The Football Faithful
·26 December 2024
The Football Faithful
·26 December 2024
Liverpool welcome Leicester City to Anfield in the Premier League on Boxing Day.
Arne Slot’s side underlined their title credentials with a 6-3 win at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend to extend their advantage at the summit. Liverpool boast a four-point lead in the title race heading into the Boxing Day schedule, with a game in hand on the sides below them.
It’s just one defeat in all competitions for the Reds this season, who have shone under the new head coach. Mohamed Salah continued his sublime campaign at Spurs, scoring twice and providing two assists. The Egyptian leads the Golden Boot and Playmaker standings and is the first player in Premier League history to reach 10+ goals and 10+ assists before Christmas.
Leicester arrive on Merseyside in poor form. The Foxes have faltered since the initial new-manager bounce that greeted Ruud van Nistelrooy and were thrashed 3-0 by relegation rivals Wolves last weekend.
Liverpool are close to full strength though Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley remain on the sidelines. Both players sustained their respective issues during the Champions League win over Real Madrid last month and are yet to return to training.
“These are the two that are still ‘in the red’, so they don’t train with us at the moment,” Slot said after the win at Spurs.
“They are on their way back but they don’t train with the team yet.”
Liverpool’s options in the final third have been boosted by the recent returns of Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa. The former scored off the bench in the draw with Fulham earlier this month and is pushing for a start. Darwin Nunez, Curtis Jones and Kostas Tsimikas will also be looking for involvement, should Slot rotate his options.
Liverpool predicted XI: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Jones, Jota; Nunez.
Liverpool host Leicester in the Premier League on Thursday 26th December 2024. Kick-off at Anfield is 20:00 GMT.
The game will be broadcast to a UK audience on Amazon Prime Video.
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