Friday 27 / December / 2024
London: Liverpool will be looking to end a dismal Premier League run against Manchester United and build on a promising start to the campaign with victory over their bitter north west rivals on Monday.
Resurgent Liverpool are three points ahead of United in the table as Jose Mourinho's rebuilding programme stutters, but their current run of four successive league defeats to the Old Trafford club is their worst against them for eight years.
Liverpool, who knocked United out of the Europa League last season, have not beaten them in domestic competition since March 2014, but they meet for the first time in this campaign with Juergen Klopp's men in supreme form.
They have won their last four Premier League matches and suffered only one defeat in all competitions so far.
In contrast, Mourinho's men have won just one and lost two of their last four in the league, crashing 3-1 at Watford and being held at home by Stoke City.
Despite the heavy investment in new players that followed Mourinho's much-heralded arrival at Old Trafford, his team currently have three points fewer than they managed from their first seven games of last season, when Louis van Gaal was in charge.
Reigning champions Leicester City meet their league-winning predecessors Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, but neither club has looked like title material so far this season.
Chelsea currently lie seventh, five points behind leaders Manchester City, while Leicester, who shocked the football world with their title success last May, are marooned in 12th place, with just two wins from their first seven games.
Leicester's record against the Londoners hardly instills confidence that they can get their title defence back on track on Saturday.
They have beaten Chelsea only four times in 20 Premier League games -- although their most recent success was less than a year ago as they stormed to the title.
Kante reunion
Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri will be hoping that N'Golo Kante, one of the key figures in his brilliant title-winning season, does not make him pay for his decision to let the influential midfielder move to Stamford Bridge.
Manchester City still lead the Premier League, despite their first defeat of the season, at Tottenham Hotspur, in their last outing.
After crushing all before them in the first two months of the campaign, City will be bidding for their first win in three games in all competitions on Saturday when they host fifth-placed Everton, who are four points behind them.
Second place Spurs are waiting to pounce should City slip up and Mauricio Pochettino's side visit West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, when Arsenal host Swansea City -- who will be led for the first time by new manager Bob Bradley.
