Alisson and Mane miss out for Liverpool as Barkley makes Aston Villa debut

The final match of Gameweek 4 – and the last Premier League fixture before the October international break – sees two sides with 100% winning records square off at Villa Park.

Aston Villa v Liverpool gets underway in the West Midlands at 19:15 BST.

There are two significant changes to Jurgen Klopp’s starting XI, with Sadio Mane (£11.9m) and Alisson (£6.0m) both missing for the visitors.

Mane’s absence we knew about, with Liverpool confirming on Friday that the Senegal international had tested positive for COVID-19.

Diogo Jota (£6.3m) comes in for his first Premier League start for the Reds.

Alisson’s shoulder injury we weren’t aware of ahead of Saturday’s Fantasy Premier League deadline but rumours had gathered momentum about his unavailability this afternoon and the Brazilian indeed sits this one out with a shoulder injury.

Adrian (£4.5m) deputises between the posts.

Klopp shed more light on his first-choice shot-stopper’s injury before the match, saying:

Yesterday an incident in training, very unlucky – two players clash with each other, one gets up, one doesn’t. The one who didn’t get up was Ali.

So, after the first few things, we don’t know 100 per cent. But he cannot play today. We have to do further assessment but he’s injured, let me say it like this. Now we hope it will go really quickly.

It’s an international break, I’m pretty sure after that he will not be ready. Then we have to see week by week.

On Mane, the Liverpool boss added:

He’s good, he’s good. We are obviously in contact pretty often.

He is fine. Monday night, we played Arsenal, played a really good game, after the game it was a really good feeling. And then the problems started immediately. That’s how it is. That’s how life is, that’s how our life is as well, that’s completely normal.

Jordan Henderson (£5.4m) has recovered from a muscle problem but the England midfielder is only among the substitutes this evening.

Aston Villa’s starting XI shows only one change, with Conor Hourihane (£6.0m) dropping to the bench.

Ross Barkley (£5.9m) comes in for the Irishman and makes his Aston Villa debut, following his loan move from Chelsea.

Three-quarters of Liverpool’s backline and Mohamed Salah (£12.2m) boast double-digit ownerships in FPL, with the Egyptian and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) the fourth and third most-owned assets overall.

Emi Martinez (£4.6m), who has racked up 19 points in his new club’s first two Premier League matches of the season, is Villa’s most-owned player.

Aston Villa XI: Martínez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett, McGinn, Luiz, Barkley, Trézéguet, Watkins, Grealish.

Liverpool XI: Adrián, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, van Dijk, Robertson, Keita, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Salah, Firmino, Jota.

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