Paul Merson is expecting goals aplenty and a ‘fun game to watch’ when Liverpool travel to face Aston Villa in the Premier League on Monday night.
The fixture marks Jurgen Klopp’s penultimate game in charge of the Reds and his last away match, with the teams approaching the kick-off in broadly similar league positions but contrasting circumstances.
We’re all but guaranteed to finish third and go to the Midlands on a winning note after beating Tottenham last Sunday, whereas Unai Emery’s fourth-place side will be seeking to put their meek Europa Conference League exit of Thursday night behind them.
In his weekly Premier League predictions column for Sportskeeda, Merson wrote: “Liverpool will just go out and try to open up the game as they aren’t playing for anything, so I think this will be a fun game to watch…I’m going for a 2-2 draw.”
With two of our last four top-flight away matches resulting in 2-2 draws, Merson’s prediction seems like a quite plausible one, and his expectation for both teams to score is definitely true to the form book.
The Reds haven’t kept a clean sheet in nine Premier League games since a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest in early March, but have only been kept out in three of their 36 top-flight outings during the current campaign.
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The fixture comes as something of a free swing for us, with the firm possibility that we’ll be guaranteed not to finish any lower or higher than third by the time it kicks off, and unfortunately no cup finals in the pipeline.
By contrast, Villa go into the match knowing that victory will see them qualify for the Champions League for the first time since the competition’s rebranding in 1992, so they won’t be short of motivation to consign Liverpool to a third top-flight defeat in four weeks.
The pressure might be off for the Reds, but rest assured that everyone representing the away side at Villa Park tomorrow night will be striving to give their all as the clock ticks ever closer to Klopp’s farewell next Sunday, while there’ll also be a new boss to impress in the near future!
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