Liverpool v Brighton: Mane the man at Anfield

Sadio Mane should be good for another goal this weekend but the Reds' defence could be tested again, says Jamie Pacheco...

Liverpool v Brighton
Saturday November 30, 15:00

Fabinho injury a bad blow but league form is excellent

On Wednesday night, Liverpool blew a good opportunity to beat Napoli and have one less thing to worry about. Now they need to go into their last Champions League match of the Group Stages needing a result in what is already an obscenely busy period for them.

As bad a bit of news as that was the injury to Fabinho. The quiet man of Liverpool's midfield will be out for at least a week and they'll badly miss his physical presence in the heart of their midfield.

But that's enough bad things to focus on as far as Liverpool fans are concerned. They are after all top of the table in the league, they have plenty of momentum and Jurgen Klopp is in charge of a pretty happy ship.

Potter getting the job done

If the season finished today, Brighton would be pretty happy. They are after all a respectable 12th in the table and tough that decision to sack Chris Hughton was, results have certainly been better under Graham Potter than they were under his predecessor.

They are however winless in five away games in the league, a stark contrast to that 3-0 win at Watford on the opening day of the season. That said, if they keep on doing the business at home, they'll be just fine.

There's also good news in terms of injuries and suspensions; there are none of any note to speak of.

Reds almost unplayable at home

What can one say about a price of 1.23 on a Liverpool win? We could say that given Brighton's aforementioned record and Liverpool's run of 13 straight home wins and 30 matches undefeated (cheers, Opta) at Anfield, it's actually not a bad one. But then again, that's hardly the way we roll around here.

It's a huge 18.00 on the Brighton win and 7.40 on the draw. With Liverpool a bit tired after their midweek exertions, a back-to-lay of the latter, could pay dividends.

Hosts to miss out on a clean sheet yet again

Want to know what each of Liverpool's seven straight wins at home this season have in common? We'll tell you. They conceded in each and every one of them. Even more interestingly, they conceded exactly one goal in each of them. That makes the odds of the away side scoring exactly one goal worth a second look at 8/5, a strategy that came off a couple of weeks ago when Spurs hosted Sheffield United.

But I'd rather take the slightly bigger 7/4 that Liverpool win the game with both teams scoring. That brings the likes of 3-2 or 4-2 into the equation as well as a more realistic-looking 2-1 or 3-1 and it could make all the difference.

Mane goal, 10 or more corners

Sadio Mane is having the season of his life. He's got 17 goals in his last 16 home games in the league; in fact, no-one has scored more goals on home soil in the Premier League since the start of last season than him, a total of 22. Opta again. For good measure, he's currently the 11/4 favourite to be Player of the Year.

He's 5/6 to score here. Last week backing a goalscorer (on that occasion Jamie Vardy) with a second selection as a same-game multi-bet paid out at 3.9, so let's see if we can pull it off again.

It's not just when it comes to scorelines that there's a pattern in Liverpool home matches. All six of their games at Anfield have had at least 10 corners, too. It's 4/7 there are over nine corners on the 'Alternate number of match corners' market and that will do us just fine in terms of completing our SGM, which comes to odds of 3.15.