Liverpool v Crystal Palace: Reds ready to extend unbeaten streak

Liverpool v Crystal Palace: Reds ready to extend unbeaten streak

Liverpool entertain Crystal Palace on Saturday and yet another home win looks on the cards for Jürgen Klopp's charges...

Reds on a run

The Liverpool juggernaut is starting to gather pace. They squandered chances on Wednesday night against Milan in their opening Champions League fixture, missing a 13th minute penalty when already a goal to the good and the Anfield faithful were stunned into silence when two Italian goals in as many minutes, just before the break, saw Liverpool go in at half time unexpectedly trailing.

It was business as usual in the second half though with Mo Salah equalising before Jordan Henderson fired in a quite brilliant winner in the 69th minute.

Liverpool have lost just one of their last 17 matches in all competitions now (3-1 away at Real Madrid in the Champions League in April) and having been unbeaten in their last ten in the Premier League last season, they've began this campaign by conceding just once in four matches.

Now unbeaten in their last 14 in the Premier League, the Reds have won three of their first four games without conceding and the only points dropped were against title rivals, Chelsea (1-1 draw).

The Reds comfortably beat last year's Championship winners Norwich City away 3-0 in the opening fixture of the season and they've sandwiched their 1-1 draw with Chelsea with straightforward victories - 2-0 at home to Burnley and 3-0 away at Leeds last Sunday.

Viera's Eagles starting to soar

Crystal Palace have started nicely enough under their new boss, Patrick Viera, and they appear to be getting stronger with every game.

The Eagles lost their opening fixture to the Champions League winners, Chelsea, 3-0, before a disappointing 0-0 draw at home to Premier League newbies, Brentford, and they appeared to be in trouble away at West Ham in their third fixture. but it's been all gravy since they went in at halftime trailing 2-0 to the Hammers.

A brace of second-half goals from their season-long Chelsea loanee, Conor Gallagher, saw them grab a point at the London Stadium and they thumped Spurs 3-0 last week after Japhet Tanganga was deservedly sent off in the 58th minute with the two teams still tied at 0-0.

Wilfred Zaha put the home side ahead from the penalty spot in the 78th minute before new signing, Odsonne Édouard, debuted from the bench in the 84th minute and scored twice!

It would be easy to assume that the late goals flattered Palace last Saturday and that the score didn't reflect the balance of the game but it was almost identical to the xG of 2.88 - 0.10 and the Eagles are starting to soar under their new boss.

Home win likely but don't discount Palace

Given the improvement of the visitors in their last two fixtures, this might not be as straightforward a task as the outright market suggests for Liverpool, but they have an outstanding recent record against Palace.

Since losing three consecutive home games to the Eagles between 2014-15 and 2016-17, Liverpool have won their last eight in-a-row in the Premier League by a combined score of 24-5!

The Reds signed off the 2020/21 season at Anfield with 2-0 victories against Southampton and Palace and they beat Burnley by the same score in their last Premier League home game so that score looks a very logical play again at 7.6.

Looking at the side markets, given he's scored at least once in each of his last eight Premier League appearances against Crystal Palace, Sadio Mané to find the net again at odds-against will appeal to plenty in the To Score market but no player has ever scored in nine consecutive games against a single opponent in the competition and there's better sport to be had in the Half Time/Full Time market...

The return to the defence of Virgil van Dijk should help to eliminate the risk of another crazy couple of minutes by the home side, like those witnessed on Wednesday night, but with Liverpool odds-on to be leading at the break, given how well Palace have performed in the second half in each of their last two Premier League encounters, I'm more than happy to have a couple of small speculative plays in the Half Time/Full Time market focusing on the Eagles producing another second half rally. Liverpool/Draw and Liverpool/Crystal Palace are both trading at huge odds.