Liverpool is back in action in the Premier League midweek, with a massive trip to Aston Villa coming up.

However, Cody Gakpo will not be involved in the game, and Diogo Jota needs to be carefully managed with Slot outlining his plan to manage the Portugal international ahead of Villa and Manchester City on Sunday.

Arne Slot gave his pre-match press conference earlier. Liverpool.com has rounded up every word that he said in Kirkby, with the latest on injuries being the top line.

Injury latest

"Cody and Joe [Gomez] are unavailable for tomorrow. Cody is close to being back and Joe will be out quite a long while with a hamstring injury. It was a big blow for us and for him.

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"He tried to do everything to be with the team and worked hard, then first game back he makes a sprint and now he's out for a while. It's very hard for a player at any point of season especially now.

"He will miss large parts of the end of the season but we expect him to be back. He might need surgery but that's something we still have to assess."

Chance to go 10 points clear:

"I see it as 13 games to be played and the next one is the most important one. Villa away is like Wolves at home a difficult one. They have a great home record maybe more when they play in the evening. We know it's going to be a challenge but we know we have a quite OK away record this season."

On Aston Villa's form

"They beat Celtic at home in an evening game. Villa away when you get the fixture list you always know it's one of the tougher ones we can face.

"Last season was 3-3 if I remember correctly. They have a very good manager who always has a very good game plan. They have brought in some very good players in the January window and qualified top eight in Champions League. We know we will be facing a tough team. Every game for every team is difficult at this stage of the season."

Marcus Rashford one to watch

"I know Marcus Rashford as I follow the Premier League, and the first time I faced him was on the USA tour, and I was really impressed with how fast he is and how comfortable he is on the ball.

"I hope he shows that with Villa, but not tomorrow! I'd be completely surprised if a player of that quality isn't going to show that in the upcoming months. He is a very good player."

Wolves win last weekend

"It's because we are coming towards the end of season. We've played more games away from home where we have won by one goal. I remember Palace away when Jaros had to make a big save.

"We didn't need the big save vs Wolves but people are talking about nerves. When you are only leading by one goal it's going to need a lot of defending and hard work. A lot of people talk about nerves at this stage of the season. Not me."

Experience with winning the league at Feyenoord

"It helps if you've already experienced it. Not just me but the players. But it's difficult to take it from there — different players, teams and leagues.

"Yesterday Barcelona were close to conceding the 1-1. It's the end phase of the season when results like this are quite common. It tells you you have a team that fights to the end.. These games you need to win."

Wataru Endo

"Wata has been really useful for us this season. It's not always about the amount of minutes you play; you can be important for two minutes and less important for 90 minutes.

"What makes Wata special is that every time we have to rely on him he shows up. If a player hasn't had a lot of playing time and you can be mentally strong to bring you best performance, that's not easy.

"The only thing is, defending is always easier than creating. If you have to play a player who needs to create after not many minutes, it's more difficult."

Experience of key players

"We lean a lot on the players. How much work rate do they want to put in, how do they execute the game plan, do they adapt to the other team's game plan?

"It helps when a player has already won something but don't make that too big. The players who won it here were 25 points clear at one point when they won the league so there wasn't much pressure (in the run-in).

"It helps they are used to playing big games in their career with a lot of pressure, like Macca who has won the World Cup. Everton away is a hostile experience so it helps if you've been there already. That's why it helped Conor Bradley: it was his first one and he'll get more and more used to it.

"The more experience you have playing big games, the better it is. Some young players maybe don't have experience of big games but make the right decisions because of their quality. We must not overvalue experience but it does help."

Slot on mental toll of games

"Depends on how the last game went. After the Everton game, it wasn't a surprise to me that players were more tired than maybe in previous games. All the things that happened in the last eight minutes cost a lot of energy for everyone involved.

"That's why you can't compare tomorrow to last Sunday. We didn't play our best football but to go away with a win gives us a different reaction to the Everton game. Not everyone was tired — one or two players looked exhausted.

"We have managed many times to get a win over the line, and won a lot of games with a one-goal difference. But Newcastle, United at home and at Everton, sometimes you concede a goal in the last minutes of the game. It gives us confidence we got the win (vs Wolves). We take confidence from both the last 20 minutes (vs Everton as well)."

Diogo Jota plan

"He has a role like many others. He did so well before his injury, we have missed him for three or four months. We have missed the number nine who played the first seven or eight games in every game. Now he is back. He played 60 (vs Wolves) and we don't expect him to play 90, 90, 90 this week but we hope he is involved in the three games."