Aston Villa vs Liverpool predicted line-ups: seven ruled out and three doubts ahead of Premier League clash

Aston Villa will be hoping to continue their push for a top four finish this season when they host Liverpool at Villa Park on Monday evening. Unai Emery’s men crashed out of the Europa Conference League at the hands of Olympiacos on Thursday evening, but are on the brink of qualifying for next season’s Champions League, and could take a huge step towards that goal by bloodying the nose of Jurgen Klopp’s side.

Villa currently hold a seven point lead over fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, but have played one game more than the North London outfit, and will be eager to avoid any kind of final day drama. The Villans wrap up their campaign against a newly-energised Crystal Palace next weekend.

For their part, Liverpool know that barring a miracle, the Premier League title is now beyond them, but will still be eager to finish the season strongly as they look to bid farewell to Klopp in a positive manner. The Reds have won just two of their past five top flight outings, but did beat Spurs last weekend.

But how will both sides line up on Monday night? We’ve taken a closer look at their respective team news and predicted starting XIs below...

Aston Villa Team News

Aston Villa could be missing as many as seven players on Monday evening, with a fairly equal split between long term absences and lingering doubts at this stage. Tyrone Mings, Boubacar Kamara, and Emiliano Buendia are all recovering from serious knee issues, and will not play again this term, while Jacob Ramsay is another is not expected back in action until next season.

Morgan Rogers is suffering from a hamstring strain and has been given no concrete return date as of yet, but in more optimistic news, Youri Tielemans and Nicolo Zaniolo could both be in contention to feature. Speaking about the latter last week, Emery said: 'On Thursday, he pushed it to help us. This morning, he told us he wasn’t feeling good. I appreciate his effort. He needs time to recover.'

Aston Villa Predicted XI

Emiliano Martinez; Matty Cash, Pau Torres, Diego Carlos, Lucas Digne; Leon Bailey, Douglas Luiz, Youri Tielemans, John McGinn; Moussa Diaby, Ollie Watkins.

Liverpool Team News

By contrast, Liverpool have relatively few injury issues to worry about as they enter the last stage of the campaign. Joel Matip is still recovering from the ruptured ACL he sustained back in December, while Thiago Alcantara is no nearer to a return; with his contract set to expire this summer, the midfielder may well have played his final game in a Liverpool shirt.

The Reds’ only other potential absentee is Diogo Jota, who continues to struggle with a groin complaint. The attacker is, however, considerably closer to a comeback than his teammates, and holds an outside chance of playing some part at Villa Park on Monday evening.

Alisson Becker; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Andy Robertson; Wataru Endo, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai; Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz.