Chris Sutton has claimed he has ‘a feeling’ that Bournemouth will take something from their clash with Liverpool on Sunday.
Jurgen Klopp’s league leaders travel to the south coast looking for a fifth successive victory (in all competitions) but will be without the services of a number of key players.
Mo Salah is currently representing Egypt at AFCON, Wataru Endo is at the Asian Cup with Japan and the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai, Kostas Tsimikas and Andy Robertson remained sidelined through injury.
The Reds are two points clear of Manchester City and Sutton reckons Pep Guardiola’s side will put the pressure on the Merseysiders in the coming weeks thanks to the return to fitness of Kevin De Bruyne.
“We’ve seen how Manchester City have done without Erling Haaland up front in the past few weeks – now it is Liverpool’s turn to cope without Mohamed Salah, who is away with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations,” Sutton told BBC Sport.
“The Reds are without the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold too, which is another big blow, especially for a tricky game like this one.
“I hope Liverpool win, just as I hope Arsenal beat Palace, because I want to see a title race that goes to the wire and City’s form is beginning to look ominous.
“The defending champions have already welcomed one ‘bazooka’ back from injury in Kevin de Bruyne to boost their attack, and they have got another to come when Haaland is fit again.
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“This is going to be a real test for Jurgen Klopp’s side, though. Bournemouth lost at Tottenham in their last league game at the turn of the year but they created enough chances to win that game.
“I was sceptical about Cherries boss Andoni Iraola at first, perhaps because Gary O’Neil didn’t deserve to be sacked in the summer, but after a slow start he has shown why you should always give new managers time to get their ideas across.
“Before that defeat at Spurs, Bournemouth were on a run of seven wins and a draw from their previous eight league matches. They are well-organised and will be poised to press Liverpool, and I have a feeling they will get something from this game.
“Bournemouth 1-1 Liverpool.”
We won the reverse fixture against Bournemouth 3-1 at the start of the campaign and also defeated the Cherries 2-1 in the EFL Cup back in November.
Andoni Iraola’s will fancy their chances of causing an upset, however, with Liverpool heading into the clash with a squad far from full strength.
We still have some quality players who can help make the difference at the Vitality Stadium but we need to ensure we’re on it from the start.
A win will see us go five points clear until the next round of fixtures and that would be a brilliant position to find ourselves in in January.
City are capable of putting together a huge win streak but we need to continue to focus on ourselves and picking up maximum points!