OPINION
No-one is giving an inch at the top of the Premier League table and the battle between Man City and Liverpool is turning into a classic.
Man City might be on top, by a point, but with just six games left the fixtures could be turning towards Jurgen Klopp’s men. They beat Tottenham 2-1 on Sunday, perhaps a bit fortuitously, but that was one of their two tough fixtures out of the way. They play Southampton in the Friday night game and then Chelsea, and if they can win both of those, it’s definitely advantage Liverpool. Man City have to play Tottenham and then Man United – and the latter is potentially a title decider.
Back to Friday night though and the team selection should be fairly routine for Klopp. He’s lucky in that his power three are seemingly indefatigable. We expect Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah to provide the goals again tonight, and there will be hope among Liverpool fans that Salah’s contribution to the late own goal on Sunday will fire him back into life. He hasn’t scored in six games but is surely due.
At the back, Alisson should feature in goal, with Andy Robertson, Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Trent Alexander-Arnold in front of him.
The only real question marks are in midfield, but we think Klopp will opt for Fabinho in the deep-lying position, with Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson ahead. That’s just one change from the side that beat Spurs, with Milner making way for Fabinho.
This is the starting XI that we expect to see Klopp unleash at Southampton tonight:
