Rejuvenated Liverpool aim to see off winless Wolves

Liverpool hosts rock-bottom Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield in Saturday’s Premier League festive fixture.

The Reds secured a 2-1 victory at nine-man Tottenham Hotspur last time out.

Wolves suffered yet again another defeat as they fell 2-0 to Brentford last weekend, equalling the longest winless start to a Premier League season, matching Sheffield United’s 17-game drought from 2021.

Match preview

Liverpool have won 16 of their last 17 Premier League games against Wolves, with the exception being a 3-0 loss at Molineux in February 2023.

Wolverhampton Wanderers have lost their last eight Premier League away games against Liverpool since a 1-0 win in December 2010. In their top-flight history.

Wolves have lost 24 of their last 27 away league games against the reigning top-flight champions, with the exceptions being victories at Everton in April 1971 (2-1), Liverpool in January 1984 (1-0) and Man City in October 2019 (2-0).

The Reds have won 17 of their last 20 Premier League matches between Christmas and New Year (D2 L1), including the last five in a row; their only defeat in this run was against Leicester in December 2021.

Wolves have just two points from their 17 Premier League games this season and could be only the second team in English Football League history to record as few points 18 matches into a league campaign after Newport County in the fourth tier in 1970/71.

Only Aston Villa (7) are currently on a longer unbeaten run in the Premier League than Liverpool (5 – W3 D2), with the Reds winning consecutive league games for the first time since winning their opening five matches of the campaign.

Wolves are winless in each of their last 21 Premier League games (D3 L18), with only Derby (32, Sep 07-May 08), Sunderland (26, Dec 02-Sep 05) and Southampton (22, Mar 23-Oct 24) ever going longer without victory in the competition.

Wolves’ Rob Edwards has lost each of his six league games in charge of the club and could be only the second manager in Premier League history to lose their first seven matches of a spell in charge of a team after Mick McCarthy with Sunderland in 2002-03/2005-06 (14 – the first 9 before they were relegated and the first 5 after promotion).

Hugo Ekitike has scored in each of his last three league appearances (5 goals) and could be the first Liverpool player other than Mohamed Salah to score in four consecutive outings in the Premier League since Sadio Mané in February 2019.

Team news

Liverpool

Alexander Isak suffered an ankle injury in the course of his goal at Tottenham and is out for two months.

Wataru Endo, Joe Gomez and Giovanni Leoni are sidelined for the hosts, while Cody Gakpo could return to the squad after his muscle issue.

Dominik Szoboszlai is serving a one-match ban after collecting his fifth yellow card of the season at Spurs.

Mohamed Salah is away with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Toti Gomes, Rodrigo Gomes, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, Marshall Munetsi, Daniel Bentley and Leon Chiwome are on the sidelines for the visitors.

Emmanuel Agbadou is away on international duty at the AFCON.

Predicted line-ups

Liverpool: Alisson, Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez, Jones, Gravenberch, Gakpo, Mac Allister, Wirtz, Ekitike.

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Jose Sa, S Bueno, Mosquera, Doherty, Hoever, J Gomes, Andre, Krejci, Wolfe, Arokodare, Hwang.