Liverpool are the Premier League leaders entering the weekend and the Anfield outfit will aim to remain on top of the ladder heading into the international break by seeing off Aston Villa on Saturday night.
The Reds are in fine fettle after a thumping midweek Champions League win over Bayer Leverkusen, while visiting Villa are in a spin after three successive losses in all competitions.
Liverpool have been mostly reliable at home this season but they perhaps aren't as freescoring as their midweek win hinted.
- LIVERPOOL TO WIN AND UNDER 4.5 GOALS
- UNDER 10.5 CORNERS
- ALEXIS MACALLISTER TO BE BOOKED
Bet On The Premier League
Reds May Not Be Rampant Winners
Liverpool are excelling under Arne Slot and they enter this weekend top of the Premier League pile and as the only Champions League team with four wins on the board.
At Anfield, their sole misstep was the 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest in September. That aside, it is seven wins in eight home games under their new Dutch supremo.
However, only the 5-1 Carabao Cup thumping of West Ham has gone over the 4.5 goal mark in that sequence and none of their five Premier League games at Anfield has gone over three goals so far.
Villa have played in two Premier League games with five goals, September's 3-2 win over Everton and last weekend's 4-1 defeat at Tottenham, though in both instances it took spectacular late intervention to break that barrier.
Slot said this week he's similar to Jurgen Klopp in encouraging his players to impose a high press, but perhaps more pragmatic in encouraging them to be more selective in searching for the killer pass.
His side should add three more Premier League points here but a goal-fest seems unlikely.
LIVERPOOL TO WIN AND UNDER 4.5 GOALS
Corner Count May Be Low
With Liverpool's patient approach this season we have already seen a number of low corner counts from the Reds.
The win over Brighton here last week featured 16 corners, but the Merseysiders have recorded lower tallies recently against Arsenal (four), the Seagulls in the EFL Cup (eight) and Leverkusen (four).
In their 10 league games, the Reds have recorded corner tallies as low as one, two and three (twice) and only twice made double figures against Ipswich and Wolves.
Aston Villa's midweek Champions League defeat to Brugge featured only five corners so this may be another contest in which the corner count is relatively low and therefore backing under 10.5 total corners looks a solid shout.
UNDER 10.5 CORNERS
Mac Allister Under Caution Again
Liverpool may dominate the ball for long spells but Villa have the ability to counter attack at pace when the chance arrives, with the likes of Morgan Rogers, Jacob Ramsey and Youri Tielemans all capable of swift transition.
World Cup-winning midfielder Alexis MacAllister is no stranger to a booking. He had eight Premier League cautions in his final season with Brighton and the same number last time around for the Reds.
He's got six on his record this season already, four in the league and two in the Champions League, including four in his last six appearances in league and cup.
The Argentine will be attempting to stop those Villa counters and he might fall foul of the referee's notebook again.
ALEXIS MACALLISTER TO BE BOOKED
