Aston Villa v Liverpool predictions: Salah can sizzle in high-scoring contest

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Aston Villa v Liverpool in the Premier League on Boxing Day.

Where to watch

Amazon Prime Video, 5.30pm Monday

Best bet

Mohamed Salah to score at any time
1pt 17-10 Hills

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Team news

Aston Villa
Diego Carlos and Jacob Ramsey are out, Emi Martinez won't feature following his World Cup heroics. Robin Olsen will deputise in goal. Philippe Coutinho could be involved against his old side.

Liverpool
Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota, James Milner, Roberto Firmino and Arthur Melo are out. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain may be fit after illness. Virgil van Dijk has rejoined the squad after the World Cup.

Preview

Aston Villa and Liverpool return from their six-week Premier League breaks braced for a Christmas free-for-all which ought to be seriously entertaining and feature a fair few goals.

On the same stage where Villa famously trounced Liverpool 7-2 just over two years ago, expect attacking intent from one side revived under a new manager and the other who only ever play on the front foot.

The upshot should be fun and plenty of goals with plenty of candidates to get on the scoresheet, and none more compelling than Mohamed Salah.

The little Egyptian, fresh as a daisy after being spared the rigours of Qatar, went into the World Cup break on a run of five goals in five games.

And he has hit the ground running on the domestic return, scoring Liverpool's second in Thursday night's 3-2 defeat at Manchester City in the League Cup.

Liverpool had moved up to sixth before the break with wins over Tottenham and Southampton in their last two games.

They haven't, though, won three in a row in the league this season and are still missing a few players.

They looked suspect at City minus Virgil van Dijk, who is expected to return, and while Villa won't ask anywhere near the same level of question that Pep Guardiola's champions did at the Etihad, they will still regard this Liverpool defence as vulnerable.

The Reds haven't kept a clean sheet in the league in four and Villa are looking far more threatening as an attacking unit under Emery, who has won both his league matches in charge of the Villans, a 3-1 success over Manchester United and a 2-1 win at Brighton.

Having scored just seven goals in their first 11 matches under Steven Gerrard, they have now bagged nine in four with Danny Ings grabbing four of those.

Villa had far fewer players away on World Cup duty than Liverpool – their three outfield players were involved for 526 minutes in Qatar, Liverpool's six clocked up a total of 1,410 minutes – and enjoyed a mixed campaign of friendlies, the high spot being a win over a Chelsea XI, the low a defeat to an Everton XI.

Whether classy but classless cat Emi Martinez turns up or not is up in the air but his absence would merely make Villa even less solid, so boosting Liverpool's – and Salah's – prospects.