Liverpool will aim to get December off to a winning start when they welcome Sunderland to Anfield on Wednesday night in the first midweek round of the Premier League season.
The Reds picked up a badly-needed victory at the weekend when triumphing 2-0 away to West Ham, a game in which Alexander Isak scored his first top-flight goal for the Merseyside club since his £125m transfer from the Black Cats’ arch-rivals Newcastle.
Regis Le Bris’ team have shattered the preconception that teams who come up from the Championship are fish out of water at Premier League level – they currently sit sixth in the table, one point ahead of the reigning champions, and have picked up 22 points from their first 13 games.
Ahead of Wednesday night’s showdown at Anfield, let’s look at the form guide and team news for the two teams, along with other key details about this fixture, for which you can get the best betting odds from PayPal bookmakers.
Form guide (last 6 Premier League games)
Liverpool: W2, D0, L4, F7, A11, Pts 6
Liverpool have lost as many Premier League games since the October international break as they did in the entirety of last season, and before beating West Ham on Sunday, they’d been beaten in six of their previous seven top-flight matches.
Their 2-0 victory at the London Stadium at the weekend saw them keep a clean sheet in the division for only the fourth time, although two of those came against teams currently sitting in the top four of the table (Arsenal and Aston Villa).
Sunderland: W3, D2, L1, F10, A7, Pts 11
The Black Cats ended a three-match winless run with their comeback victory over Bournemouth last weekend, and they remain unbeaten at the Stadium of Light since returning to the Premier League.
Le Bris’ side have bloodied the noses of some of the top flight’s big boys, too, drawing against Arsenal in recent weeks and defeating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, although they’ve tripped up away to the likes of Burnley and Fulham.
Where can I watch Liverpool v Sunderland?
The match will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Football in the UK, with an 8:15pm kick-off on Wednesday.
Liverpool v Sunderland team news
Liverpool’s injury problems have eased of late, with Alisson Becker and Florian Wirtz returning in the win over West Ham and no casualties arising from that match at the London Stadium. However, right-backs Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong remain sidelined.
Sunderland also have a mostly clean bill of health, with Habib Diarra and Aji Alese the only absentees for this game, and both are projected to return later this month.
Liverpool v Sunderland prediction
Having stopped the rot with that win over West Ham, Liverpool now need to follow it up, something they weren’t able to do after beating Aston Villa and Real Madrid in quick succession at the start of November.
For all their troubles over the autumn, the Reds could draw level on points with Chelsea and Villa in the top four with victory at Anfield and defeats for that pair on Wednesday, although Sunderland will travel to Merseyside with belief that they can get a result and pile more gloom on Arne Slot’s Reds.
However, with the champions putting in a tidy performance in east London at the weekend, and Isak and Florian Wirtz stepping up after weeks of harsh scrutiny, we think LFC’s quality will prevail and they’ll make it two wins in four days, albeit after a stern test from the Black Cats.