Liverpool vs Newcastle LIVE: Team news CONFIRMED; Premier League latest, Mohamed Salah

Liverpool vs Newcastle: Premier League latest score, goals and updates

• Liverpool have won six successive games in all competitions

• Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 22 Premier League home games against Newcastle

• Rafael Benitez is winless in his three away games at Anfield

• Mohamed Salah has scored 24 goals in 27 Premier League home games

LIVERPOOL vs NEWCASTLE

Liverpool XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Salah, Shaqiri, Mane, Firmino

Newcastle XI: Dubravka, Yedlin, Fernandez, Lascelles, Dummett, Ritchie, Diame, Hayden, Kenedy, Joselu, Muto

Hello Muto

14:48: Jurgen Klopp appears to be very knowledgeable about Newcastle’s starting XI. The German has clearly done his homework.

“Rafa changed things a bit,” Klopp explained. “We should expect two strikers, Joselu and Muto, I know Muto from Mainz and he is a good player. More a 5-3-2 or 4-4-2, we will see. But it’s clear – we have to be dominant, and we know how strong Newcastle are on the counter-attack so that’s important.

“Set pieces will be important too, so the whole tool-box is needed.”

Stronger than 2005…

14:45: Rafa Benitez famously guided Liverpool to Champions League glory in 2005 courtesy of a remarkable fightback against AC Milan in the final in Istanbul, and he believes Jurgen Klopp has a stronger squad at his disposal than he had at the time.

Asked if the current Liverpool side is the best since his, he replied: “It’s difficult to say ‘team’ because always in my head is that when we beat Real Madrid and Barcelona, there was a great team, but what I think is they have the best squad.

“When you spend money, you bring in better players – they have signed Fabinho, spent some money on (Naby) Keita, but they kept (Jordan) Henderson and they kept (Georginio) Wijnaldum, so you keep the good players and you bring in new players, so the squad is better.

“What does that mean? That in different competitions, different games, still you have a strong team on the pitch.”

Twitter round-up

Phil: Hoping Rafa Benitez gets a good reception today but also hoping he goes back to Newcastle really unhappy! Come on Liverpool!

Conor: Arsenal and City coming up… very little rotation in today’s team. Surprise! If ever there was a chance to give the main lads a rest and start the likes of Origi, Studge it was today but the boss knows what he’s doing.

Elis: Taking my four year old daughter to her first football match. Not saying she’s not up for it, but she’s taking two colouring books and is dressed as Cinderella.

Elsewhere…

14:35: Plenty of Premier League fixtures to feast on today. Fulham and Wolves drew 1-1 with Aleksandar Mitrovic having a stoppage-time effort cleared off the line.

Burnley v Everton, Crystal Palace v Cardiff, Leicester v Manchester City, Liverpool v Newcastle, Manchester United v Huddersfield, Tottenham v Bournemouth, Brighton v Arsenal – 5.15pm, Watford v Chelsea – 7.30pm.

Twitter round-up

Josh: I actually didn’t expect a full strength side today with Arsenal coming up this weekend so I’m quite surprised by the lineup but if it gets us the 3 points then no complaints. Shaqiri, Firmino, Mane and Salah all starting so no messing around from Klopp. Let’s go Reds!

Ally: Newcastle have only scored seven goals away from home but only conceded seven in their eight PL away matches, kept three clean sheets. They could be hard to break down so we’ll need to be patient. Early goal would be nice.

Heath: Really annoyed I have to work, but there aren’t many more fun days in the Premier League calendar than Boxing Day. Come on you Reds!!

Yeah, Imagine having to work on Boxing Day, Heath…

Rafa Benitez backs Liverpool

14:25: Rafael Benitez has backed Liverpool to push reigning champions Manchester City all the way… Well what else was he going to say?!

Asked if they are title favourites, he said: “Still it’s too soon, but I think both teams are a little bit ahead of the others. I haven’t seen the Manchester City game, but nobody was expecting that.

“But as I’ve said before, Crystal Palace, the three up front, you can buy them for £50million, each one, so it sometimes can happen when teams have good players to play on the counter-attack.

“But still I can see Liverpool, I can see Manchester City ahead of the others. Liverpool are in form, they are doing really well and it will be a very difficult game for us.”

The other Mo…

14:20: Mohamed Diame has warned Newcastle they will have to be even more miserly if they are to deny Premier League leaders Liverpool victory.

One of the few positives the Magpies were able to take from a dreadful 0-0 draw with bottom-of-the-table Fulham at St James’ Park on Saturday was the clean sheet with which they emerged despite a series of late scares.

However, repeating that feat at Anfield against Jurgen Klopp’s men, who have scored 39 goals in their 18 Premier League fixtures to date, is likely to prove even more challenging.

“We know it will be tough, we know we will run a lot, but we need to be ready,” Diame said. “We’re going to start the game at 0-0 and make sure we keep our clean sheet and try to score when we get the chance because in most games, you get at least one or two chances, so we will get chances.

“We have to stay strong, stay compact and make sure we are ready for this game. They are a team which has a lot of potential up top with top players, so we need to be strong, keep the shape and keep fighting as we are doing.”

Twitter round-up

Deborah: Listening to the match in bed eating Quality Street in between sneezing and sniffling. Struck down in a matters hours with the worst cold I’ve had in years. Up the Reds!

Thomas: Very strong lineup as I predicted from Jurgen Klopp, can’t afford to be complacent against the lesser teams, we saw that bite City on the backside against Palace. Very happy to see Shaq starting.

Kris: A bit surprised to Shaqiri start with Arsenal coming up on Saturday. But I think Klopp wanted a side that could be strong enough to beat Newcastle today. That is all that matters now. Three points is what Liverpool should have in mind now.

Latest score…

14:13: Wolves have equalised at Craven Cottage, where Fulham were given the lead by Ryan Sessegnon. Off-the-bench Ivan Cavaleiro plays a ball across the box which causes carnage. Romain Saiss is there to tap in his first Premier League goal. That’s 1-1 with about seven minutes remaining.

Where’s James Milner?

14:10: I assumed that James Milner was absent because he’s taking down all of his Christmas decorations and folding away his festive jumpers…

Jurgen Klopp has shed some light on why exactly James Milner and Alberto Moreno are not included in the matchday squad.

“It’s not that serious but still serious enough to put him out of the squad today,” he said. “Millie has a little muscle problem so we couldn’t fix it quick enough, obviously, similar to Alberto Moreno [who has] some back problems.”

Ch-ch-ch-changes

14:05: Forget the “Jurgen Klopp will rest his best players” nonsense, folks. The German tactician isn’t overlooking Newcastle and names an extremely strong side.

He does make three changes with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Georginio Wijnaldum and Xherdan Shaqiri coming into the side with James Milner, Fabinho and Naby Keita dropping out.

And YES, Mohamed Salah starts. I’ve had fantasy football managers knocking down my door about the Egyptian!

Newcastle make six changes, with leading scorer Salomon Rondon dropped to the bench.

Yoshinori Muto, Isaac Hayden, Kenedy, Federico Fernandez, Joselu and DeAndre Yedlin start.

Javier Manquillo, Fabian Schar, Christian Atsu, Ki Sung-yueng, Ayoze Perez and Salomon Rondon miss out.

The starting XI…

14:00: And here comes the team news!

Liverpool XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Salah, Shaqiri, Mane, Firmino.

Bench: Mignolet, Clyne, Keita, Fabinho, Lallana, Origi, Sturridge.

Newcastle XI: Dubravka, Yedlin, Fernandez, Lascelles, Dummett, Ritchie, Diame, Hayden, Kenedy, Joselu, Muto.

Bench: Woodman, Schar, Manquillo, Murphy, Longstaff, Rondon, Perez.

Twitter round-up

Karl: Wonder what sort of weird line-up we’ll see today? Alberto Moreno and Nathaniel Clyne to start at full-back? Xherdan Shaqiri in? Adam Lallana in? Maybe even Daniel Sturridge!?

Tommy: Such an important game today! Often in the past we’ve dropped points against Newcastle so let’s hope we don’t today! Need to keep that 4 point gap at the top!

Gill: Ahh Boxing Day at home nothing like a 2 day hangover just kicking in & Jurgen calling on us to create a hostile atmosphere…I’m feeling pretty hostile tbf.

Join the club, Gill!

Christmas…

13:55: How rude of me! Sorry everyone, I forgot to ask you if you enjoyed Christmas Day? I just presume you would have said yes and that you’re over the moon about the socks you’ve been bought…

As you can probably tell – I’m a bit of a Christmas scrooge. I think If I heard Wham!’s ‘Last Christmas’ again I’d probably explode.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed it and now I’m going to completely ignore the remainder of the festive period.

Afternoon

13:50: Hello everyone and welcome to our LIVE coverage of the Premier League leaders against Newcastle at Anfield.

Sounds strange to be saying ‘Premier League leaders’ and NOT be referring to Manchester City…

I suppose everyone will get used to it soon enough with Jurgen Klopp’s Reds undefeated in the league with almost half of the season gone and looking rather formidable.

Rafa Benitez said it would be a ‘miracle’ if the Toon stayed in the Premier League this season but a shock win over his former employers, with Newcastle having lost just twice on the road this season, would be a good place to start.

Y’all ready? Ok, let’s see the team news and line-ups!

LIVERPOOL vs NEWCASTLE

Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold is set to return after missing the last two matches with a foot injury.

Naby Keita is expected to resume training ahead of the game after sustaining a foot injury and bruised ribs at Wolves on Friday. Centre-backs Joe Gomez (fractured leg) and Joel Matip (broken collarbone) remain sidelined for another three to four weeks.

Newcastle will be without South Korea midfielder Ki Sung-yueng after he headed off to the Asia Cup. Jonjo Shelvey is struggling to shake off a thigh injury so Isaac Hayden could come into contention. Ciaran Clark (ankle) missed Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Fulham while Federico Fernandez (calf) was on the bench. Goalkeeper Karl Darlow (elbow) is still out.

Last season: Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0, Newcastle 1 Liverpool 1

Last five league matches: Liverpool W W W W W; Newcastle L D L W D

Top scorers (all competitions): Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) 14; Salomon Rondon (Newcastle) 5

Referee: Graham Scott (Oxfordshire)