After a 12 week summer break, the Premier League is finally back as last season’s runners-up, Liverpool welcome newly promoted Norwich City to Anfield in Friday Night Football.
Having missed out on the title last season by a single point, Liverpool will be looking to set an early marker whilst Norwich will want to send out a statement that they’re not back to make up the top flight numbers.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesLiverpool will be without Nathaniel Clyne after the defender suffered knee ligament damage in pre-season, as he faces up to six months on the sidelines.
James Milner (muscle) and Sadio Mane (fitness) are also doubts for the Reds’ opening fixture.
Timm Klose is ruled out for Norwich with a tight hip which kept him out of the Canaries’ final pre-season friendly against Toulouse last weekend.
Christoph Zimmerman however misses out with a knee injury and joins Louis Thompson (muscle) plus Alexander Tettey (calf) on the treatment table.
Form
Liverpool have taken three wins and losses apiece plus a draw from their seven pre-season friendlies, whilst they lost last weekend’s Community Shield on penalties to Manchester City following a 1-1 draw.
Norwich meanwhile suffered just two defeats from six pre-season friendlies but those losses came when the Canaries played as the home team, although they did manage to beat Toulouse at home last weekend.
Stat Attack
- Liverpool have lost just two of 16 Premier League meetings with Norwich (W11, D3, L2), keeping just two clean sheets in their last nine clashes.
- The Reds however are unbeaten in their last 12 meetings with Norwich (W10, D2), with four of their last five goal scorers in this fixture still at the club after Danny Ings joined Southampton this summer permanently.
- Norwich are looking for their first win at Anfield in seven trips since winning 1-0 in April 1994 through a Jeremy Goss goal.
- Liverpool are unbeaten in their last six opening weekend fixtures (W5, D1).
- Norwich have taken just five points from their opening league games in the last five seasons.
- Liverpool are currently unbeaten in 54 of their last 56 home games across all competitions (W41, D13, L2).
- Each of Norwich’s last three permanent managers have lost their opening Premier League games in charge of the Canaries by a combined 9-1 goal aggregate, with two of those three managers having had the misfortune of facing Fulham in their openers.
Prediction
After a rough pre-season and little spending in the transfer market, I am quite excited to see whether Jurgen Klopp has been wise or whether he needed more reinforcement, particularly in that tricky left-back position.
Norwich however is the Reds’ easiest opposition this month so we should see a good attacking game between these teams but given the Reds’ opening weekend form, I fancy them to get a comfortable win.
Prediction: Liverpool 3-1 Norwich City
Result: Liverpool 4-1 Norwich City