Rafa Benitez is having a hard time of it at the moment, his Liverpool side lie 12 points behind leaders Manchester United having spent nearly £50million on new recruits and the club’s owners have recently admitted to approaching Jurgen Klinsmann about replacing Rafa at the Liverpool helm. So you’d expect a home match with Martin O’Neill’s rejuvenated Villa side to have him worried. Well you’d be wrong, if past form is anything to go by then this could be the perfect game for Rafa’s Reds.

Liverpool have a superb recent Premier League record against Aston Villa. In fact, Benitez has not actually lost against Villa in his time at Anfield. That’s 7 encounters without defeat with the Reds winning 5 of those games. The unbeaten run (12 matches) actually stretches back even before Rafa’s reign, back to 2001. The multi-talented dolphin loving boy band Blue were number one in the charts with classic hit ‘Too Close’, the last time a Villa side beat Liverpool. That win came in September 2001 when John Gregory’s side won 3-1 at Anfield. The Villans have actually had 3 different managers since they last won against Liverpool, Graham Taylor, David O’Leary and now Martin O’Neill.

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