Premier League confirmation will annoy fans ahead of Aston Villa’s visit to Liverpool

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Aston Villa travel to Anfield on Saturday evening in a spot of bother.

Whilst life is smooth sailing for Liverpool, with only one defeat to their name all season under new manager Arne Slot, it’s a different story altogether in the Midlands.

Unai Emery has done a tremendous job, but his Aston Villa side have now lost three games on the bounce for the first time since February 2023.

That includes Villa’s farcical defeat to Club Brugge on Wednesday night, which saw Tyrone Mings give away a bizarre penalty for handball.

Added to that, Villa conceded four goals to Tottenham over the weekend, and understandably so, fans are fearing the worst ahead of this late-evening visit to Liverpool.

As a result, you are hoping for some luck, and in this case, the officials to do their jobs, but with the Premier League confirming who will referee this match and who will be on VAR duty, then that might not be the case.

Referee and VAR announced for Aston Villa’s clash at Liverpool

The man who will stand in the middle is David Coote and he doesn’t exactly have a great reputation with either team.

Coote once sent off Dean Smith against Manchester City when Bernardo Silva came back from an offside position to score – that law was eventually changed.

The very same official opted against awarding Villa a penalty following James Tarkowski’s reckless challenge on Moussa Diaby last season at Goodison Park – the game finished 0-0.

But Coote doesn’t just have a history with Villa, he is probably more loathed by Liverpool supporters because he was the guy who failed to send Jordan Pickford off after he ended Virgil van Dijk’s season in 2020.

If that’s bad enough, the man who will be on VAR duty is Paul Tierney and he is the mistake king of the Premier League.

Tierney made the join-most VAR errors in the Premier League last season – along with Stuart Attwell – and you are hoping for a simple game at the weekend.

Aston Villa’s past five meetings with Liverpool

This will be the 204th meeting in English football between Aston Villa and Liverpool, with the latter, as expected having a better record.

The Reds have won 102 games against the Midlands side, with Villa having 59 wins to their name and 42 draws.

Amazingly enough, the last time Villa beat Liverpool was that 7-2 game in October 2020, but the last five meetings have been dominated by those from Merseyside.

All under Jurgen Klopp, they have won three out of the last five matches, including an entertaining 3-3 draw at the end of last season.