Although it’s an extremely young season, Liverpool FC have already been deemed the only side that can challenge Manchester City for the Premier League title this season by numerous pundits. Obviously, it’s jumping the gun quite a bit to make such bold declarations at this point, but it is true that City and Liverpool look to be in a class by themselves right now.
In assessing the talent and depth on every Premier League team once the summer transfer window closed, the Reds and Cityzens stood out about above the rest, and both teams have played at a level fully reinforcing that belief in their first two games.
Saturday evening sees Liverpool hosting Brighton & Hove Albion in a league fixture featuring two teams brimming with confidence right now. The Seagulls thrashed the Reds’ bitter rivals Manchester United on Sunday, so they’ll head into this clash with fresh memories of pulling off a huge upset. They will be big underdogs once again at Anfield.
Let’s take a look at who Liverpool Manager Jurgen Klopp may select in his first team for this one.
The Sports Bank’s Liverpool FC Starting XI Prediction
Attackers: Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah
Midfielders: Naby Keita, James Milner, Georginio Wijnaldum
Back line: Andrew Robertson, Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip, Trent Alexander-Arnold
Goalkeeper: Alisson
The only change here is Joel Matip for Joe Gomez. Matip returned to the match day squad in Liverpool’s win over Crystal Palace last weekend and he should return to the first team this weekend.
The weekly Jurgen Klopp manager press conference video from yesterday will be embedded tomorrow.
Injury Report/Match Preview: go to this link
Kick-off: 5.30pm (BST), Saturday 25 August
Odds via Betway: Brighton 14/1, Draw 13/2, Liverpool 1/6
Prediction: Liverpool FC 2, Brighton 0
Feel free to post your own Reds and/or Seagulls starting XI predictions, as well as your best guess as to what the final score will be.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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