Birmingham, Feb 18 : Aston Villa will welcome league leaders Liverpool to Villa Park in the second of three-straight home fixtures in the league on Thursday (IST) just four days after playing out a 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town. Villa head coach Unai Emery claimed that Liverpool are doing even better under the tutelage of Arne Slot than they did with Juergen Klopp.

The Dutch head coach played the role of successor to Klopp who had a nine-year run in England's top flight and also saw the end to the Merseyside team's 30-year-long Premier League title drought in 2020. "We will have to compete adapting of them, because of course tomorrow Liverpool, they are going to demand us a lot about everything, tactically and individually.

'I appreciate the very high performance they are getting this year, more than the last two years when I arrived here. Of course, with Klopp they did fantastic, but this year with Slot they are even doing better," said Emery in a press conference. 'For me as a coach, it's really a big challenge tomorrow, a great challenge to try to be motivated, how we can collectively set our gameplan against them. It is the most difficult match we are going to play for the last weeks and months," he said.

Emery also went on to give injury updates on his side as Leon Bailey, Matty Cash, and Ezri Konsa will face late fitness tests ahead of Aston Villa's clash against Liverpool, but Boubacar Kamara misses out. Wide-man Bailey and centre-back Konsa missed out on Saturday's Premier League draw against Ipswich Town at Villa Park, while right-back Cash has been sidelined for the last three matches.

Versatile midfielder Kamara was withdrawn after just 16 minutes at the weekend and has been ruled out against the Reds. He joins Pau Torres, Ross Barkley, and Amadou Onana on the sidelines.

'Kamara is out, Bailey is close to being with us again. I don't know tomorrow, he's a doubt. Cash as well is close to being with us, and Konsa as well is close to being with us. We trained this morning but, until tomorrow morning, I'm not going to decide exactly how much they are ready to play or not or to be with us,' revealed Emery.

/IANS