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Liverpool look to continue their title fight as Jurgen Klopp’s Reds welcome relegation battling Newcastle United to Anfield.
Victory will see Liverpool stay second and move to within one point of league leaders – Manchester City, whereas Newcastle can improve to 18th with a win.
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Roberto Firmino is set to return for Liverpool after recovering from a hamstring injury which has forced the Brazilian to miss their last seven matches.
Adrian (calf), Nathaniel Phillips (cheekbone), Divock Origi (knock), Curtis Jones (eye) and Harvey Elliott (ankle) are ruled out.
Newcastle will be without Federico Fernandez across the festive period after the Argentinean defender suffered a thigh injury.
Paul Dummett remains absent with a calf injury after suffering setbacks in his recovery.
Stat Attack
- Liverpool are unbeaten in their last nine meetings against Newcastle (W5, D4).
- Newcastle are winless in their last 24 league visits to Liverpool at Anfield (D5, L19)
- Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has scored once in each of his four previous home appearances against Newcastle (W3, D1).
- Salah has scored 14 goals in Liverpool’s first 16 league games of this season, which is just one more goal than he managed at this stage last season.
- Newcastle have played the least total amount of backward passes this season, having produced just 768 backward passes in 16 league games this campaign.
Prediction
After another dominant performance in their win over Aston Villa last weekend, Liverpool come here in good form after playing the long game to snatch a penalty winner despite impatiently wasting their chances in open play.
Newcastle meanwhile made a strong start at Leicester yet they were completely outplayed in terms of pace, as the Foxes launched swift attacks which their defence sloppily couldn’t handle and is worrying because this won’t be an easy game.
Add in the fact that Klopp boasts a strong home record over Magpies’ boss – Eddie Howe with just three conceded goals at home from when Howe was Bournemouth boss, it also leaves me wondering just how Newcastle will break their Anfield hoodoo and I don’t see that happening here.
Prediction: Liverpool 2-0 Newcastle
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