This weekend, when Jurgen Klopp makes his first trip to Kenilworth Road to take on Luton Town, Liverpool will be desperate to avoid a banana-skin match.
With just one loss in all competitions thus far this season, the Reds have had a great start to the year, but recently they have found it difficult to overcome the newly promoted teams.
The Merseyside team overcame Bournemouth 2-1 in midweek, and Darwin Nunez’s spectacular goal advanced them to the Carabao Cup quarterfinals.
Liverpool is currently three points behind table-toppers Tottenham in fourth place in the Premier League after returning to action.
Liverpool vs. Luton Town: Head-to-head record and form
After just one victory in their first ten games of the season and seven losses, Luton is currently mired in the relegation zone.
The Hatters can find solace in the fact that their lone top-flight triumph came against Everton, a Merseyside rival.
It’s also odd that Liverpool has a bad record against recently promoted teams, having dropped their last two away encounters with Championship teams.
However, Luton has yet to record a Premier League shutout, and the Reds are only two goals behind Aston Villa and Newcastle in terms of goals scored this season.
- Luton and Liverpool have not faced each other in a competitive setting since January 2008, when the Reds defeated Luton 5-0 at Anfield in an FA Cup third-round replay.
- In their last ten encounters with Luton across all competitions, Liverpool has only lost once (W5 D4), falling short 3-1 at Kenilworth Road in February 1991.
- This is the first time Luton and Liverpool have faced each other in a home league match since a goalless draw in August 1991. Luton is unbeaten in their previous four meetings (W2 D2).
Luton Town vs Liverpool: Team news
Midweek saw no Carabao Cup action for the hosts, but long-term absentees Mads Andersen and Dan Potts are still out, while Reece Burke and Albert Sambi Lokonga, an Arsenal loanee, are getting closer to making a return.
Luis Diaz won’t be playing for the visitors any longer due to the circumstances surrounding his family in his native Colombia.
In addition, Liverpool faces a number of injury concerns due to the absence of Ben Doak, Thiago Alcantara, Stefan Bajcetic, and Andy Robertson.
However, Curtis Jones is available here after making his return from a domestic suspension against Bournemouth.
- Only James Ward-Prowse (16) has created more chances via set plays than Luton’s Alfie Doughty (14) this season. Doughty has also made 23 successful crosses, with only Kieran Trippier having more (31).
- Only three players have created more chances in the Premier League this season than Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai (25), who, against Nottingham Forest, became the second Hungarian to assist two goals in a Premier League game along with Zoltán Gera. It’s the most chances created by a player in his first 10 appearances in the competition since James Rodríguez for Everton in 2020 (also 25).
- Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has been involved in 32 Premier League goals in 2023 (20 goals, 12 assists), with only Erling Haaland having more goal involvements (33). Indeed, the last three instances of a player both scoring 20+ goals and assisting 10+ goals in a calendar year have all been achieved by Salah (28 goals, 12 assists in 2018 and 24 goals, 11 assists in 2021).
Luton Town vs Liverpool: What has been said?
Jarell Quansah, an academy defender, made an impression in the victory over Bournemouth, and Klopp was quick to commend him.
“That’s the other thing that was obvious: that he was really good,” he remarked. Wow, in these conditions. There are a lot of hard balls to predict, judge, and estimate—where will they land? He performed admirably.
“Caoimhin [Kelleher] reasoned that he should be given a lot of balls to play with and observe his potential.
“He performed admirably there. Yes, definitely top game.”
Regarding Nunez, Klopp continued, “It’s an amazing goal.” Throughout the entire game, we had far more opportunities—five, six, and seven—but we needed that goal. It was him.
“Everyone was putting in a lot of effort, and that’s what you want to see. We now make the lengthy journey home by car, but we would have needed to do it anyhow. However, moving on to the next round makes things feel lot better.”
- This season, Luton has not kept a clean sheet in the Premier League in ten games. This is the first time since 2019–20 in the Championship that Luton has failed to do so. They are hoping to avoid becoming just the second team in Premier League history to concede in all 11 of their opening games, after Leicester in 1994 (first 18 games). This is their first season in the league.
- Liverpool has only suffered a late loss to Spurs in September, out of their last 21 Premier League games (W14 D6). Nevertheless, they have dropped their last two away games against recently promoted teams; previously, they had a longer run of these matches between December 2010 and March 2012 (four in a row).
- Only Arsenal (7) has scored more goals in the last ten minutes of a game this season than Luton, who have scored six of their nine Premier League goals in that span. But in the last 10 minutes of games, Liverpool has given up just two goals in the Premier League out of the previous 31 goals they have allowed.
- This season, Liverpool (176) has attempted more shots in the Premier League than any other team (only Tottenham Hotspur, 178), and the Reds have the highest expected goals total (22.4). With 17.6 shots per game on average, they are second only to 2021–22 (19.2) in their best Premier League season under Jürgen Klopp.