Sunderland v Liverpool, Saturday 17th October

My Thoughts

With speculation mounting that both of Liverpool's players, Gerrard and Torres, will miss this game, expect money to be pouring into bets backing the draw and Sunderland- indeed Liverpool outright have gone from 4/6 to 11/10 in some places today, although this writer will stop short of predicting that they could drift as far as 96/1.

As for Sunderland, having personally seen them (from way up in K Stand Tier 2) very nearly beat Manchester United, this writer feels qualified to say that they are a very decent side. Hard-working lads such as Phil Bardsley and Lee Cattermole would most likely fancy their chances at tackling a Robot XI featuring a mechanised Michelin Man in goals, Sergeant Bash and Killalot from Robot Wars at full-back, Megatron from Transformers in central defence and a midfield 7 consisting entirely of Storm Troopers (with regards to Saturday's match, one cannot help but feel Lucas and Ryan Babel would not enjoy said battle quite as much), such is their willingness to run, kick, tackle and be general hard bastards for the Wearisde cause. Guile and industry is provided by talented midfielders such as Lorik Cana, Steed Malbranque and Andy Reid. Kieran Richardson also plays for Sunderland. Up top, Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones are arguably the in-form strike partnership in the Premier League.

Contrast this with Liverpool's situation, where they were second best in their last game away at Chelsea, and now having to face a tricky away trip to an in-form Sunderland side off the back of what has been an expensive international week, and it's all of a sudden very possible to make a case for Sunderland to get some sort of result in this one.

The Verdict
Forget Chelsea last weekend, this is where we're going to get the best idea of what are left of Liverpool's title-winning credentials. No Gerrard, no Torres, fatigued players (Mascherano and Lucas were late back from South America this week), if Benitez's squad (and it will be the depth of their squad as much as anything that will be tested on Saturday) are really up to the task, then Saturday is the time to prove it. Nevertheless, there's a real vibe, an air of confidence that Steve Bruce has brought to Sunderland, and this writer fancies them to take another result off a top 4 side this weekend.

The Bet
As alluded to earlier, Sunderland's odds are shortening, and will most likely continue to do so right up until kick-off. For the win, Bruce's men are currently around a general 11/4, and are unlikely to drop below 2/1 prior to kick-off, with the draw following a similar pattern from its current 12/5. In terms of alternative markets, have a wee think about an own goal being scored, best price 15/2 with Paddy Power. Last week Anton Ferdinand put through his own net for Sunderland, with John Mensah having done likewise the previous weekend. There's a belter of a quiz question been doing the rounds recently as well: which current Premier League English player has scored the most Premier League goals against Liverpool?
Answer to follow next week