As they enter the finishing straight of the Premier League, all Tottenham and Liverpool can do is up their pace and hope that rivals hit hurdles as they look to clamber up the table. Jurgen Klopp’s side have seen hopes of a quadruple farewell from the departing boss evaporate and by the time they take the field at Anfield on Sunday, they could be eight points off the top, knowing that failing to win would end their title challenge.
Spurs, meanwhile, have major ground to make up on Aston Villa in the top-four race. Back-to-back defeats to Arsenal and Chelsea mean they are seven points off fourth with a game in hand but still two of the toughest fixtures of their season left to play. It will take something remarkable for Tottenham to even be in the mix for top four come the final day of the season. Here is how you can watch the match and what you need to know:
Viewing information
- Date: Sunday, May 5 | Time: 11:30 a.m. ET
- Location: Anfield — Liverpool, United Kingdom
- Live stream: Peacock
- Odds: Liverpool -225; Draw: +450; Bournemouth +480
Storylines
Liverpool: A first meeting with Tottenham since the VAR disaster in September that cost the Reds an opener and possibly a win comes at a bad time for Klopp, who has seen his side lose three and win two of their last six, a run of results that has seen them crash out of Europe and, in all likelihood, the Premier League title race. Meanwhile, the key figures who have led Liverpool to such great success in recent years are struggling to replicate their best form. Klopp’s bust-up with Mohamed Salah has been well documented since the draw at West Ham last Saturday and now he faces the prospect of being without the totemic Virgil van Dijk.
“Virgil wasn’t [available] the whole week yet, probably part of parts of team training today,” Klopp said at his pre-match press conference. “So we have to see what we can do there.”
Tottenham: Home and away defeats to Arsenal and Chelsea have brought what might be the first wobble in the Ange Postecoglu era, the Aussie delivering a notably downbeat press conference at Stamford Bridge on Thursday night in which he insisted responsibility for the downturn in form was his. The following morning the message had morphed with a view to the end of this season and the summer to come.
“We need change. Change has to happen,” Postecoglou said. “You can’t want to alter your course and quite dramatically for this club because we went down a certain direction. And now we’re pivoting to a whole different direction, expect the same people are going to be on that. It’s just not going to happen.”
Prediction
With both teams struggling to get going and looking vulnerable defensively, this may be a game that takes a while to get going. It may also be one where neither side can quite achieve what they want. PICK: Liverpool 1, Tottenham 1
