Sports. “Everyone has mainly focused on our results, which have been good … you also enjoy your time if you work with people that you really like and the staff and everybody at Liverpool welcomed me and my staff a lot … if you then also have the results then you enjoy your time at the club … I expected Luis Diaz to do well but to do so well was even for me a bit of a surprise … if you have four attackers like we have, you are always a bit tempted, who should you play? … Cody has played so many games that we thought these three should be the best pick … we will know after the game if that was the right choice to make … in every decision a lot goes into it … confidence … how much they have played recently … this is now the second time Curtis has been lined up … Macca had some rest in the League Cup game … Szoboszlai would have been a good pick as well … ideally we will start the game like we end it … but that is easier said than done … our opponent is also really fresh when the game starts.”

Liverpool make two changes to their starting XI from the 4-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday. Darwin Núñez and Andrew Robertson replace Cody Gakpo and Kostas Tsimikas.

Aston Villa make four changes after their 1-0 defeat at Club Brugge on Wednesday. Pau Torres, Lucas Digne, Amadou Onana and Jacob Ramsey come in for Ian Maatsen, Boubacar Kamara, the unfortunate Tyrone Mings, and captain John McGinn.

Liverpool: Kelleher, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, van Dijk, Robertson, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Salah, Jones, Diaz, Nunez.
Subs: Jaros, Gomez, Endo, Szoboszlai, Gakpo, Tsimikas, Quansah, Morton, Bradley.

Aston Villa: Martinez, Konsa, Diego Carlos, Torres, Digne, Onana, Tielemans, Bailey, Rogers, Ramsey, Watkins.
Subs: Olsen, Mings, McGinn, Duran, Buendia, Philogene-Bidace, Maatsen, Bogarde, Kamara.

Referee: David Coote (Nottinghamshire)
OUR: Paul Tierney (Lancashire)

Liverpool, top of the table at home and in Europe, and with 14 wins from their first 16 games in all competitions this season, are on a roll. Aston Villa were going pretty well for a while back there too, until letting in a last-gasp equaliser at home to Bournemouth, since when they’ve lost three on the bounce, albeit in three different competitions. But despite all that, Unai Emery’s out-of-sorts side remain sixth in the Premier League, bang-slap in the thick of things, so tonight’s showdown at Anfield still qualifies as a top-of-the-table clash. There are usually goals when these folk meet, too – recent 4-1 and 6-0 wins for Liverpool, a 5-0 and that 7-2 for Villa, a 3-3 draw last time out – and so while tonight’s kick-off time is a tad weird, the anticipation levels are nevertheless bubbling up nicely. Can you feel it? To borrow a line from the Great Danish Songbook: Saturday night, the air is getting hot, dee dee na na na. Kick-off is at 8pm GMT. It’s on!