Credit: Imago

James Barker

Tue 12 May 2026 10:36, UK

Aston Villa have only lost once on a Friday since the 2022-23 season, as Liverpool look to put that to the test at Villa Park.

Friday football: it’s a bit like marmite, you either love it or you absolutely despise it and make a point of raising your disdain for it at any given opportunity.

On one hand, if your team wins on a Friday night under the lights, that sets you up for a stress-free weekend of kicking back and watching other results come in.

However, there is something about that Saturday matchday feeling, and should your team lose the day before, that’s a ticket to a weekend to forget.

Regardless, Aston Villa take on Liverpool this Friday night under the lights at Villa Park, and however the individual fan may feel about it, the Villans have certainly enjoyed playing on this day of the week in recent years.

How good is Aston Villa’s record on Friday’s?

Teams can only expect a handful of Friday games every season at most, so they are naturally memorable occasions when they do come around.

Football has a strange knack for certain sides enjoying or loathing playing at specific venues, times, days of the week etc, and it appears that Friday’s certainly work for Aston Villa more often than not.

Indeed, since the 2022-23 season, Aston Villa have played eight times on a Friday in all competitive competitions, and have lost just once.

That actually came in their most recent match on that day of the week, and that was in Villa’s 2-0 defeat to Wolves back in late February this year.

Villa played three times on a Friday in 2024-25, twice in the FA Cup and once in the Premier League respectively, and Unai Emery‘s side won them all.

They beat West Ham and Cardiff City in the third and fifth rounds of the FA Cup, whilst winning 2-0 against Tottenham in the Premier League in last term’s penultimate league game respectively.

In 2023-24, the Villans played two Friday games with one in each of the Premier League and FA Cup, this time drawing both against Sheffield United in the league, and Chelsea in the cup respectively.

Then, in the 2022-23 campaign, Villa played two more times on Friday’s, both of which were in the Premier League against Southampton and Leeds United respectively, and they won both of those games.

So, if you’re an Aston Villa fan and you’re not already on board with Friday games, then this might just change your mind.

What is Liverpool’s Friday record like over the same period?

Regardless of whether or not they’ve had a disappointing 2025-26 season for their standards, Liverpool are still a side that Aston Villa have to and will undoubtedly show plenty of respect to.

But, are Friday’s an Achilles heel for the Anfield outfit, or do they enjoy playing on them just as much as Villa have recently?

So far this season, Arne Slot’s side have played twice on a Friday, once in the Premier League against Bournemouth and the other in the round of 16 of the FA Cup against Wolves respectively, and they won both.

However, between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, they didn’t play a single game in any competition on that day of the week, with their next outing coming in the 2022-23 campaign.

That was in the Premier League against Leicester City which they won 2-1, and then once again, they didn’t play on a Friday in the 2021-22 term either.

So, whilst they’ve played considerably fewer times on Friday’s than Aston Villa have over the last five seasons, Liverpool have won their last three, so no Achilles heel there then.