Four wins from four outings have Liverpool sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League, but Jurgen Klopp’s boys will face their first major test of the campaign on Saturday when they travel to the capital for a showdown with top-four rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
A 4-1 humbling at the hands of the North London side in this fixture last year will have the Reds looking for some measure of revenge while they try to keep their unbeaten start to the campaign going. A SBK welcome offer will have the punters weighing up the odds on what’s almost certain to be another classic showdown between two attack minded teams — at this level there’s no such things as an easy match, but it’s safe to say some are tougher than others.
“I think it’s fair to say that the Premier League is a tough league,” said Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita, speaking to the press ahead of his first visit to Wembley. “I’m very motivated to be playing in it – it’s an attractive proposition – but I’ve been told by many people that a lot of overseas players come into the Premier League and they take time to integrate,” added the Guinea international, going to confirm that his place in the team on Saturday isn’t a certainty. “Competition for places in midfield is something that can only help the team. Obviously the coach will go ahead and make his choices and I am sure he will choose the best players at the time for each match as they come along.”
One only has to take a quick glance at the calendar to see that Klopp is going to have to choose his players wisely and utilize the squad carefully if we’re going to make it through the next month. Coming off the trip to London, the Reds will welcome French juggernauts Paris Saint-Germain to Anfield in the Champions League and Southampton in the Premier League before back-to-back meetings with Chelsea home and away closes out September.
It’s a tough run, but those are the kind of matches you want to be playing and with the additions of Brazil duo Alisson and Fabinho, Keita and former Stoke City attacker Xherdan Shaqiri, Liverpool now have a squad that’s better equipped to compete on all fronts.
“I’m looking forward to the game [against Tottenham], especially now [because] in the next few weeks we have a lot of games, a lot of good games, difficult games,” said the Swiss winger, speaking to Sky Sports. “But we will try to keep our good performances and I hope we can win a lot of games,” continued Shaqiri, keen to play his part. “You can see that there is a lot of quality in our team and we are hard-working every day. And competition in football is also good for the players.”
