Liverpool travel to the Midlands to face Aston Villa on Sunday knowing a win could move them to within two points of the Premier League top four.
Going up against Alex McLeish’s side won’t be easy with the former Birmingham boss making the Villans hard to beat this season. Since moving across the road from St Andrew’s McLeish has guided Villa to a reasonably positive start to the campaign with just four defeats in their 15 games leaving them just inside the top half of the table. It’s a far cry from the position they were in 12 months ago when staying out of the bottom three was the clubs primary objective with Frenchman Gerard Houllier at the helm. The decision to replace him with McLeish in the summer didn’t go down too well with the Villa supporters and whilst they are still unhappy with his defensive minded tactics they should be thanking him for steadying the ship. His decision to purchase Shay Given has proved to be very shrewd with the Irishman’s influence playing a huge part in solidifying a back four that leaked all over the place last season. He’s also managed to get the best out of Gabriel Agbonlahor whilst nurturing young talents like Chris Herd and Barry Bannan with both playing key roles in a pleasing first half of the campaign. Coming up against Liverpool at home will prove to be an extremely tough examination as to just how far Villa have come under McLeish. The Scot knows the quality the Reds have in attack and will need to set his side out accordingly to deal with Suarez and co.
That’s the man Kenny Dalglish will look too once again to provide the goals and inspiration that will fire his side close to the top four. Suarez was on hand once again last week to see off QPR and keep up Liverpool’s impressive form that has seen them lose just one of their last 10 games. Supporters are now daring to dream of finishing the season in a Champions League place with Dalglish building a side capable of challenging at the business end of the Premier League. Last seasons decline under Roy Hodgson is a distant memory now that King Kenny is at the helm although they’ll need to cut out the minor blips if they are to actually make achieve their ambitions of bringing European football back to Anfield. Many saw the victory at Chelsea and draw against Manchester City last month as a catalyst for Liverpool to push on and climb back towards the top of the Premier League. However defeat at Fulham a fortnight ago and the narrow win over QPR has seen the optimism levels drop back down despite the Red’s sitting just five points behind fourth placed Tottenham. Travelling to face Villa on Sunday won’t be an easy task and Dalglish will surely be making players aware that winning games like these are vital if they are to accomplish the aims and justify the hefty price tags on their heads.
Last Five: Won 1-0 v QPR (H),Lost 1-0 v Fulham(A), Drew 1-1 v Manchester City, Won 2-1 v Chelsea (A), Drew 0-0 v Swansea (H), Won 2-0 v West Brom (A)
Potential Starting X11: 25. P. Reina [C] 2. G. Johnson 5. D. Agger 37. M. Skrtel 3. J. Enrique 19. S. Downing 26. C. Adam 14. J. Henderson 18. D. Kuyt 7. L. Suarez* 39. C. Bellamy
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