Next Saturday, 10th of January 2015, an inconsistent Liverpool will travel to Tyne and Wear to measure forces with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light for round 21 of the English Premier League, a match of paramount for the Black Cats, who are dangerously close the relegation zone, and for the Reds, who want to extend their victorious streak a bit further and close their point gap to West Ham and Arsenal.

The disappointing home draw against Leicester on the first day of the new year was certainly a huge blow to Liverpool’s confidence levels, that were definitely on a crescendo after their solid 4-1 win against Swansea. The Reds were comfortably on the lead thanks to two goals from their eternal captain, Steven Gerrard, from the penalty spot, during the first-half, but for some reason or another, they allowed Leicester to net in two goals in just two minutes’ time early on the second-half. Nugent and Schlupp refrained Liverpool’s enthusiasm and “robbed” them two vital points on their battle for a place on the top five of the EPL table.

After such disappointment, Brendan Rodgers managed to rally his troops and Liverpool defeated a mighty AFC Wimbledon at Kingsmeadow by a narrow 2-1. Steven Gerrard, who has announced that he will be leaving his all-time club at the end of the current season, was once again the man of the match by scoring his teams’ both goals.

The Reds’ upcoming match against Sunderland will definitely not be an easy one and will surely force them to some extra work. For that particular clash, Brendan Rodgers will not be able to rely on the services of Sturridge, Johnson, Flanagan, Allen and Lallana, all sidelined due to injury.

As for Sunderland, they have been experiencing several problems so far this season and they currently occupy the 14th place of the EPL table, which is dangerously close to relegation zone. Their last Sunday’s FA Cup win against Leeds United certainly brought some extra enthusiasm to the team after their recent poor league run.

The festive period was fairly painful for the Black Cats, who have not won any of their last three matches and who also conceded a compromising home defeat against Hull in that process.

Despite their inconsistency, Liverpool are favourites for next Saturday’s clash, although, if Sunderland manage to replicate their good performance from the recent match against Manchester City, they might get something positive from the clash.

Sunderland

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - WLDLW

Liverpool

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - WDWWD

Possible Line-ups

Sunderland (4-4-1-1) - Pantilimon - Vergini - O’Shea - Brown - Jones - Rodwell - Larsson - Gomez - Johnson - Fletcher - Wickham

Liverpool (3-4-3) – Mignolet - Sahko - Skrtel - Can - Lucas Leiva - Henderson - Markovic - Gerrard - Sterling - Coutinho - Lambert

Prediction

Sunderland 1 Liverpool 2