Brighton v Liverpool: Seagulls will make this hard for Klopp's boys

Brighton v Liverpool
Saturday December 2 2017

Clean bill of health for Hughton's effective Brighton outfit

A neat and tidy season is developing on the south coast with Chris Hughton's side sitting 10th in the Premier League after 14 games, seven points clear of the drop.

And neat and tidy accurately describes the brand of football played by Chris Hughton's side - in seven home games they have only scored more than one goal on two occasions, but have only twice conceded more than one goal. And they have only lost once in front of their fans, that being a 2-0 reverse to runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City on the opening day. Make no mistake, this side keep it tight and competitive.

Hughton looks to have a near fully-fit squad available to him.

Salah firing a red-hot Liverpool

November has been a good month for Liverpool. A 4-1 shellacking by Spurs at Wembley in late October had many doubting their ability to compete at the very top but Jurgen Klopp's side have gone unbeaten since, culminating in an impressive, but possibly quite lucky, 3-0 win at Stoke on Wednesday night. The ball looked to have crossed the line for Liverpool's second goal and Simon Mignolet arguably should have been sent off for an outside the penalty area challenge on Mame Biram Diouf. Neither call went Stoke's way of course, and Liverpool took their chances thanks to a late Mo Salah double. It is now 12 goals for the season for the Egyptian.

Nathaniel Clyne apart, Klopp can play his strongest XI for this fixture.

Visitors very short for the win

Is the market over-rating Liverpool here? Klopp's side are just 1.53 to go home with the three points but they are up against a tough-to-beat opponent in Brighton, who can be backed at 7.40 for the win. The draw - a winner in four of Brighton's seven home games - trades at 4.60.

The away side are clearly on a good run but they have flattered to deceive at times this season and will undoubtedly be made to work very hard for the points by Hughton's committed Brighton. For those who want to back the home team to take at least a point from the game 'home win/draw' can be backed at 2.84 on the Exchange. That would be tempting in most circumstances, but there's a little extra motivation to back Brighton given Liverpool have a 'can't lose' Champions League fixture against Spartak Moscow next week.

Ultimately though I can't get myself away from the visitors , and my chosen way

Markets points to plenty of goals

Just two of Brighton's games at the Amex have breached the over 2.5 barrier but that option is the underdog in the market at 2.14. That can be explained by the presence of the Liverpool attack, joint third highest scorers in the Premier League with 28 goals. Punters who think the away side can overrun the hosts may be interested in the 5/4 on a Liverpool win with over 2.5 goals.

Ref Watch

Graham Scott takes charge of the game and he is almost card-phobic! The Oxfordshire official has shown six cards across the last four games and averages just 1.71 per fixture. He has taken charge of seven Premier League matches in total.

Recommended Bet 
Back 'Home Win/Draw' @ 2.84