MY ACCOUNT
Liverpool are back from Champions League success in Spain to face Tottenham at Anfield as they seek to keep the pressure on Manchester City in the title race.
Victory over Spurs will keep alive the Reds’ unprecedented Quadruple bid and pile the pressure on to City, who entertain Newcastle on Sunday.
For the visitors, it is all about staying in the top-four race and while their record at Anfield is not the greatest, they have not lost to either City or Liverpool this season so should feel confident.
Team news
Jurgen Klopp has been blessed with a largely healthy squad this season and that has not changed, even after Tuesday night’s exertions at Villarreal.
Roberto Firmino is the one headline absentee of late and while the Brazilian frontman has returned to training, Klopp has all but ruled him out of this fixture.
Conte has also been able to stick with a solid nucleus of players, which is a bonus given the Italian’s apparent lack of confidence in those on the fringes of his squad.
Sergio Reguilon is still out and is destined to miss the rest of the season, however.
The stats
Liverpool are rock-solid favourites for this game and it is hard to fault anything that the Reds are doing right now.
They are on a run of 12 successive league wins at home — the last five of those have been secured without conceding a goal — and have taken 40 points out of a possible 42 as they have eroded City’s advantage at the top of the table.
Tuesday’s 3-2 win at La Ceramica saw them reach a record 139 goals for the season and it seems a certainty that they will add to that tally on Saturday.
This is the second most goal-laden fixture of any Premier League match-up with 170 since the competition began and it is one which Liverpool have dominated, especially at home.
Spurs have managed to win just one of the last 18 league showdowns between the two, though they did draw 2-2 with Klopp’s men in December, ending a run of seven straight losses to the Reds in all competitions.
Mohamed Salah and Heung-Min Son, the Premier League’s two top scorers, will be on show with with the Korean striker hoping to become the first Tottenham player since Gareth Bale to reach 20 goals for a season without any of them being penalties.
Predictions
Liverpool’s efforts in Spain have to have taken something out of them and they will find that Spurs are not the compliant guests they have been in the past.
Tottenham, naturally massive outsiders, are back in the top-four chase after easily seeing off Leicester last time out and this is a team which has downed Manchester City twice this season and also held Liverpool.
Conte is clearly a man for the big game and the same is true of 19-goal Son, who is a definite anytime scorer option, in a match where the well-rested North Londoners could be well worth backing at big odds.
