The second weekend of the Premier League season concludes with the first Monday Night Football of the new campaign when Liverpool play host to Crystal Palace in an early key match under the lights at Anfield.
Both these sides suffered disappointing outcomes on the first weekend of the season. Liverpool were held by newly promoted Fulham while Crystal Palace were overrun by Arsenal and so each will want a first win of the campaign here.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Monday Night Football programme which will begin on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League channels at 7pm. The kick off at Anfield is 8pm.
Liverpool
After winning the Community Shield the week before the season began, there was a lot of optimism around Liverpool for the new campaign but a lot of that positive talk has dimmed a little after they were held by Fulham in a match they were twice behind in before eventually rescuing a point. In the overall picture a point away to a promoted team with a huge atmosphere behind them isn’t a bad result, the other two promoted teams both won their opening match in the same situation, but there is no escaping the fact Liverpool would have wanted more from the fixture.
The really worrying thing for Liverpool fans would be how easily Liverpool were caught in possession. There will be no Thiago for this match so that isn’t a good thing. The positive though was the appearance of summer signing Darwin Nunez and him getting off the mark in the opening game was certainly no bad thing. In front of their own fans Liverpool will be expected to produce a much more complete performance here.
Crystal Palace
I would imagine Crystal Palace will be a little disappointed with their opening effort last week. It might be that losing to Arsenal isn’t a bad result when we look back on things at the end of the season but what might have irked Patrick Vieira is that there were a couple of big moments in the match which they didn’t capitalise on and when you are a team like the Eagles who don’t have amazing resources you need to make the most of those opportunities.
There was a little bit of a rusty look about Crystal Palace in that opening game. That was probably to be expected when you consider that they were unable to use their full squad together in pre-season. They have had 10 days to recover and work out a strategy to go to Anfield and come up with something and also for the players to get more familiar with each other once again. The good thing for Palace here is they don’t lack for pace to keep Liverpool honest.
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Team News
Thiago Alcantara picked up an injury in the draw with Fulham last week so he is going to miss this match and a few others to come. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Curtis Jones are also out but Naby Keita is set to return to provide some relief in the centre of the park.
James Tomkins and James McArthur are two experienced misses for Crystal Palace for this match but Patrick Vieira has revealed that Michael Olise is back in training earlier than expected and he could well be part of the squad.
Betting
I like the idea of goals in this match. Conditions should have dramatically cooled in comparison to the rest of the weekend by the time this match kicks off which will certainly help the flow of the game here. Much is made of how important Virgil van Dijk is to Liverpool and that is understandable as he is a colossus at the back but even with him in the side last season the Reds got involved in some crazy encounters.
What isn’t discussed as much is the importance of Thiago who brings some control in the centre of the park as well as a little more stability. In layman’s terms Liverpool keep the ball better with Thiago in the side and when you have the ball the opposition can’t score. When he is missing Liverpool games are a lot more high scoring than when he is around, certainly in terms of goals against them. Palace carry enough of a threat to find the net, especially with Thiago not around, but if the home side are on it they can cover an over 3 line on their own. Liverpool won 3-0 and 3-1 in meetings between these two last season and I fancy more of the latter here.
Tips
Back Over 3 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with BetVictor
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