| Sunday, May 25th |
Premier League | Anfield
4PM GMT/11AM EST
A football match has been added to Liverpool’s Sunday evening league champion celebration. Crystal Palace will be on an extended FA Cup victory lap themselves, so this game should certainly be something. I bet I’ll be able to smell the booze and hangover sweat from my couch.
Honestly, this match could go one of two ways. Either it’s 90 minutes of 22 men jogging aimlessly up and down the pitch or defense-free goal fest that gets the scoring into the double digits. You can guess which one I’m rooting for.
Premier League Player of the Season Mohamed Salah is two goals away from 30 and two assists away from 20. Since this is his last chance to pad those stats, and he’ll likely be one of the only players who hadn’t drank his body weight in liquor leading up to Sunday, I hope we see a big final performance from him.
To boo or not to boo: Trent Alexander-Arnold has already pitted brother against brother in this fight. Even Jürgen Klopp has come out to chastise fans who gave Trent, a man Klopp is responsible for molding into the Madrid-bound player he is today, hell in previous games. But Sunday is a day of joy. Let’s let the man raise the trophy in peace, eh? If only to not kill the vibes?
Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-3-3)
Kelleher; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Endo, Jones; Salah, Szoboszlai, Gakpo; Diaz
Sadly, Alexis Mac Allister will miss the match, as he is still recovering from a groin injury. Tyler Morton is also still out. Joe Gomez may be deemed fit to play, but not to start, as there’s no point in endangering his recovery. Alexander-Arnold may get to make his final appearance as a Liverpool player, or Arne Slot might just spare him.
For Crystal Palace, Adam Wharton, Chadi Riad and Cheick Doucoure will all be out.
What the Managers Had to Say
Arne Slot: “And I think everybody that’s in the stadium deserves to be there – the fans, the staff, but also the players and one of my players is Trent, so he definitely deserves to be there as well because he’s been part of an incredible, successful season and incredible, successful years at this club. I can only hope that we do it one more time over what we did against Tottenham and I have a lot of trust in our fans to do the same again.”
Oliver Glasner: “Honestly, we don’t prepare like we always have done, because the players had two days off as well after the Wolves game and I think they [Liverpool] had a celebration again, but well deserved. The rest is the same, analysing Liverpool. How they played at the end of the season, everybody knows. I expect they’ll play their strongest team in their last home game.”
The Officials
Referee: Darren England. Assistants: Scott Ledger, Derek Eaton. Fourth official: Sam Barrott. VAR: Paul Howard. Assistant VAR: Nick Greenhalgh.
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