At 04:00 in the morning on January 2nd, Beijing time, the 20th round of the Premier League ushered in a strong dialogue. The Red Army Liverpool faced the Magpies Newcastle United at home at Anfield Stadium. This game is the first game between the two teams in 2024. Both sides definitely hope to welcome the new year with a good start. The sports betting official for this game gave Liverpool a 1.31 payout for the home win. Liverpool completely suppressed their opponents. Newcastle may have lost 3 games in a row in this game.
After the 19th round of the Premier League, Liverpool ranked first with a record of 12 wins, 6 draws and 1 loss, with 42 points. Although the momentum has slowed down with only 1 win and 2 draws in the past 3 games, the successive successes of title rivals Arsenal and Villa allowed them to win the title of half-time champion. In the last round of 2-0 away game against Burnley, Liverpool showed super dominance. They easily defeated their opponents in the away game with 69% ball possession rate and 10 shots on target. It is worth mentioning that Burnley did not have a single shot on target in the entire game, which is enough to reflect the solidness of Liverpool’s defense. Speaking of defense, the Red Army ranks first this season because of their performance on the defensive end. They only conceded 16 goals in 19 rounds, which is also the team that conceded the fewest goals in the Premier League. Moreover, the Japanese defensive midfielder Hiroshi Endo introduced by the team in the summer window has been in hot form recently. In December, he contributed 95% passing success rate, recovered the ball 40 times, and succeeded in 43 confrontations. His outstanding performance is also Guaranteed Liverpool’s good results.
Since entering December, the shortcomings of Newcastle’s thin lineup have been revealed. Too many injured players and the long-lost European competition left them somewhat overwhelmed. Throughout December, they had a poor record of 2 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses. They were eliminated from both the Champions League and the League Cup, and the Premier League also dropped to the mid-table position of ninth place. In the last game, they advanced by one goal at home, but were reversed by league underdog Nottingham Forest with three goals, and suffered two consecutive defeats. After successive losses to relegation favorites such as Luton and Forest, Newcastle’s state has obviously reached its lowest point. Moreover, there is another metaphysical data that needs attention. Newcastle have not won the first Premier League game for five consecutive years since 2019. Now they are playing away to the leader Liverpool. Newcastle may continue their embarrassing performance of not winning at the beginning of the year. .
Judging from the battle records between the two sides, since the Saudi consortium took over Newcastle in October 2021, they have suffered five consecutive defeats against Liverpool. Although Newcastle have become a force that cannot be ignored in the Premier League in the past two years, they still seemed to be “blood suppressed” when facing the Red Army and were at a comprehensive disadvantage.
The sports lottery official has offered an odds combination of 1.31 (Liverpool), 4.65 (tie), and 6.20 (Newcastle) for this game. Liverpool is favored to win as the main winner. In the score play, the lowest payout for Liverpool 2-1 is 7.25 for 1, followed by 2-0 for 8.5 for 1 and 3-1 for 9.75 for 1. The rest of the scores are higher than 10 for 1, and the lowest payout for Newcastle’s victory is 2-1. It’s as high as 18 to 1. It can be seen that the score data is consistent with the direction of the odds of victory, draw and loss, and Liverpool also has an overwhelming advantage. To sum up, Liverpool wins Newcastle United in this game and has great hopes of continuing to be at the top of the list.