Liverpool

So Liverpool will have to respond without three of this season's top performers.

The Reds won their opening Champions League tie at home to Atletico Madrid, but have since had some scratchy results in domestic competition, culminating with Sunday's sobering 3-0 defeat at home to Manchester City.

They now face a run of five games in three different competitions before the end of this month, with manager Andoni Iraola clearly keen to see an upturn in form over that busy period:

Liverpool's upcoming fixtures (Premier League unless stated):

• Wed, 14 Oct: LASK (a - Champions League)
• Sat, 17 Oct: Brentford (a)
• Tue, 20 Oct: Villarreal (h - Champions League)
• Sun, 25 Oct: Brighton (h)
• Wed, 28 Oct: Chelsea (h - Carabao Cup)

Aadam Patel
Football Reporter in Linz

Liverpool have travelled over to Austria for Wednesday's Champions League tie against LASK without Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai.

The trio missed Sunday’s defeat to Manchester City and remain on the injury list.

Right, we trailed the Liverpool team news at the top of the hour, here's confirmation...

Neil Johnston
BBC Sport at Joie Stadium

I'm at Manchester City's training ground where there are lots of media from all over Europe waiting for Enzo Maresca and his players to appear from a short open training session.

"I need to improve my French," said Maresca after answering a question from a visiting journalist at a news conference earlier.

Maresca looked calm and relaxed as he addressed a packed room before City's first home game since an independent commission found the club guilty of charges relating to breaches of Premier League financial rules.

Read more: 'Criticised for what?' - Maresca defends celebrations.

Manchester City

So that's the latest from Aston Villa, before we switch to Liverpool, here is an update from the Manchester City training ground before Wednesday's big game against Champions League holders Paris St-Germain...

Aston Villa

While Matteo Ruggeri and Ian Maatsen are out, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery did have news on who is likely to be available, as well as further absentees:

“Leon Goretzka is in the squad for tomorrow. George Hemmings is still being with a small pain – not [available] for tomorrow, but maybe on Saturday he can come back.

“[Amadou] Onana and [Modou Keba] Cisse are starting to train with us and we have some players without the possibility to play in the Champions League, like Taylor [Harwood-Bellis] and [Brian] Madjo. Hopefully Madjo can join us in the group for Saturday.

"Some players are getting injured and some players are coming back, but our structure must be enough to play with our improvements and the expectation we have to improve for tomorrow.”

Aston Villa

Image source, Getty Images

Aston Villa manger Unai Emery does have injury concerns going into Wednesday's game against Fenerbahce: “There are negative ways for some players, because they are injured like [Matteo] Ruggeri.

“Ruggeri, we don’t know exactly how long it’s going to be, but it will be some weeks that he’s going to be out, more than one month. We need to find solutions because (Ian) Maatsen is not yet available.

“I think, the way he is, getting better, he should be joining us in a few days or a week, so it’s positive."

Laura Kenyon
BBC Final Score reporter

Image source, Getty Images

The North Stand – currently closed for building work – has become a symbol of Aston Villa's current position: under construction. Unai Emery's side are a work in progress.

The spine of the side that won the Europa League has since departed but there are signs of a new team beginning to build.

Villa are yet to replicate anywhere near the form we saw at times last season. But they display encouraging signs of renovation.

Zion Suzuki – the first Japanese goalkeeper to play in the Champions League – was a commanding presence against Brentford.

Nicolas Jackson is showing signs he could be the prolific striker Villa fans hoped he would be when replacing Ollie Watkins and becoming a club record signing.

The builders perched on the scaffolding, wearing hard hats and high-vis, had the best seat in the house to observe those performances.

There is a long way to go. The new stand is far from finished but will the new-look Villa squad be closer to a final product come their next home game?

Aston Villa

Unai Emery is painfully aware that Aston Villa are still searching for a first victory of the season at home.

Since the start of the season, Villa have played at home three times, losing to Arsenal and Nottingham Forest and a draw with Brentford, last time out.

Emery's side picked up three points in their first Champions League match, beating Club Brugge 3-2 in September.

Image source, Getty Images

Aston Villa

Image source, Getty Images

Right, here's Aston Villa manager Unai Emery, speaking earlier today, on how building work in the North Stand at Villa Park is having an impact on their season, with the club 16th in the Premier League after just one win in six matches:

"Our handicap is less supporters for the situation but the club decided it, it is something to improve us for the future.

"We must try to be together and without 7,000 supporters we must push everyone. We must play better football, compete better than we did, be more focused than we did.

"Those are more important than the stand.

"We are realistic with how we are working, improving. The things are not (good) enough yet, a lot of conversation with the team, meetings, video, practising and each match trying to show and improve."

Champions League

Here's a look at the bottom half.

Liverpool's opponents LASK are third in the Austrian Bundesliga but got off to a losing start at AEK Athens, while Aston Villa's visitors Fenerbahce earned a 1-1 draw at home to Roma.

Remember, the top eight teams at the end of the league phase go straight through to the last-16 knockout stage.

Sides that finish from ninth to 24th enter a knockout play-off round, which consists of one knockout tie, played over two legs.

And the bottom 12 teams drop out of European competition all together - there is no parachuting into the latter stages of the Europa League, as was the case in the previous format.

Champions League

All five English sides in this season's Champions League started positively, winning their opening game.

It's holders Paris St-Germain who lead the way, however, sitting top of the fledgling table courtesy of goals scored, following their thumping 6-1 opening win over Slovan Bratislava...

Champions League

First, here is a reminder of this week's fixtures, with the Premier League sides in bold:

Tuesday, 13 October

• Lens v Sporting (17:45)
• Sabah FK v Slavia Prague (17:45)
• Arsenal v Lille
• Atletico Madrid v Man Utd
• Galatasaray v Barcelona
• Inter Milan v Club Brugge
• RB Leipzig v PSV Eindhoven
• Viking v Bayern Munich
• Villarreal v Napoli

Wednesday, 14 October

• Feyenoord v Como (17:45)
• LASK v Liverpool (17:45)
• Aston Villa v Fenerbahce
• Bodo/Glimt v Borussia Dortmund
• Man City v Paris St-Germain
• Real Betis v Porto
• Roma v Real Madrid
• Shakhtar Donetsk v AEK Athens
• Slovan Bratislava v Stuttgart

Afternoon everyone.

If you did not join us earlier, you missed Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca and captain Ruben Dias, who were speaking before Wednesday's Champions League tie at home to defending champions Paris St-Germain.

Click on the links or just scroll down the page for their top lines.

The focus this afternoon is on Liverpool.

We will be hearing from manager Andoni Iraola and full-back Milos Kerkez from 15:30 BST.

We understand Liverpool will once again be without key trio Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai so expect Iraola to be asked for an update on their injuries.

Before that, however, we have the top lines from Aston Villa boss Unai Emery, who has been discussing Wednesday's match at home to Fenerbahce.

Right, have a scroll down this page for the full coverage of Manchester City's news conference.

We will be back at 15:00 BST for build-up to Liverpool's news conference and the top lines from Aston Villa manager Unai Emery.

Manchester City

Manchester City captain Ruben Dias said the players would work hard to defend the club, which they have full confidence in and continue to trust.

Here are the headlines:

• 'People don't love us winning and we love to win'
• On learning about the club's guilty verdict: 'We found calm and we progressed forward'
• 'We will defend the club, we will fight for it'
• And on those celebrations at Anfield: 'A show of how much it means to us'

Manchester City

OK, let's start out recap of the Manchester City news conference by summing up the key quotes from manager Enzo Maresca.

Here are his top lines before Wednesday's match at home to PSG:

• On the criticism about his side celebrating the win at Anfield, Maresca said: "We won 0-3 at Anfield, what do you want us to do?"
• On Pep Guardiola's planned visit to Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, Maresca said "it is still his house"'.
• Maresca also spoke about how his side need to make improvements and will have to produce the "perfect game" to beat the reigning champions.

Manchester City

OK, it's been another whirlwind Manchester City news conference, which we will attempt to sum up shortly.

First, here's a final word from Ruben Dias on preparing to host defending champions Paris St-Germain:

"They're obviously a great team, there's no way not to say it.

"I personally know a few players and I know how good they are. You can see the flexibility they have in each moment of the game and obviously I feel like those Portuguese players, I know so well, are also a reflection of the rest of the team.

"You need to be very good to beat them and that's what we aim for."

Image source, Getty Images