Liverpool have been sent a message by a player from one of their fellow Premier League title contenders that they’re not going to go away lightly.
While Manchester City and Arsenal were fully expected to challenge at the top of the table, Aston Villa’s proximity to the summit has caught many by surprise – they’re only two points off the lead just beyond the midway point of the season.
Their captain John McGinn has said that Unai Emery’s team now have the ‘mentality’ to push for a win in every match, instead of being content with draws, and warned that the Villans could be an even more dangerous proposition when they get players back from injury.
Speaking after the goalless draw against Everton on Sunday, the £120,000-per-week midfielder said (via Liverpool Echo): “We are going into every game with that mentality that we are going in to win. Even towards the end of the game, we were pushing. At that point they are happy with the draw but we wanted the win.
“We have that mentality now. We are coming here, dominating and trying to get the three points. Our mentality is right. We are in a good place. One thing which goes unnoticed, that a lot of people ignore, is that we’ve [got] a hefty injury list. We have done throughout the whole season but we have adapted.
“We are missing some top players so for us to be in the mix it is a really exciting thing to be waiting on them to come back.”
Villa deserve enormous credit for sitting third in the Premier League table at this point in the season, despite their squad having just the eighth-highest market value in the top flight, as per Transfermarkt.
The common consensus appears to be that they’ll eventually tail off and leave Liverpool, City and Arsenal vying for the trophy as the finishing line approaches, but they can’t be ignored for now when they’re only two points off the table-topping Reds.
Parallels have been drawn with Leicester in 2016, when the Foxes were widely expected to fall away from first place but instead went from strength to strength and secured a fairytale title triumph.
The difference between now and then, though, is that Villa’s current competition is discernibly stronger than what their fellow Midlands club faced eight years ago.
From Liverpool’s perspective, we sit top with a two-point lead on both City (with the same number of matches played) and the Villans (on whom we’ve one game in hand), so Jurgen Klopp’s side are masters of their own destiny as things stand.
There’s still just under half the season left to play, and numerous challenges of a varying nature to overcome. As the cliche goes, all the Reds can do is prioritise the next match and maximise what’s within their control.