Liverpool welcome Crystal Palace to Anfield in the first Monday Night Football clash of 2022-23 Premier League season.
Victory could see Liverpool climb as high as third depending on their winning margin, whereas at least one point would see Palace climb out of the relegation zone and up to 17th at the expense of Everton.
Team News
Naby Keita will be available for Liverpool after recovering from illness which forced him to miss the Reds’ 2-2 draw at Fulham last weekend.
Konstantinos Tsimikas (knock) faces a late fitness test again.
Caoimhin Kelleher (groin), Ibrahima Konate (knee), Diogo Jota (hamstring), Curtis Jones (calf), Thiago Alcantara (thigh) and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (thigh) are ruled out.
Palace will be without Nathan Ferguson until late December as he recovers from a serious foot injury.
Jack Butland (hand), James Tomkins (muscle), James McArthur (knock) and Michael Olise (foot) are definitely ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Liverpool have won each of their last ten meetings against Crystal Palace (W10).
- Palace have lost each of their last five visits to Anfield since they won 2-1 in April 2017 (L5),
- Jurgen Klopp’s Reds have conceded in just one of their last five home matches against Palace – prevailing 4-3 in January 2019.
- Liverpool have kept three clean sheets in their opening home matches of a new league campaign across last five seasons.
- Palace have lost three of their opening away matches across last five seasons (W2, L3).
Prediction
Having aggressively pressed into Manchester City’s face a fortnight ago in the Community Shield, Liverpool certainly got a taste of their own medicine last weekend at Fulham but did well to weather the Cottagers’ pressure and snatch a draw amidst rushed finishing to various chances.
Palace meanwhile were just outclassed in their opening match against Arsenal with a costly lack of finishing touch, amidst great pace and awareness in their attacking moves which often were frustrated once inside the box so I hope to see better quality in the final third.
Tactics therefore surely are going to be key because if Liverpool start well and dominate, this should be a comfortable result but it could get really interesting if Palace do what Fulham did press-wise, whilst adding their pace to add an extra edge to trouble the Reds’ defence.
I though am going for a home win because Liverpool should still have enough in them to scrape a win by hook or crook, no matter what Palace throw at them tactically.
Prediction: Liverpool 2-1 Crystal Palace
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