Norwich v Liverpool: Canaries can cause champions-elect problems

DANIEL MCCULLOCH (@DMcCulloch1984) shares his favourite fancies from Saturday evening’s showdown from Carrow Road as Norwich host Liverpool.

Norwich v Liverpool | Saturday 15th February 2020, 17:30 | Sky Sports

Given that Liverpool have amassed 55 more points than Saturday’s opponents in just 25 games, it is no surprise that they go to Carrow Road as overwhelming favourites.

While some performance data metrics suggest that Jurgen Klopp’s men are slightly fortunate to have such a lead at the top of the Premier League table, there can be little doubt that they are comfortably the best side in England at this moment.

Liverpool’s away record this term reads W11-D1-L0, with the Anfield side having scored 25 goals and conceded just six. At the start of the season they were struggling to keep clean sheets – particularly at home – but since conceding twice to Everton on 4^th December, they have allowed just one goal in 10 Premier League matches.

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All this may make my selection all the more surprising, as I like the look of Both Teams To Score at 20/21 with Boylesports. As stated earlier, the underlying data suggests that Liverpool have been a tad fortunate this season. Indeed, across those 10 matches, while they have been mainly dominant, their opposition have managed 84 shots, 25 of which were on-target so it is remarkable that they’ve only conceded one goal.

Tottenham, Watford, Southampton and Wolves (twice) will all feel that they should have scored more so while Liverpool are an excellent side, they are not impregnable.

Their opponents this weekend, Norwich, have scored in 11 of their 12 home league games this season, including three times against Manchester City and twice against Chelsea and Arsenal. Moreover, BTTS has landed in 10 of these matches as well and half of Liverpool’s away matches.

For all their faults, Norwich do create chances so I expect them to find the net here.

As an aside, I cannot ignore the 8/1 with BetVictor on a 2-1 victory for the away side. Liverpool have won by this scoreline in five of their 12 matches on their travels. Ultimately, I think it will be another enterprising but ultimately frustrating night for fans of Norwich, so this price looks too good to turn down.