Arne Slot’s Liverpool travelled to Birmingham last night to face Unai Emery’s Aston Villa who were winless in their last 4 league games going into the match.

The Reds were hoping to go 10 points clear of Arsenal but were held to a 2-2 draw at Villa Park, giving Arsenal the chance to close the gap if they beat West Ham this weekend.

Luis Diaz was involved in both of Liverpool’s goals in their win over Wolves, scoring the first and winning the penalty for the second but found himself on the bench for the fixture against Villa.

Inform Cody Gakpo was left out of the matchday squad and Reds boss Arne Slot says he is “not 100% sure” that the winger will be available for the crucial game against Manchester City on Sunday.

Slot also gave an update on Conor Bradley who came on as a substitute before being replaced by Jarell Quansah through injury, stating that he “would be completely surprised if he’s involved in the Sunday game or the Wednesday game against Newcastle.

“I wasn’t happy with the 2-2. I wasn’t happy being 2-1 down at half time.”

Darwin Nunez had the chance to put Liverpool ahead shortly after Trent Alexander-Arnold’s equaliser as he was presented with an open goal opportunity.

“It was a big chance, very unlucky. Of course, we were all disappointed but it’s normal that a player that missed a chance like this is always a bit more disappointed than the rest”

Reflecting on the draw, Alexis Mac Allister said “everyone is a little bit tired, no one will say it but we have to keep working, focus on resting and preparing for the next game because we have a really important game against Man City.”

Alexis Mac Allister scored when the sides faced off at Anfield last March (Image courtesy of Alamy Ltd)

Liverpool have played 5 games in under 2 weeks, leading to the rotation of Luis Diaz, early substitutions of Trent and Jota and the injury to Conor Bradley.

Liverpool play again in 3 days’ time against current champions Manchester City and then another 3 days after that at home to Newcastle United.

Both Liverpool and Manchester City will be hoping for a better result than they managed last night, with City crashing out of the Champions League after losing to Real Madrid 6-3 on aggregate.

The sides will face off at the Etihad at 16:30 on Sunday.

You can read more about the game against Manchester City below as well as Everton’s fixture against Manchester United.

Merseyside vs Manchester: A Premier League Preview

Featured image courtesy of Alamy Ltd.

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