Liverpool v Stoke
Despite Paul Lambert's mischeavious comments on the eve of this fixture, which almost seemed to elude to a threat of injury against Mo Salah should he play, it looks like the absence of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sadio Mane has convinced Jurgen Klopp to start his star man. That's bad news for a Stoke side who have been absolutely mauled by the big guns this season.
Their trips to the top 6 clubs have seen them lose 3-0 at Arsenal, 3-0 at Man Utd, 5-0 at Chelsea, 5-1 at Tottenham and 7-2 at Man City. A combined 23-3 reversal over five games, or put another way, an average scoreline of 4.6-0.6!
Home matches have been somewhat better, but it still makes for hard reading for Stoke fans. A 1-0 win against Arsenal was followed by a 2-2 with Man Utd, but since then they have lost 4-0 to Chelsea, 3-0 to Liverpool, 2-0 to Man City and 2-1 to Spurs.
Without a win in 11 now, and with just one win since Christmas, Stoke are really in a bad place, and will be as good as relegated if they lose this one.
Based on the above stats, and the confirmation that Salah will play alongside other regulars such as Firminho, Wijnaldum, Karius, Henderson, van Dijk and Gomez, makes Liverpool near certainties in this one. They are unbeaten all season at Anfield in the league, and have a terrific 41-10 goal difference over 17 games (an average of 1.8 goals better than their opponents), while Stoke have just one away win all season, with a goal difference of 13-37. Ominously, against sides in the bottom half, Liverpool's goal difference from eight outings is 24-1.....
1pt Liverpool (-1) at 17/20 (Coral)
2pts Liverpool (-2) at 11/5 (Paddy Power)