Liverpool have won six of their last seven Premier League home games against Aston Villa (D1), having been winless against them in four at Anfield before this (D2 L2).

Aston Villa have won just one of their last 15 Premier League games against Liverpool (D3 L11), a 7-2 victory at Villa Park in October 2020.

Aston Villa have won just one of their 30 Premier League away games against reigning champions (D5 L24), beating Man Utd 1-0 at Old Trafford in December 2009. The Villans have lost their last 11 such games, conceding 35 goals in the process.

Liverpool are looking to avoid losing five consecutive league matches for the first time since September 1953 – they are the first side in English top-flight history to win their first five matches in a season but then lose each of their next four.

While no side is on a longer losing run in the Premier League than Liverpool (4), no side is on a longer winning run than Aston Villa (4). The Villans could become the second side in top-flight history to win none of their first five games in a season then win five in a row, after Preston North End in 1936-37.

Liverpool have lost their last four Premier League matches, with Leicester in 2016-17 the only reigning champions to lose five in a row. In top-flight history there has been seven occasions a reigning champion has lost five games in a row and three have been Liverpool (in 1906-07, 1923-24 and 1947-48).

Liverpool’s opponents have played 571 long passes against them in the Premier League this season, the most any side have faced, while that works out as 20.5% of their opponents’ passes coming via long passes, also the highest percentage any side has faced.

Having beaten Manchester City 1-0 last time out, Aston Villa could become the first team since Leicester’s title-winners in February 2016 to beat Man City and Liverpool in consecutive matches (2-0 vs Liverpool, 3-1 vs Man City). The last side to beat Man City and then Liverpool in that order were Sheffield Wednesday in November/December 1993.

Mohamed Salah has 275 goals and assists combined in the Premier League for Liverpool (187 goals, 88 assists), one behind the record for a single club, set by Wayne Rooney at Manchester United (183 goals, 93 assists).

Only Bournemouth (6) have scored more Premier League goals from outside the box this season than Aston Villa (5), with Matty Cash responsible for two of those, making the Villa full-back one of four players with multiple goals from distance this season (also Antoine Semenyo, Danny Welbeck and Moisés Caicedo on two).