Preview: Liverpool vs. Tottenham Hotspur

Sports Mole previews Sunday’s Premier League clash between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

Two titans stuttering towards the Premier League finish line clash at Anfield in Sunday’s headline battle, as Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur both endeavour to rectify some recent mistakes.

Jurgen Klopp’s side could see their title hopes crash and burn this weekend, while Spurs are potentially just one defeat away from being eliminated from Champions League contention.

Match preview
© Reuters

It was not supposed to end this way for departing Reds head coach Jurgen Klopp, who will at least leave Anfield with another EFL Cup winners’ medal around his neck, but Liverpool’s hopes of a famous quadruple have been wrecked in the space of a couple of months.

While suffering FA Cup and Europa League heartbreak at the hands of Manchester United and Atalanta BC respectively, Liverpool are more or less out of the top-flight title conversation on account of winning just one of their last five Premier League matches, taking just one point from the last six on offer.

Drawing 2-2 with West Ham United and losing more ground on Arsenal and Manchester City was a story in itself, but Klopp’s heated touchline exchange with Mohamed Salah unsurprisingly made all the headlines; an unsavoury argument which effectively epitomises Liverpool’s end-of-season collapse.

Klopp’s third-placed side realistically have to prevail on Sunday to retain any faint hopes of Premier League title number two, as they are five worse off than Arsenal and will be seven below Man City if the champions win their match in hand; a draw here would therefore not suffice if Arsenal sink Bournemouth in Saturday’s early kickoff.

Also reeling from back-to-back Anfield defeats to Atalanta and Crystal Palace without scoring, Liverpool are at risk of losing three successive home games for the first time since the behind-closed-doors era of 2021, but they had reason to cheer on Thursday evening thanks to the failures of their upcoming opponents.

Indeed, Liverpool’s return to the Champions League following a brief absence was confirmed with Tottenham’s deserved 2-0 defeat to Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea, where Ange Postecoglou cut an uncharacteristically animated figure on the touchline as his side were outfought and out-witted.

In a familiarly painful sight for the Spurs faithful, their side’s set-piece weaknesses reared their ugly heads again, as the unmarked Trevoh Chalobah met Conor Gallagher’s free kick to give the hosts the lead before Nicolas Jackson nodded in the rebound after Cole Palmer’s dead-ball strike rattled the bar.

Twenty-two set-piece goals conceded in the 2023-24 Premier League is third only to Nottingham Forest (26) and Sheffield United (23) for Postecoglou’s fifth-placed side, who remain seven points below Aston Villa and now have just one match in hand on their West Midlands rivals.

As a result, if the visitors are condemned to a fourth straight Premier League defeat on Sunday and Aston Villa overcome Brighton & Hove Albion, their Champions League chances will evaporate, although Postecoglou has repeatedly stressed that the top four is not the top goal for his squad in their debut season.

The travelling crowd – who have seen Tottenham register just one clean sheet in 17 top-flight games – may feel differently, but the men in white were in raptures during September’s infamous beating of Liverpool, where they were given a helping hand by a VAR farce regarding Luis Diaz’s wrongly-disallowed goal.

Liverpool Premier League form:

Liverpool form (all competitions):

Tottenham Hotspur Premier League form:

A trio of Liverpool’s absentees will not be seen again before the campaign is over, as Joel Matip (knee), Ben Doak (knee) and Thiago Alcantara (muscle) – the former and latter of whom may have played their final games for the club – are continuing their recoveries.

Klopp also confirmed a worrying blow in Friday’s pre-match press conference, revealing that captain Virgil van Dijk had not trained, so a question mark is hovering above the Dutchman’s head for this one.

However, Conor Bradley (ankle) is now back in full training and is expected to be involved on Sunday, while Diogo Jota’s hip problem should clear up in time for him to make a May comeback, but the visit of Tottenham will come too soon for the Portuguese attacker.

Salah and Klopp’s war of words came after the former was again overlooked for a starting spot at the London Stadium, but with Klopp keen to stress that there is no bad blood between the pair, the Egyptian will likely be reinstated to the XI here.

As far as Spurs are concerned, Postecoglou did not see any more players enter the infirmary on Thursday night, but he revealed prior to the defeat that Timo Werner (hamstring) and Ben Davies (calf) will miss the rest of the season with problems sustained in the North London derby.

The duo join Ryan Sessegnon (hamstring), Manor Solomon (knee), Destiny Udogie (thigh) and Fraser Forster (foot) on the long-term injuries list, and after making five changes at Stamford Bridge to no avail, Postecoglou should not shy away from a similar batch of alterations here.

James Maddison was among those to be sacrificed in midweek amid his loss of form, but the playmaker ought to come straight back into contention for the trip to Anfield, potentially replacing the ineffective Richarlison.

Liverpool possible starting lineup:
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Konate, Robertson; Szoboszlai, Endo, Mac Allister; Salah, Nunez, Diaz

Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup:
Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Emerson; Bentancur, Bissouma; Kulusevski, Maddison, Johnson; Son

We say: Liverpool 3-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Working with limited recuperation time, always vulnerable from dead-ball situations and seeing their former stars lose their way at a crucial point in the season, Tottenham’s top-four hopes could officially be extinguished at Anfield.

While Klopp’s out-of-sorts side have flattered to deceive themselves, 28 points won from losing positions is nothing to be scoffed at, and also fuelled by September’s injustice, we have faith in the hosts to – perhaps inconsequentially – revert to winning ways.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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