Tottenham Hotspur have not yet given up their Premier League ambitions for this season and Liverpool have to be aware of that during their clash at Anfield Saturday. Just seven gameweeks remain now in the EPL and every match gets all the more interesting and important from now on.
Spurs are currently second in the table with 61 points — five points below leaders Leicester City. Although the Foxes have all the more advantage to create history for themselves, a resurgent Tottenham can create quite a few problems for the other three teams in the top four.
Leicester, Arsenal and Manchester City are the sides also eyeing the Premier League 2015-16 title.
It might be a home game for Liverpool, currently ninth in the table, but they know they just cannot underestimate Tottenham. The Reds were making heads turn with their performances recently, but their narrow loss against Southampton in their last EPL fixture will hurt them. Jurgen Klopp's men won 6-0 against Aston Villa, 3-0 against Man City and 2-1 against Crystal Palace, before their 2-3 loss against the Saints.
The good news for Liverpool is James Milner is back from suspension, while Alberto Moreno is also available after recovering from a hamstring injury. The worrying news, however, is highly-rated forward Roberto Firmino is doubtful of the game as he picked up an injury. Striker Christian Benteke is also ruled out owing to a knee injury.
Jurgen Klopp is a worried man as he knows of the hard challenge Spurs will pose. "When Tottenham play against Liverpool it is usually not a birthday party. It is a hard fight," the German coach told BBC. "It is unbelievable how strong they [Spurs] are - everyone could see it in the [England] national team. That is good for Tottenham but not for us unfortunately."
Spurs' Eric Dier, Dele Alli, Danny Rose and Harry Kane got a chance to start for England in their international friendly against Germany last week in Berlin and also, Dier and Kane remained on the scoresheet as The Three Lions came from behind to defeat their rivals.
They again featured for their national side against Netherlands in the following fixture. However, the home side suffered a defeat this time at Wembley.
The experience of playing for the national team will, however, boost the Spurs to step up their performance in their game against Liverpool. "We are in a very good position but we cannot compare with another team. We need to fight," Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino said. "We have seven games and it's important to fight until the end of the season with the possibility to achieve good things."
For the away side, Erik Lamela remains a doubt as he picked up a knock during his international assignments.
Where to watch live
Liverpool vs Tottenham Hotspur is scheduled to kick off at 5:30 p.m. BST (10 p.m. IST, 12:30 pm EST), April 2.
In India, viewers can catch the game on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports HD 2. Online streaming will be available on Starsports.com and Hotstar.
In the UK and Ireland, viewers can catch the game on Sky Sports 1/HD UK and Now TV UK. Online streaming is available on Sky Go UK and LFC TV. Radio commentary will be available on TalkSport Radio World and BBC Radio.
In the US, viewers can catch the game on the NBC Sports Network. Online streaming will be available on NBC Sports Live Extra. Radio commentary of the game will be available on Westwood One Sports.
The live scores can be found on the Premier League match centre.
