It’s been a chaotic start to the season from the Reds, who battled to a tough opening-day draw at Chelsea before thrilling comeback victories against Bournemouth and Newcastle on back-to-back weekends.
Their triumph on Tyneside seven days ago was particularly memorable, with Jurgen Klopp hailing one of the best results of his long and illustrious managerial career as his side withstood the first-half dismissal of captain Virgil van Dijk to hang in at only 1-0 down before substitute Darwin Nunez struck twice in the final 12 minutes to deliver an incredible three points.
Liverpool face another tough test this weekend at Anfield against free-scoring Villa, who bounced back from a hammering at Newcastle on matchday one to see off both Everton and Burnley and also booked their place in the Europa Conference League group stage with an emphatic 8-0 aggregate defeat of Scottish side Hibernian.
It is because of Villa’s involvement in the Conference League play-off round that their clash with Liverpool is taking place today at all.
Originally this game was due to be a 3pm BST kick-off on Saturday afternoon having not been selected for live television coverage in the UK.
But Villa’s second (home) leg against Hibs meant it had to be moved into an early Sunday afternoon slot instead, with current rules dictating that a moved game originally not chosen for TV coverage cannot then be picked up for live broadcast in its new time.
Instead, Sky Sports will be showing the match between Crystal Palace and Wolves at Selhurst Park at 2pm before the biggest match of the weekend takes place between Arsenal and Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium.
However, you can follow full live coverage of Liverpool vs Aston Villa at Anfield with Standard Sport’s live blog this afternoon.
