Newcastle face a tough battle as they face Liverpool at Anfield

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League leaders Liverpool host Newcastle as the Magpies will try to take some points away from home.

Liverpool who sit in first place look to carry on their winning streak, where as for Newcastle they look to build on their draw last time out to Watford and will look to try and climb up the table if they are able to gain a draw or even a win against a tough opposition.

Team news

Newcastle will be without Allan Saint-Maximin, Florian Lejeune and DeAndre Yedlin due to injury with the Reds likely to be without Alisson, Nathaniel Clyne and Naby Keita all due to injury as well.

Jürgen Klopp insists Liverpool’s unbeaten home record in the Premier League is a statistic to use for motivation rather than pride.

“We don’t think about it,” said Klopp at his pre-match press conference. “Really, it’s not one time we mentioned it – the last game, the last 30 or the last two-and-a-half years. We don’t feel it.

“We know stats are there to be broken, that’s how it is. It’s always nice to be the first one and after two-and-a-half years to be the team who can do this. Each team could have done it but we were, in most of the moments, better and deserved the win or the draw. That’s good.

“But the only thing I’m concerned about is how we can be again in a similar or possibly in a better mood and shape as we were against Arsenal, because that was attitude-wise a really high level – the highest level, to be honest. And that’s what we have to do, not about what happened in the last two-and-a-half years.”

Newcastle United head coach Steve Bruce confirmed that Sean Longstaff will miss the Magpies’ away clash against Liverpool on Saturday afternoon.

“Unfortunately, Sean Longstaff turned an ankle yesterday in training so won’t be in contention on Saturday,” Bruce said. “It’s one of those freak injuries where he has tried to block a cross. We’ll not know how severe this is until the next couple of days but it’s a bit of a blow of us.

“It’s still a bit early for Andy Carroll and Allan Saint-Maximin, but they’ve made big progress this week. Andy is away to see a specialist this afternoon and, touch wood, he’s delighted with how it has gone so far which is good news for us.”

Head-to-head

In the last five outings between the two clubs, the Reds have won three out of the five matches with the other two ending in draws.

Expected line-ups

Liverpool – Adrian; Andy Robertson, Joel Matip, Virgil Van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold; Gini Wijnaldum, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho; Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane.

Newcastle United – Martin Dubravka; Emil Krafth, Fabian Schär, Jamaal Lascelles, Paul Dummett, Jetro Willems; Miguel Almirón, Isaac Hayden, Jonjo Shelvey, Christian Atsu; Joelinton.

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