Of course, all 38 games the Reds will play in the Premier League this coming season will be important but these five promise to be real eye openers.
It’s not long now until our Premier League season kicks off again with Liverpool’s trip to Vicarage Road.
Personally I’m excited as it gets for the coming campaign and looking down the Reds fixture list, there’ve been a couple that really stand out to me as potentially being season-defining matches.
Liverpool VS Arsenal: August 27th
Liverpool’s first big test of the season is almost exactly the same as their first big test last season. The only difference being the venue.
Liverpool opened their Premier League campaign last time round by blowing Arsenal away with a brutal 15 minute period of football which saw them score four goals and put the Gunners to the sword, starting off their season-long London dominance.
The Reds will have two tricky fixtures to navigate prior to Wenger’s men visiting Anfield on the 27th of this month – a trip to Watford and a visit from eternal bogey side Crystal Palace loom on the horizon – but this will be the match that gives us our first glimpse of whether Klopp’s men have been able to maintain their big-game mentality.
Liverpool were unbeaten against the top six last season and they’ll be hoping to carry that on for a second campaign running.
Liverpool VS Manchester United: October 14th
They’re the only big team that Jürgen Klopp has failed to beat in his time at Liverpool – in the Premier League – so far.
The manager has claimed the scalps of Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal and City so far in Premier League football but has seen his side held to two stalemates against United and fall to one snatch and grab defeat in January last year.
While the Reds will have already had a chance to bury one bogey side in Crystal Palace by this time but this is the big one. The Manchester United scalp is the biggest one for a Liverpool Football Club manager to claim – aside from perhaps Everton – and this needs to be the year that Klopp banishes the curse. The manager did see his side run out 2-0 winners in their first Europa League leg in 2015/16 but three points in the league will feel far sweeter.
Liverpool VS Swansea City: December 26th
This has all the trademark categories to be an absolute stinker.
Sandwiched in between a trip to Arsenal and a visit from Leicester, this is the kind of game that last season you’d expect Liverpool to slip embarrassingly on the banana skin and give up all three points in ridiculous fashion.
Mental strength and squad depth are two huge factors in forging successful Premier League campaigns and with this fixture resting between two large scale games, both are going to be tested when the Reds take the field at 3pm on Boxing Day.
Winning this would be the kind of result that could also spark the club going on a run of victories which is always a positive.
Southampton VS Liverpool: February 10th
This one could be a huge fixture for Liverpool, especially if they sign Virgil van Dijk.
If the Reds do sign the Dutchman and are able to field a complete strength line up, they could see Adam Lallana, Nathaniel Clyne, van Dijk and Sadio Mané all on the field at one time and we’ve already seen how the Southampton crowd treat their ex-players when they return in a Liverpool shirt.
A host of our key players can expect a hostile atmosphere and will find the game a mentally – and physically – testing 90 minutes that will push them for a result. Klopp’s also not had the best of luck with visits to Saint Mary’s in the last 18 months or so and has failed to beat Southampton since 2015.
A win here would be a massive boost for the club and bragging rights are always nice.
Brighton & Hove Albion: May 13th
I’m hoping that if Liverpool are challenging for the title or more realistically a place in the top four this season – which they should definitely be doing – they haven’t left it to the final day of the season again but it wouldn’t surprise me honestly.
The Reds host Brighton as their final fixture this season and one hopes that this has all the same hallmarks as Middlesbrough last campaign. The promoted side were down and out, beaten before they even took the field and ended up succumbing 3-0 in a routine 90 minutes that guaranteed Liverpool a Champions League play-off berth courtesy of goals from Adam Lallana, Gini Wijnaldum and Philippe Coutinho.
With Chelsea away the game preceding this one the Reds could find themselves desperately in need of three points.
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