'Has been the same always' - Liverpool head coach Arne Slot makes bold claim ahead of Aston Villa clash

There is a massive Premier League clash on the horizon at the weekend - Aston Villa will take on league leaders Liverpool on Saturday at Villa Park, with a kick off time of 8pm.

Reds head coach Arne Slot spoke to the press ahead of the encounter. The Dutchman claims to ‘know’ Unai Emery’s style of play and is confident that he is aware of how he will line up the Villans on Saturday.

Additionally, he also gave an update on the injury status of Diogo Jota. The Portuguese has been out for action for several weeks - will he be fit to play against Villa?

The last time the two teams met, they each played out a thrilling 3-3 draw at Villa Park. The Reds opened the scoring early on, thanks to an own goal from Emi Martinez - this was soon cancelled out by Youri Tielemans, who levelled the scores ten minutes later.

Cody Gakpo gave Liverpool the lead once again before the break, with Jarell Quansah widening their lead at the beginning of the second half. Despite this, Jhon Duran salvaged a point for the Villans, scoring a quick fire brace in the dying embers of the encounter.

Arne Slot’s press conference ahead of Aston Villa clash

Speaking ahead of the game in an interviewed featured on Liverpool’s official club website, Slot said: “If you ask me now I would say it's not that difficult because Unai Emery has played in a similar style now for years at Aston Villa.

“It's almost always the same formation, but it sometimes depends on the player that you can have different characteristics, but his style of play, his idea about football, has been the same always. Saying this, that also was the situation with Xabi Alonso, who we studied for I don't know how many games but never once did he come up with the idea of playing [Victor] Boniface as a left winger and playing without a number nine.

“That he hadn't done at all before we played them, but that's maybe also a compliment – most managers feel that we have a very good team so they think they have to change their game plan, not their playing style, a bit.

“If you ask me now do I expect Unai to change a lot, I would not expect that because he never did this, not if he played [Manchester] City and also not when he played Liverpool in the past few years. But in terms of personnel he can change a bit, he has different options in the full back [areas], different options on the wings, but it's also been a 4-4-2 that he's been playing for many years now.”

On Diogo Jota’s injury status, Slot said: “We expect him back after the international break… the first weeks after the international break we expect him back. I always say in Holland there is privacy about this and I don’t know how it is over here. Like I just said, he will be back one or two weeks after the international break.”