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Note the unusually late Saturday night kick-off for our last game before the international break. Emery has had Villa going in the right direction for most of his tenure, doing the sort of things and getting the sort of results he couldn't get out of Arsenal during his stint there. The are dangerous if you allow them to be. Watkins is their main goal getter but Duran has had a handy knack of scoring late goals after coming off the bench. We saw that ourselves late last season in that 3-3 game at Villa Park. The added Onana from Everton and Maatsen from Chelsea last summer, also bringing back Philogene (if he hasn't got the fans singing one of Michael Jackson's biggest hits, those dullards are missing a trick!). The also spent some money on more ex-Blooshite like Barkley and Dobbin in additional to the Onana deal. Since the goalless draw against permanently beleaguered Ten Hag's ragtag bunch of miscreants, results have been on the slide. They were hammered by Spurs last week, and were beaten by Club Brugge in the Champions League thanks to a farcicly-conceded penalty. Mings switched off and picked up Martinez's pass. Outfielders, do not handle the ball in that situation under any circumstances. Mings, the culprit, stood there looking non-plussed and chewing gum, but that's his default expression. He has fewer facial expressions than Steven Seagal. I've always thought that when he was at Bournemouth, Mings looked like the earliest stage of evolution into Dominic Solanke. Phillip Billing being the middle stage. Anyway, Villa like to counter with pace, have players like Rogers making late atacking runs from midfield, players like captain McGinn being a pain in the arse, and players like Martinez indulging in shithousery and timewasting from minute one. Still, guard against what they can do, and play with more of the tempo and intensity that dismantled Leverkusen in the second half, and we can go into the international break remaining atop the Premier League, to go with topping the Champions League table and into the quarter finals for the League Cup. That's an excellent return for a new coach and his staff who are still working with last season's squad. I say that because, as I write, we are still with the same available squad as we've had for the last few games. No Ali, Harvey, Diogo or Fede still. It remains to be seen if Slot decides to start with some of the players who were benched against Leverkusen. How have our previous managers got on in their first home fixture against Villa? Very middling surprisingly. Souness...09/01/1993...Liverpool 1-2 Villa (Barnes) Evans...08/10/1994...Liverpool 3-2 Villa (Fowler 2, Ruddock) Houllier...17/04/1999...Liverpool 0-1 Villa Benitez...15/05/2005...Liverpool 2-1 Villa (Cisse 2, 1 pen) Hodgson...06/12/2010...Liverpool 3-0 Villa (Ngog, Babel, Rodriguez) Dalglish...07/04/2012...Liverpool 1-1 Villa (Suarez) Rodgers...15/12/2012...Liverpool 1-3 Villa (Gerrard) Klopp...05/07/2020...Liverpool 2-0 Brighton (Mane, Jones) I don't ask for much. Maximum motivation, control, application, attitude and concentration from minute one. 3 points please. Get it done!