It’s top vs bottom as Liverpool travel to White Hart Lane for the evening kick off on Saturday.
Spurs though, under new manager Harry Redknapp, will be no easy opposition for a Liverpool side hoping to feature former Tottenham captain Robbie Keane.
Redknapp’s newly inspired troops secured their first win of the season last Sunday against Bolton and made an incredible comeback to draw 4-4 at Arsenal on Wednesday night with a performance which will have felt like a victory to the players and fans. They go into the game with new confidence.
Liverpool havent been doing too badly themselves, last Sunday’s win at Stamford Bridge putting them top of the pile and Wednesday’s defeat of Portsmouth – as unconvincing as the performance may have been – keeps them top going into the weekend’s fixtures.
Rafa Benitez hopes to have Keane back to full fitness for the match and have him lead the attack at the club he joined from for almost £20m in the summer. Fellow forward Fernando Torres is unlikely to start the match though but could feature from the bench – he has missed the Reds’ last five fixtures with a hamstring injury sustained on international duty and Liverpool are cautious not to rush the Spaniard back too soon.
Javier Mascherano was an unused substitute against Portsmouth and is almost certain to come back into the side alongside Xabi Alonso in midfield, with Dirk Kuyt expected to replace Jermaine Pennant on the right of midfield and Albert Riera coming back in for Ryan Babel on the left.
Speaking to the official LFC website ahead of the game, Benitez said of Spurs threats “I think that they have a lot of quality and they will need time, but clearly they should be higher in the table.
“Roman Pavulchenko and Luka Modric are offensive players and Jermaine Jenas is a good player too. They are the reason why I have confidence they will improve. Tottenham have a lot of quality.
“David Bentley is another good player. He can shoot from distance and is very dangerous, so Pepe Reina will be aware of him.”
Last season this fixture ended in victory for Liverpool with Torres breaking the record for most goals by a foreign player in a debut Premier League season. Andriy Voronin scored the other in a 2-0 win on the last day of the season and Pepe Reina collected his 18th clean sheet and therefore the Golden Glove award for the third consecutive season.
Kick off is 5:30pm, live on Setanta Sports. Feeds will be available via our forums.
