English Premier
2011-02-02 - Liverpool vs Stoke City
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football : English Premier League
Wednesday 2 February 2011 - Kickoff 7:45pm
Liverpool
Football can rarely surprise us these days with all the social networking sites as well as 24 hour a day news channels but I will be the first to admit I would not have believed someone if they told me about the changes to occur at Anfield over the last month.
First, Roy Hodgson's short lived reign as manager was ended and the return of 'King' Kenny Dalglish heralded a new era of success coming to this club. Yet more drama was to come as Fernando Torres was moved on to Chelsea for the princely sum of 50 million pounds and Liverpool were quick to act by purchasing Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll. Now the team must focus on the League and look to finish as high as possible.
Liverpool are a great example of what a couple of successful results can do for any of the sides in the bottom half of the table as they have surged up to 7th. The Europa League place given to the team finishing in 5th must be a target for Dalglish as Liverpool are only 6 points behind Tottenham. Anfield remains a tough place to visit for the opposition and they are 7-3-2 there, scoring 20 goals and conceding 10.
After starting the 2nd Dalglish era with 2 defeats, Liverpool have bounced back by picking up 7 points from the last 9 available. More importantly for the supporters, the last 2 games has produced 2 wins, and 2 clean sheets. Liverpool have won 2 of their last 3 games at Anfield since losing 0-1 to Wolves here, a result that effectively put Roy Hodgson on the brink of being axed.
Andy Carroll may have signed for Liverpool but is not expected to make his debut for a few weeks. Jamie Carragher is still out of the side but Luis Suarez is expected to make his debut.
Stoke City
It is a testament to the job being done by Tony Pulis that Stoke City have seamlessly established themselves as a Premier League side. The team is a tough one to play against and a favourable draw in the FA Cup means there is a real possibility this proud club could be taking part in the Quarter Finals this season.
Even though Stoke are only 8 points clear of Wigan in the final relelgation zone, they are one of the teams that people will not expect to drop into the battle at the bottom. The Potters are strong at home and seem to have a habit of picking up points consistently and not falling into long losing runs. Stoke are 10th in the table and are 3-1-7 away from home, scoring 12 goals and conceding 16.
Stoke's form of late has been strong and they have won 3 of their last 4 games in all competitions. They have lost back to back away games in the Premier League, but had been unbeaten in 3 before that, and they also have won 2 of the last 3 away from home, both coming in the FA Cup.
Danny Higginbotham is out with a hamstring issue while Ryan Shawcross will miss the game as he serves the last game of a suspension.
Head to Head
Stoke have been a real thorn in the side of Liverpool since returning to the top flight of English football and the Reds have only won 1 of the 5 games played between the sides.
Liverpool had not lost any of the previous 4 games, drawing 3 of them, before losing 2-0 at the Brittania Stadium earlier this season.
The 2 results at Anfield could not have been more different- last season Liverpool won 4-0 but the season before it had ended 0-0.
Prediction
LAMPS has an excellent preview written on this game too and I tend to agree with him that there should be enough positive energy at Anfield to push their team on for a win.
It will be a close contest, but I am a little concerned with the seemingly lack of quality in this Liverpool squad. I would not be surprised to see Suarez begin on the bench, and a lot of the pressure is on Steven Gerrard to perform, even more so without Fernando Torres.
Stoke will work hard, they will scrap for everything and they will give Liverpool no peace, but I just have this sneaky suspiscion that Liverpool are going to do just enough to get through.
I will have a small interest on the English Handicap and for this game to end in a draw on that method (effectively Liverpool to win by 1 goal).
The Pick :
Liverpool 1-0 Stoke City
BEST BETTING TIP :
I'll back the game to end in a DRAW (-1 English Handicap) @ 3.5 BetFred (1 UNIT)Follow me on Twitter @DavindaAulak- there is a direct link below
