Aston Villa welcome league leaders Liverpool to Villa Park on Wednesday 19 February in a Premier League clash that seems to be flying under the radar.
Liverpool could extend their gap at the top of the table, over second-placed Arsenal, to ten points with a win. On the other hand, Villa are without a league win in four, drawing to West Ham and Ipswich in their last two home games.
Despite this fixture producing plenty of goals in recent years, the match is still not sold out, with tickets still available on Aston Villa’s ticketing website less than 12 hours before kick-off.
Why tickets for Aston Villa vs Liverpool can still be purchased on the day of the game
After beating Spurs 4-0 in the second leg of this season’s Carabao Cup semi-finals Liverpool booked their spot in the League Cup final, which will be held at Wembley on 16 March 2025. This result meant Liverpool could no longer play in the Premier League that weekend, with their match against Aston Villa having to be rearranged, after originally being scheduled for 15 March.
Instead, Villa now host Liverpool at 19:30 on 19 February. This means Aston Villa fans now have a further midweek game to go to, which they were unaware of until recently. The fixture change was made less than two weeks ago, leaving fans with minimal time to plan for the game, giving some explanation as to why tickets are available so close to the match.
A further reason for the surprising availability is perhaps the cost of tickets. The price of existing seats ranges from £67 to £92, an extortionate amount for home fans to pay for a midweek game. For comparison, Liverpool fans have to pay just £30 for an away ticket, largely thanks to the away price cap rule which limits away tickets to a cost of £30.
Even though a win would take Emery’s side to within three points of the top four, tickets are still available across multiple areas of Villa Park, which ranked at No.6 in FourFourTwo's list of the best football stadiums in Britain.
In fact, Aston Villa requested for the rearranged fixture to be moved again, as they face an exhausting schedule of five matches in just 14 days, before playing just one league match in March. The Premier League denied this request, with manager Unai Emery unhappy about the decision.
Emery said: “The schedule doesn’t make sense. It is not really fair for us. It is not our job. The responsibility is for the people who set the schedule.”
Whilst Liverpool haven’t lost at Villa Park since 2021, when they lost 7-2 in an extraordinary match, Villa have lost at home in the league just once all season, suggesting it will be a tough task for Arne Slot's side.
The lack of a sell-out ground is therefore disappointing in FourFourTwo’s opinion. It is an issue that adds yet more fuel to the debate surrounding the increased fixture congestion in football across recent years.
