The highlight of the midweek Premier League action sees Liverpool take on Tottenham and Tom Carnduff has two best bets.
Football betting tips: Liverpool v Spurs
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Liverpool v Tottenham
- 20:00 GMT on Amazon Prime Video
- Match odds: Home 3/4 | Draw 29/10 | Away 10/3
Can we say this game is a key one in the title race at this stage? Liverpool, despite all their injury problems, are still fancied to be in the running to retain the trophy while Tottenham look a completely new side under Jose Mourinho and have demonstrated an ability to play in a number of ways.
Unfortunately for the neutral, and the large majority of us hoping for an entertaining game, that does mean they can completely shut down a match if they want to play for a point. Against a Liverpool side who have shown a decreased offensive output in some of their recent contests, it should lead to a low-scoring encounter.
Spurs' recent trip to Stamford Bridge was a dull 0-0 with very little happening at either end and that is exactly what they would have wanted. They lined up with the aim of securing a point rather than carrying the risk of losing three and, away at another top side, we can expect a similar tactic.
It would have likely always been the plan but their approach could have been affected by dropped points at Crystal Palace last time out. Defeat here will make it appear to be a poor week while a draw extends their unbeaten run to 11 games in all competitions.
Amazingly, Spurs' xG in that trip to Chelsea was 0.19 with their second-half figure 0.0. Nothing, they made no attempt to try and find a winner and you just know that will be discussed when they travel to Liverpool. It may be a different attitude at home, as we saw against Manchester City, but the aim away will be to avoid defeat.
It could play out to be completely different but the value available on a low-scoring game is just too good considering this is a Mourinho side and they have done Mourinho things this term. If you look at his meetings with Klopp's Liverpool over the past few seasons, you can see that he prefers to keep things tight.
In his two-and-a-half campaigns at Manchester United, two league games at Anfield finished 0-0, while there was a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. That spell also saw a 0-0 draw against Manchester City in 2017 and a narrow 1-0 defeat away at Chelsea a few months later.
Spurs were beaten 1-0 by Liverpool when they last faced each other in January, and even though this Reds side were virtually unstoppable during the 2019/20 campaign, Tottenham came close to shutting them out. Essentially, Mourinho's approach when playing the top teams has been to try and keep it low-scoring.
Liverpool are rarely involved in 0-0 games, although there was one when they travelled to Goodison Park to face Everton in June. That has pushed the odds up on the unders line, making the 5/4 price across the board on under 2.5 goals an attractive play.
But the big play in this game is the 16/1 available on a 0-0 draw. It's already come in for a big game involving Tottenham this season and it wouldn't be a surprise to see more of them as the campaign progresses, particularly if they are serious title contenders.
Score prediction: Liverpool 0-0 Tottenham (Sky Bet odds: 14/1)
Best bet: Under 2.5 goals at 5/4
Best bet: 0-0 correct score at 16/1
Opta facts
- Tottenham have won three of their last seven away league games against reigning top-flight champions (D2 L2), beating Man Utd in 2013-14, Leicester in 2016-17 and Chelsea in 2017-18 – they’d only won three of their previous 40 such matches (D6 L31).
- Spurs have never lost six consecutive matches against Liverpool in all competitions – they last endured such a losing run against an opponent versus Man Utd between September 2001 and September 2004 (seven defeats in a row).
- Liverpool have already dropped 11 points in the Premier League this season (W7 D4 L1), with the Reds only dropping 15 in the entirety of their title-winning season in 2019/20, taking them until the 35th game last season to drop their 11th point in a 1-1 draw with Burnley.
- Tottenham manager José Mourinho has never won away against Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp in five attempts in all competitions (D2 L3), making the German the manager he’s faced the most away from home without ever tasting victory.
Odds correct at 1315 GMT (14/12/20)
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