Liverpool will continue their pursuit of Premier League leaders Manchester City on Saturday when they travel to Selhurst Park to face Crystal Palace.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side find themselves nine points back in the title race but they do have a game in hand over Pep Guardiola’s side ahead of their match with Crystal Palace.
If the Reds win that rescheduled fixture they’d still be 6 points in arrears, so the pressure is well and truly on to string together consecutive wins whilst hoping for a City slip up to reenergise the title picture.
Liverpool’s focus was away from the Premier League midweek, with a trip to Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semi-final to contest.
Diogo Jota was on the scoresheet and the Reds booked their spot at Wembley – their first domestic final in 5 years – and attention now turns to the weekend’s league game at Crystal Palace.
Selhurst Park is a stadium Liverpool have history at, having spectacularly capitulated at the ground in the 2014 under the stewardship of Brendan Rodgers.
A lot has changed since then however with the Merseysiders’ last visit to Selhurst ending in a 7-0 thrashing of the Eagles.
That result came in December 2020 when Roy Hodgson – incidentally a former Liverpool boss himself – was still the manager of Crystal Palace.
A lot is different from a Palace perspective too since that day, with Hodgson’s successor Patrick Vieira implementing a new style at the club as well as altering the way the Eagles are perceived in the Premier League.
These changes have been tangible at Crystal Palace in all but points, with the concession of late goals and an abundance of draws an unwanted thread throughout the season.
That being said, Palace can breach the Premier League’s top half should they pull off an unlikely victory over Liverpool on Saturday.
Vieira will be missing Wilf Zaha, Jordan Ayew and Cheikhou Kouyate due to involvement at the Africa Cup of Nations, whilst James Tomkins and James McArthur are both out with injury.
Liverpool too are missing key player due to Afcon, with Mo Salah and Sadio Mane at the tournament in Cameroon. Naby Keita is also away on international duty.
Joel Matip, Fabinho and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have all been suffering from knocks lately and will be put through late fitness tests to determine their availability. Thiago Alcantara and Divock Origi are both also doubtful.
Crystal Palace v Liverpool is a 3pm kick off on Saturday 22nd January.
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