Football Tips: Punch drunk Liverpool offer potential upset chance for struggling Aston Villa

With the league already won and celebrations well and truly underway, you have to factor that into any bets on the Reds for the rest of the season – Just look at Thursday evening. Liverpool will be better with the ball in this game, but perhaps not exerting the same effort as they normally would without it. Villa are one of the few sides who are better with the ball than without it in the bottom half, so this should benefit them, too.

Let’s take a look at the three best positions you can take on this otherwise-meaningless clash of two cities.

Aston Villa – Draw No Bet

At the price, I’m quite content to back this given that stern words may not be enough to turn around a performance level like theirs against Man City in just a few days. It is worth noting that, had this been any other season, you would suspect the gap between games would normally have removed all of the excess from Liverpool systems, but no.

In the world that the year 2020 has given us, Liverpool are not ready for a game of football just yet, and while Aston Villa may have looked like they’ve not been ready for a game of football in about nine months, the point remains that there’s plenty of scenarios that could unfold where Villa pick up the pieces.

I do quite like adding in the draw no bet factor to this, just on the off-chance that Villa are content with a point and so are Liverpool. Let’s no forget that infamous draw between the Irish and the Dutch.

Aston Villa – Half-Time

This is an even stranger price given how Liverpool are likely to grow into the game as it progresses rather than the other way around. You’d expect one of these teams to be at it from the first whistle, and Villa know if they inject tempo into their play, it would be all too easy for Liverpool to just say they don’t fancy it this evening.

And to be fair, I can’t imagine there’s too many of us that would fancy watching it in the first place anyway.

Over 3.5 Goals

And given how this game is likely to go, it won’t come as a shock to you that I’m sensing goals again – and if Liverpool manage to find them – it’s an odds-against cover for the above two positions.

Despite their best efforts to look incapable, Villa do have threats in almost every area of the pitch and it’s due to click at some point this season. At least, Dean Smith certainly hopes so.

Best bets for Liverpool v Aston Villa on Sunday at 16:30

Aston Villa – Draw No Bet
Aston Villa – Half-Time
Over 3.5 Goals

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