Liverpool broke their habit of scoring late winners when two goals inside the first half-hour were enough to see off Everton in Saturday’s Merseyside derby at Anfield and early strikes will be on the cards once again when they entertain Southampton in the Carabao Cup.
The Premier League leaders go into the third-round tie in front of the Kop a comfortable five points clear at the top of the table.
However, despite prevailing in their last six matches in all competitions they have only won one of them by more than by more than a solitary goal and that was when they defeated Bournemouth in their opening league outing of the season thanks to late efforts from Federico Chiesa and Mohamed Salah in the 88th and 90th minutes.
Since then they have needed goals in the dying embers of matches against Newcastle, Arsenal and Burnley in the top flight plus Atletico Madrid in the Champions League to secure victory, but now they have broken that trend against the Toffees they can secure a comfortable passage into the fourth round of the League Cup with a big win against their underwhelming Championship opponents.
Reds boss Arne Slot is likely to make sweeping changes to his side for the visit of the south coast club, who are struggling to find their feet in the second tier after being relegated from the Premier League last term as the bottom club in the division.
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But with the likes of Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Curtis Jones, Andrew Robertson, Joe Gomez et al set to be given a start it doesn’t augur well for the visitors.
They are 19th in the Championship with just six points from their first half-a-dozen matches and, after losing 3-1 at Hull on Saturday, over 3.5 goals at 5/6 with BoyleSports looks a certainty.
Isak hit the winner for Newcastle in last year’s 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the final in Slot’s first year in charge at Anfield but he can make amends by providing the opener against Southampton at 7/2 with BetMGM.
Take out insurance by smashing into the same firm’s offer of 11/10 for the Sweden striker to find the net at any time while a 4-0 home win is 9/1 with Betfred and Sky Bet among others.
Carabao Cup odds
Everton are 6/4 with Betfred to pile the misery on Premier League bottom feeders Wolves by knocking them out of the Carabao Cup at Molineux via victory in normal time. Stick the Toffees in an accumulator with Brighton, Fulham and Liverpool to all win by more than one goal and it will yield a lovely return.
Ryder Cup odds
Europe are our selection to win the Ryder Cup, which tees off at Bethpage Black in Long Island on Friday, and they are 13/10 with Sky Bet and Paddy Power to be ahead after the first day’s play. William Hill, bet365 and others go 6/1 the score is 5-3 in their favour after the first eight rounds against the United States.
