Liverpool v Tottenham LIVE: Team news and line-ups with Arne Slot’s side set to secure title

Trent Alexander-Arnold is fit to start today at Anfield:

Plenty of expectation at Anfield today, especially considering how dire Spurs have been in recent weeks.

You’d say that Liverpool fans expect to win the title today, considering all they need is a point.

Can Spurs delay the Liverpool title party, or will Arne Slot’s side provide a repeat of the 6-3 in the reverse fixture from December?

Liverpool have scored at least once in each of their last 29 Premier League games, since a 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest in September. It’s the second longest scoring streak in a single campaign, after Arsenal who scored in all 38 games in 2001/02.

Mohamed Salah has scored 15 goals against Tottenham Hotspur in all competitions, only netting more against Manchester United (16) in his European club career. 11 of those 15 goals have come in the Premier League, with only Alan Shearer (14) netting more against Spurs in the competition.

This Premier League win will be Liverpool’s 20th top-flight title, drawing back level with Manchester United.

Of course, with United struggling so drastically, Reds fans will be hopeful of moving back above United next season too.

And while Liverpool’s six European Cup wins is far above United’s three, there is bound to be a sense of achievement at drawing back level with their bitter rivals in terms of domestic titles too.

As for what this title really means for fans and the club itself, we may have to wait for that to become clear in the days and weeks after the title is wrapped up.

With five games remaining, Liverpool have already won as many Premier League games this season as they did last term (24), while victory in this game would also see them equal their points tally from last season (82) with four games to go.

Tottenham have lost 18 Premier League games this season, only losing more in 1993-94 and 2003-04 (19 both times).

Liverpool’s history could have been a burden for any new manager. Slot is conscious of it, but not a student of it. He is set to become the 10th Liverpool manager to win the league, after Tom Watson, David Ashworth, Matt McQueen, George Kay, Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalglish and Klopp. Only Fagan and Dalglish did so in their debut year in the dugout. The video footage Slot studies, however, are not the nostalgic glimpses into their past. “I don’t think that will help us or me to win the game of football on Sunday,” he said. “It was mainly watching Tottenham and that is I think a bit smarter than watching YouTube clips.”

There was, however, one element of Liverpool’s history that Slot noted upon his arrival. “The good thing is that most managers work here for a long time, so you have a lot of chances to win something,” he said. Not that he needed too many opportunities.

“If you walk through the doors here or at Anfield, you know this club has to win trophies,” he said. Which he will do with a consistency that has eluded the rest of the Premier League, a matter-of-fact calmness and a seamless adjustment to a new club, country and division. Klopp was Liverpool’s last title-winning manager and he was a revolutionary. Slot is an evolutionary. “You work with your players to create a playing style, which we already knew we wouldn’t change too much,” he said.

There will be a lot of Slots at Anfield on Sunday. The temptation is to assume that plans have been altered and flights suddenly booked because of the prospect of seeing Liverpool claim the title. Not so. “They will be here but that’s not because it’s such an important game,” said Arne Slot. Careful planning clearly runs in the family and he added: “In Holland it is a holiday at the moment, and it was one here last week. This game was already one from three, four, five months ago that a lot of people were going to come and were asking for tickets.”

The Slot family’s timing may be excellent. Certainly its most famous member’s seems to be. When Jurgen Klopp announced his departure, the possibility is that it would send Liverpool spiralling downwards. Instead his successor arrived in an off-year for Manchester City, when the points tally required to win the league was lower, when Klopp’s parting gift, Liverpool 2.0, were at the peak of their powers, the elder statesmen of Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah not too old, the 2023 signings benefiting from a year at the club.

So the big news for Liverpool is that Trent Alexander-Arnold is fit to start the game. Cody Gakpo is preferred to Diogo Jota in the front three.

Ange Postecoglou has meanwhile made eight changes to his team, seemingly resting his stars for their Europa League semi-final first leg against Bodo-Glimt on Thusday. Liverpool won’t mind that.

Tottenham: Vicario, Spence, Danso, Davies, Udogie, Bergvall, Gray, Johnson, Maddison, Tel, Solanke.

Subs: Kinsky, Romero, Porro, Van de Ven, Bissouma, Kulusevski, Sarr, Richarlison, Odobert.

Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Salah, Szoboszlai, Diaz, Gakpo.

Subs: Kelleher, Tsimikas, Quansah, Endo, Jones, Elliott, Nunez, Chiesa, Jota.