With the International break taking place in the last weekend of March, we only have two more games this month on the quest for Top 4. We have Liverpool at home and Aston Villa away with new manager Steven Gerrard at the helm.
After looking at our remaining games, let’s look at league forms for both teams to give us a better understanding of what we can expect compared to how we have been playing:
LIVERPOOL: Just like us, the Scousers find themselves on a 5 game league winning streak that powered them back into the title race with City. Even if we didn’t need a motivated Liverpool as is, the fact that they need all 3 points to keep up with City, doesn’t make me feel great. The issue is that ever since Klopp has come over from Germany, we have not matched up well at all. Klopp overwhelmed Wenger every-time we faced him, even at Dortmund he played us well with a less talented roster. The way he gets his front 3 to press as a unit with such a high line makes them relentless if you are not able to cope with the pressure. Especially with their fullbacks playing so high, it will cause Martinelli and Saka having to track back which is more than enough when you are also asking them to create our offense as well.
In this goal for Diogo Jota, you can see how Liverpool trap Nuno into not being able to make an easy pass out which causes him to try and dribble out of pressure. Oxlade Chamberlain shades over perfectly to then make Nuno release the ball and he doesn’t realize he plays in to a dangerous Jota who is then able to easily finish the ball for Liverpool’s second goal.
In an ideal world, that is Emile Smith Rowe marking that cross instead of one of our defenders, in this case, Gabriel. Nuno Tavares gets stuck on Jota, with Thomas Partey and Sambi-Lokanga not paying attention to Thiago Alacantara at the top of the box because they are paying attention to Mo Salah. It is a lot but that is how Liverpool have so much success. It is that they force every player to commit themselves on defense and if you relax for a second, they’ll make you pay. With Diogo Jota not starting their game against Brighton, I see him coming back into the team in place of Luis Diaz which means he will probably score two goals. I am in two minds about this game in that I wouldn’t be concerned if Arteta wanted to switch things up and go 3 in the back with Ben White, Gabriel, and Tierney teaming up in the back with Nuno and Cédric as the wing backs. Otherwise we are asking Jota, Mané or Salah being 1 on 1 with our full backs and this formation also helps us match up better with their surging fullbacks. Regardless something needs to change from our 0-2 defeat in the 2nd leg of the Carabao Cup.
ASTON VILLA – Aston Villa find themselves in decent form, winning 3 games in a row before losing to West Ham this past weekend. Steven Gerrard seems to have found some stability in the midfield 3 of Jacob Ramsey (remember this name), Douglas Luiz, and John McGinn. The emergence of Coutinho has also helped Villa create offensive production outside of their forwards (Ings and Watkins). We also can’t forget our recently departed defender Calum Chmabers stepping in and starting for them immediatley and already has started contributing goals for them. Our home matchup against them at the Emirates was against a struggling Dean Smith Villa team which doesn’t allow us to take much from that matchup. Interestingly enough, with the game out of hand, their bright spot from that game was 20 year old midfielder Jacob Ramsey who scored a garbage time goal against us that night. He has brought his goal tally up to 6 this season and much of that can be attributed to Gerrard introducing him to the starting XI. He is an interesting prospect in my opinion for Arsenal to be paying attention to bolster our midfield options, but we can talk about that later.
With all that being said, if Thomas Partey and Martin Ødegaard performed the way they did against Leicester in the midfield, there’s no reason for us to comfortably have our way with an inferior Aston Villa team. With a relatively short turnaround after out Liverpool game, I wouldn’t find if Emile Smith Rowe and Pépé got some game time to give Martinelli or Saka a rest and to provide a different attack than Villa may be expecting.
PREDICTIONS
Liverpool: As much as I’d love to beat Liverpool, let alone pull out a draw; Liverpool seems too strong for us as presently constructed with them having everything play for to keep up with City. Despite it being at home, I see Liverpool beating us comfortably 3-1.
Aston Villa: We must keep Coutinho in check as he is always in line to pull the strings together for whatever team he is on. With surging midfielders such as Ramsey and McGinn who love to get in the box, Thomas and Xhaka have to be mindful of their defensive duties in making sure we keep those players in line. I see us edging them in a hard fought match at Villa Park 2-1 with ESR getting the winner for us. A man can dream.
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Featured image credits: Arsenal.com
GIF credits: NBC
Image credits: Google, NBC
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