Southampton 1-0 Liverpool LIVE: Latest score and Premier League updates, Shane Long GOAL

SOUTHAMPTON 1-0 LIVERPOOL | LONG (9)

Southampton line-up: Gunn, Valery, Bednarek, Yoshida, Vestergaard, Bertrand, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Hojbjerg, Redmond, Long

Liverpool line-up: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Keita, Wijnaldum, Mane, Firmino, Salah

• Fabinho and Keita start for Liverpool – Hendersona and Milner dropped

• Shane Long opens the scoring from close range

SOUTHAMPTON 1-0 LIVERPOOL

12: Shane Long is the fourth player from the Republic of Ireland to register 50 Premier League goals, along with Robbie Keane (126), Niall Quinn (59) and Damien Duff (54).

11: “Look at the space between Van Dijk and Matip. He doesn’t get across there Virgil van Dijk, Robertson misses it also. Too much time and space, Van Dijk can’t get across, too late!” said Jamie Carragher about the opener.

SOUTHAMPTON 1-0 LIVERPOOL | LONG

9: What?! I’m not shocked about the Southampton opener – I’m shocked it’s Shane Long on the scoresheet!

Ryan Bertrand’s cross is flicked on by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Shane Long is there to collect and coolly finish from point-blank range.

Nightmare start for the visitors.

8: Y’know how Liverpool prepared for today’s clash? They had a spot of lunch watching the first day of the cricket season. Lovely stuff.

Apparently Jurgen Klopp spent most of the afternoon asking what the rules were.

7: I’m calling commentator Martin Tyler out on this one! He says “people often refer to Ralph Hasenhuttl as the Jurgen Klopp of the alps.” Not a chance anyone has ever said that in conversation.

Ryan Bertrand surges beyond Trent Alexander-Arnold before whipping a cross in from the left that Vigil van Dijk clears behind.

5: Already a bit of feistiness about this clash. Fabinho sticks to Redmond like glue and probably should be penalised for a foul – but referee Paul Tierney allows play to continue.

3: Virgil van Dijk receiving a healthy round of boos from Southampton fans. Not sure what their stamina is like – he’s touched it every 30 seconds so far.

Liverpool bossing possession in the early stages. Mohamed Salah is close to skipping beyond Yoshida, who makes a good recovery.

SOUTHAMPTON 0-0 LIVERPOOL

1: And we’re underway folks. Saints in their traditional red and white while Liverpool are in the less familiar purple. Orange trim? Not a fan.

Landmarks…

19:58: How do we all feel about the relationship between players making landmark appearances scoring goals?

Nathan Redmond make his 100th Premier League appearance for Southampton while Trent Alexander-Arnold makes his 50th Premier League appearance for Liverpool.

I’ll be backing both to score based on that stat alone.

Here they come!

19:55: All the Southampton supporters have been issued red and white flags this evening. When exactly was football taken over by free flags and where do they all live afterwards?

Grand National

19:53: Anyone else done a Grand National sweepstake? We’ve just done one in the office and I pulled out… TIGER ROLL! Just kidding, I got Regal Encore at 66/1. Safe to say I won’t be collecting the winnings come 5.20pm on Saturday.

Klopp loves a Friday

19:50: Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp on Sky Sports: “I like Friday night football. I don’t know why.

“As a player I could have a nap in the afternoon. Even though I don’t have time for naps now I still like it.

“The atmosphere seems to be better because people have the weekend ahead.”

VVD warning

19:45: Real Madrid could attempt to sign Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk, according to Leicester legend Robert Huth.

“I’d be surprised if these guys [Real Madrid and Barcelona] aren’t looking at him,” Huth told Starsport. “There aren’t too many players [like him].

“Imagine him and [Raphael] Varane at Madrid. I know they’ve still got [Sergio] Ramos – and he’s obviously at the top of his game – but he’s considerably older than Van Dijk.

“Varane is a similar sort of age. Imagine them for five years at Madrid. Jesus, I’d definitely watch that!

“Liverpool are a great club, but there is a couple of clubs bigger in terms of world stature. Real are consistently competing for the Champions League and league titles.”

Got a feeling Robert Huth will take a bit of stick online for this, but I take his point.

City are the best – Klopp

19:40: Few mind games here methinks.

Jurgen Klopp says Premier League title rivals Manchester City are currently the best team in the world.

“City look like the best team in the world, that’s how it is,” Klopp told reporters. “Barcelona struggled a little bit but still did the job. Juve look pretty impressive in Italy but you don’t exactly know how it will be in the Champions League if Cristiano Ronaldo cannot do it.

“And you think, OK, City look a bit more stable than all of them. But that doesn’t mean they will win all their games.”

So translation: “You’re great but great doesn’t always win games.”

Team News

19:35: Virgil Van Dijk was selected as Liverpool captain after being passed fit to face former club Southampton at St Mary’s.

Defender Van Dijk sustained an ankle knock in last weekend’s win over Tottenham but trained all week without any issues.

Midfielders Fabinho and Naby Keita were recalled by Reds manager Jurgen Klopp, with James Milner and regular skipper Jordan Henderson dropping to the bench.

Shane Long and Jannik Vestergaard overcame groin injuries to return to Southampton’s starting XI.

Long replaced on-loan striker Danny Ings, who was ineligible to play against his parent club, while centre-back Vestergaard came in for midfielder Stuart Armstrong.

Richarlison…

19:30: Come on, we’ve got to talk about this one…

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has reportedly met with the agent of Everton star Richarlison.

Renato Velasco is said to have visited Klopp on Merseyside – although the Reds are not thought to be interested in Everton’s playmaker.

Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Milan have been linked with Richarlison. UOL report he could be sold for £50m.

Everton fans not best pleased about this story.

Prodigy

19:25: 20y 180d – Aged 20 years and 180 days, Trent Alexander-Arnold is the fifth youngest player to reach 50 appearances for Liverpool in the Premier League.

Twitter round-up

Jake: Happy that Keita has been given a game tonight, just wish he would give Shaqiri a chance as well! Need to use the full squad at this point of the season.

Jon: Klopp knows what he’s doing, Southampton will be trying to prevent Trent and Robbo down the wing and it will allow Fabinho and Keita to play narrow. Come on Liverpool.

Bhek: Thank you Jurgen Klopp! No Henderson and Milner in the starting line-up!

We’re not safe

19:15: Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has warned his side they are not safe from relegation yet.

Three wins from their last four matches have lifted Southampton five points clear of the relegation zone with seven matches to play.

“We know how tough it is and there are still a lot of points to get, so we have to stay focused,” said the Austrian. “There is still a long way to go and the sooner we get to 40 points the better.”

Casual Friday

19:10: I always find this Friday Night Football a bit unnerving on Sky Sports. Y’know?

Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville have done away with the shirt and tie combo. There’s no Graeme Souness flying off the handle or Jamie Redknapp up in the gantry.

Just doesn’t feel right!

Drought? No problem

19:05: Well what else was Jurgen Klopp going to say about Mohamed Salah’s goalscoring drought.

The Egypt international, who scored an incredible 42 times in his maiden season at Anfield, has gone eight matches without finding the net.

“When everybody is talking about ‘he didn’t score in I don’t know how many games’, he doesn’t seem to be bothered about it. I’m not,” said Klopp.

“For sure we didn’t really speak about it. I think if something is clear and obvious you do speak about it. His career’s not over! It’s like if he can score this year 20 goals then he’s scored 60 in the last two. Wow, that’s not too bad!”

Grim reading…

19:03: Liverpool supporters are sounding extremely optimistic about tonight’s clash on Twitter.

I can understand why. Southampton have lost the last three Premier League meetings against Liverpool by an 8-0 aggregate scoreline.

The line-ups

19:00: Here you go. Liverpool and Southampton name their starting XI’s. Not many surprises – just the two changes for Liverpool.

Southampton XI: Gunn, Valery, Bednarek, Yoshida, Vestergaard, Bertrand, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Hojbjerg, Redmond, Long.

Subs: McCarthy, Stephens, Austin, Gallagher, Armstrong, Targett, Sims.

Liverpool XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Keita, Wijnaldum, Mane, Firmino, Salah.

Subs: Mignolet, Lovren, Milner, Henderson, Moreno, Shaqiri, Origi.

Twitter round-up

State: Who’s ready for the complete meltdown on Twitter at 7pm? You know, when the team is announced and all the professional armchair managers out there are livid!

Kevin: Friday night football, nothing less than 3 points will do, that’s just the pressure of being title contenders, one slip up and it could literally hand the league over, can’t see it being a walk over but we should be winning games like this, 2-1 I’ll predict.

Christian: Hey Im nervous but have come up with a great solution… BEER!

Terrific plan, Christian. Not sure I’m giving you credit for that ingenuous solution though…

The summer sales…

18:55: In recent years Liverpool have spent about £190million on signing players from the Saints.

That includes key men Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane, both of whom are expected to start tonight.

Liverpool raided Southampton heavily in the summer of 2014 when they brought in Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Rickie Lambert.

The following year full-back Nathaniel Clyne went for £12.5m and then in 2016 Mane made the move for £34m – which looks a bargain on reflection.

The biggest deal – after a bitter wrangle – was Van Dijk’s £75m move last January. He’s transformed Liverpool’s defence.

Evening…

18:50: Friday night Premier League action returns…

The evening I strictly reserve for drinking my body weight in beer and tequila has been ruined by football.

I’d normally be annoyed – but I’ll make an exception given the fixture.

Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool travel to Southampton in a must-win clash that’ll see them leapfrog Manchester City back into top spot.

Lots of history between these two sides – £194million worth of transfers from St Mary’s to Anfield to be precise.

And the most pillaged side in Premier League history are out for revenge!

SOUTHAMPTON vs LIVERPOOL | PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM NEWS

Shane Long and Jannik Vestergaard could return to the Southampton side for the Friday night visit of Liverpool.

Striker Long and defender Vestergaard missed last week’s win over Brighton with groin problems but both are back in training.

Danny Ings cannot play against his parent club while Mario Lemina and Michael Obafemi are still injured.

Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk has been passed fit. The centre-back sustained a knock to his ankle in the 2-1 win over Tottenham but has trained this week without any issues.

Fellow defender Joe Gomez and midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are back in full training but are unlikely to be included yet.

Provisional Southampton squad: Gunn, McCarthy, Stephens, Targett, Yoshida, Vestergaard, Bertrand, Bednarek, Valery, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Slattery, Redmond, Armstrong, Hojbjerg, Elyounoussi, Sims, Austin, Long, Gallagher.

Provisional Liverpool squad: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Milner, Salah, Firmino, Mane, Mignolet, Lovren, Moreno, Henderson, Lallana, Keita, Shaqiri, Sturridge, Origi.