Liverpool vs. West Brom
Venue: Anfield Stadium
Kick off: 5:30PM
Champions Liverpool will be looking to maintain their lead at the top of the Premier League table when they host struggling West Bromwich Albion at Anfield this evening.
The Reds are four points clear at the summit following last weekend’s 7-0 hammering of Crystal Palace, but in Sam Allardyce they face the last visiting manager to come away with a league victory at Anfield.
April 23, 2017 was the last time Liverpool lost a league game at home; 1,344 days – three years and eight months – and 66 matches have passed since then, and on Sunday Allardyce will look to repeat the achievement.
Allardyce was in charge of Crystal Palace that day but finds himself with a much bigger task bringing West Brom to Anfield off the back of a 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Aston Villa in his first match at the helm.
Liverpool know better than anyone how dangerous Villa can be when they click, but the Reds finally wiped out the impact of their infamous 7-2 defeat earlier in the season with a 7-0 drubbing of Crystal Palace last time out.
The win was Liverpool’s biggest ever top-flight victory away from home and saw seven different players assist a goal for a team in a single match for the first time in Premier League history.
It also saw Jurgen Klopp pick up his 127th Premier League win as Liverpool boss – surpassing Rafael Benitez for most in the club’s history – and he will be confident of quickly chalking up number 128 on Sunday.
Perhaps the most ominous aspect of this match for the Baggies is that Liverpool have been much better at home than they have on the road this term; the overall length of their 66-game unbeaten Anfield run is remarkable, but arguably more impressive is the fact that they have won 32 of the last 33, picking up 97 points from a possible 99 in the process.
Against promoted teams specifically Liverpool have won all 14 home games under Klopp by an aggregate score of 41-7, while they have only lost one of their last 52 such matches, and that was back in 2010-11.
The champions are unbeaten in their last 10 games since their scarcely-believable defeat at Aston Villa and, despite a crippling injury crisis, now sit four points clear at the top of the table with the best attacking record and goal difference in the division.
Worryingly for the rest of the league, Liverpool’s injury problems are showing signs of relenting heading into the New Year too, and Sunday’s match appears to be a very kind fixture for them to make it three league wins on the bounce for the first time since their opening three games of the season.
West Brom have the second-worst goal difference of any club in England’s top four tiers – ahead of only Southend United, who occupy spot number 92 of 92 in the pyramid – having only scored 10 goals so far this season while shipping 29.
The appointment of Allardyce was no doubt done with one eye on the latter figure, although his side were comfortably swept aside by Aston Villa in the West Midlands derby last weekend and so fans may not be too optimistic for this trip to Anfield.
West Brom have lost 29 of their last 34 top-flight matches against the reigning champions, winning only two, and have also only won one of their previous 17 games against a team starting the day at the top of the table.
The defeat to Villa leaves the Baggies 19th in the standings and now five points from safety, with only one win to their name from their opening 14 games – only the third time they have ever recorded one win or fewer at this stage of a season.
That said, there are glimmers of hope for West Brom; Allardyce is unbeaten on his last three Premier League visits to Anfield, and Liverpool have surprisingly only won four of their last 13 Premier League meetings with the Baggies.
West Brom also held Manchester City to a draw in their last away game and, while that came under Slaven Bilic in what proved to be his final match in charge, it could perhaps offer Allardyce a blueprint of how to set up at Anfield.
Liverpool possible XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Fabinho, Robertson, Keita, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Salah, Firmino, Mane.
West Bromwich Albion possible XI: Johnstone, Furlong, Ajayi, O’Shea, Gibbs, Sawyers, Phillips, Pereira, Gallagher, Diangana, Grant.
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