Liverpool vs. Aston Villa pick

If you look at Liverpool’s record, everything seems hunky-dory as the Premier League team starts the new season.

The Reds have two wins and a draw from their first three matches of the campaign, and are coming off a come-from-behind victory at Newcastle last weekend.

But if you take a closer look at Liverpool’s start, you’ll notice some red flags that suggest things aren’t as rosy as the Reds’ record will have you think.

Though you have to give Liverpool credit for being resilient, it also has fallen behind in both of its victories and has yet to put together a 90-minute performance this season.

The Reds were terrific in the first 20 minutes against Chelsea, but the Blues eventually took over that match and were perhaps a bit unfortunate not to have taken all three points.

The Reds’ performance was a lot were better at home against Bournemouth, but Liverpool was still caught early in that match, and the Cherries put two goals (one was disallowed) in the back of the net inside the first five minutes.

The defensive issues continued against Newcastle, though Liverpool deserves plenty of praise for digging in and hanging around after going down a man early in the match.

With Virgil van Dijk suspended, it’s hard to see Liverpool being able to shut down an Aston Villa attack that has scored eight goals and created 7.2 expected goals in three matches.

The Villans are a live underdog at Anfield on Sunday.

The play: Aston Villa +340.