Liverpool visit Southampton looking to continue their Barclays Premier League title challenge by avenging their sole home defeat of the season.<\/p>\n
Brendan Rodgers’ men were beaten 1-0 in the reverse fixture in September thanks to Dejan Lovren’s second-half strike – their only reverse at Anfield this term.<\/p>\n
Fourth-placed Liverpool will look to turn the tables on Southampton on Saturday, and they head to St Mary’s riding the crest of a wave in the Barclays Premier League. Liverpool are the division’s form team and sit just four points behind leaders Chelsea having won six and drawn two of their last eight matches.<\/p>\n
That run includes three successive victories, with their most recent triumph coming in the thrilling 4-3 home win over Swansea City last weekend courtesy of a brace apiece from Daniel Sturridge and Jordan Henderson.<\/p>\n
And with Manchester City not in Barclays Premier League action this weekend due to the Capital One Cup final, Liverpool can move up to third – or even second if Arsenal lose at Stoke City – by extending their winning run on the south coast.<\/p>\n
Defender Mamadou Sakho may be in line for a return for the visitors after recovering from a hamstring injury sustained in the 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in December, while Rodgers has been handed a further boost with the news that Lucas Leiva is back in training after a knee problem. Saturday’s match will come too soon for the Brazil midfielder, however, while full-back Jose Enrique remains sidelined with a long-standing knee injury of his own.<\/p>\n
St Mary’s has been something of a bogey ground for Liverpool, with Southampton winning four of the previous five Barclays Premier League encounters there, including the last three.<\/p>\n
Southampton coach Mauricio Pochettino will be keen for his side, who saw a six-match unbeaten league run end at West Ham last time out, to exploit Liverpool’s shaky defence, with only four teams having kept fewer clean sheets than the title contenders this term. Saints are also just one of two sides to keep a clean sheet against Liverpool’s wealth of attacking talent, the other being Arsenal.<\/p>\n
However Pochettino, for whom Jos Hooiveld remains a doubt with an eye injury, will be wary of in-form striker Sturridge, who has netted in eight consecutive matches to help establish Liverpool as the division’s top scorers with 70 goals in 27 matches.<\/p>\n
Southampton (from):<\/b>\u00a0Boruc, K Davis, Gazzaniga, Clyne, Fonte, Hooiveld, Lovren, Shaw, Yoshida, Chambers, Cork, S Davis, Guly, Isgrove, Lallana, Ramirez, Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Ward-Prowse, Gallagher, Lambert, Rodriguez.<\/p>\n
Liverpool (from):<\/b>\u00a0Jones, Mignolet, Agger, Cissokho, Flanagan, Johnson, Kelly, Sakho, Skrtel, Toure, Alberto, Allen, Gerrard, Henderson, Aspas, Coutinho, Moses, Sterling, Sturridge, Suarez.<\/p>\n
Match Appointments<\/b>
\nReferee:<\/b>\u00a0Lee Probert.\u00a0Assistants:\u00a0<\/b>R Ganfield, G Beswick.\u00a0Fourth Official:<\/b>\u00a0A Marriner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool visit Southampton looking to continue their Barclays Premier League title challenge by avenging their sole home defeat of the season. Brendan Rodgers’ men were beaten 1-0 in the reverse…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n