Liverpool FC and Sunderland AFC will kick off the 2011-12 Barclays Premier League against each other Saturday. Fans at Anfield will be adjusting to the new rosters for each side, as both teams were busy during the offseason.
Liverpool captain David Gerrard has been ruled out of the contest due to a groin injury and will not be seen on the pitch until September. It may not matter, as the Reds have tallied eight victories, one draw and a single defeat in their last 10 Premier League meetings with the Black Cats.
Overall in the series, Liverpool leads with a 72-51-33 record in all meetings, inside or out of the Premier League.
The Reds have had a mixed pre-season, tallying wins over Guangdong, a Malaysia XI and Valencia, but they also dropped 3-0 decisions to Hull City and Galatasaray.
New owners of the Fenway Sports Group has pumped plenty of money into the club, spending around 100 million euro on midfielders Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and defender Charlie Adam.
Liverpool is certainly looking to move above its sixth place finish in the league last year, which was their lowest finish since 1999.
Manager Kenny Dalglish achieved big-time results in trying to clean up the mess left behind by Roy Hodgson, as the club hauled in 13 points in his first six fixtures. The run included four consecutive wins and saw Liverpool outscore opponents by a 7-0 margin over that span.
Sunderland has been incredibly busy during the summer transfer window, bringing in ten new players to help a club that finished tenth last season. It was just the third time since 1956 that the Black Cats achieved top ten status.
The club’s biggest problem in this series is scoring goals, finding the back of the net only three times in the last 10 league clashes, but two of those three goals came last season in a 2-2 draw at Anfield.
Saturday may be the best chance to continue scoring goals against the Reds, as they allowed 12 goals in their last five friendlies. Sunderland may not be in the proper form to capitalize in winning just one of its last eight fixtures.
The difference-maker in this meeting is likely to be Liverpool striker Andy Carroll, who earned a 35 million euro move to Merseyside back in January after scoring 11 goals for Newcastle during the first half of the 2010-11 season.
Liverpool has compiled a 4-1-1 record in the last six head-to-head meetings, outscoring Sunderland by a 10-3 advantage.
At the time of this writing, the following odds were available at Skybook: Liverpool (-200), Sunderland (+570), Draw (+265) and the total was set at 2.5 Under (-118)