There is one more Premier League match on Wednesday night as a game originally scheduled for the weekend has been moved due to the Carabao Cup final which means that Luton Town head to Anfield to face the league leaders Liverpool four days earlier.
Liverpool can move back to a four point advantage at the top of the table with a win here while Luton will come out of the bottom three for a few days should they avoid defeat. Once again there is no UK TV coverage of this game.
Liverpool
The big question around Liverpool ahead of this match is whether their minds will be fully on it when you consider that in four days they have the chance to win silverware at the earliest opportunity in the final season in charge for Jurgen Klopp. They will give Luton all the respect they deserve ahead of the game but when the match is actually in action it will be easy for those involved to just ease up a touch ahead of a significant occasion on Sunday, especially those who could be playing at Wembley due to injuries to others.
If Liverpool don’t have any issues in that regard then they will be widely expected to win this match and win it well. They are undefeated at Anfield in the Premier League this season and only Manchester United and Arsenal have left with so much as a point. One slight area of concern is that they have only kept five clean sheets at home this term and with a number of attack minded players missing for this game there might not be the usual guarantee of large numbers of goals at the other end.
Luton Town
Luton slipped into the bottom three for the first time in 2024 on Monday night but they can soon come out of it with a point in this game. They are unbeaten in their last three away games and have scored eight goals in that time so this no fear approach that they have adopted is certainly reaping its rewards, although it goes without saying that this is the biggest test of that so far and by some margin. Avoiding defeat here would be some achievement.
Luton are competitive though that is the one thing we know about them. They have been to St James’ Park and scored four goals and only three times since the second game of the season have they gone down by more than a goal. Luton have scored in their last 12 Premier League games which highlights how they have adapted to the league and they will fancy they can get at this Liverpool team, but whether they can deny their hosts at the other end may ultimately decide the game.
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Team News
Liverpool are nursing an extensive injury list ahead of this game, one which had Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota added to it at the weekend while Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez are said to be doubts for this game. Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Thiago are definitely out.
Luton Town had an injury added to their list at the weekend too when top scorer Elijah Adebayo picked up a hamstring problem in the warm-up ahead of the game against Man Utd and he misses this match. He joins Marvelous Nakamba, Mads Andersen, Jacob Brown and Tom Lockyer on the sidelines.
Betting
You would imagine that Liverpool will come out on top in this game but with a cup final a few days away and Luton having nothing to lose I’m certainly not interested in getting involved in a short price on the Reds or on a handicap where they might ease up if the game is won early and allow Luton a back door cover. Had Elijah Adebayo not been injured I would definitely have been looking at both teams to score, and that still might be value but Luton missing their top scorer isn’t ideal for that bet.
One area where I expect the number to notch up regularly is the corner count. I mentioned on Sunday that Luton rank fairly high, compared to their league position at least, for corners and they duly added another eight to their tally which means they have had 37 corners in their last five matches. Liverpool rank even higher than Luton for corners across the entire season and with both teams prepared to bomb their full-backs or wing-backs on and get balls into the box and generally play on the front foot I’m expecting the corner count to go beyond 10.5 here.
Tips
Back Over 10.5 corners for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Betfair
