Sunderland v Liverpool

This isn’t the easiest game in the world to predict for two reasons. Firstly, we don’t know which Liverpool are going to show up and secondly it’s hard to say if Sunderland are really back on track yet.

The feisty Reds that tore Man Utd apart at Anfield bore little resemblance to the lacklustre bunch who limped out of Europe on Thursday to Braga. The men who seem to make Liverpool tick are Gerrard, as ever, and Suarez, who has immediately replaced Torres as a pivotal player at the club. Tellingly, both players ran out against United and neither took to the field in the Europa League. The captain will still be missing against Sunderland but the Uruguayian will be back to add guile to the attack.

Steve Bruce’s side have had a fortnight off following their hard-earned 0-0 draw at the Emirates last time out. That ended a nightmare run which saw the Black Cats lose all four league games they played in February. Further encouragement will come from the shortening queue for the treatment table. Captain Cattermole is expected to return after three months out with a bad back and he may be joined by Onuoha, Wellbeck and Zendon, who have all recovered from injuries.

Sunderland will still have the Reds in their sights as they begin the match only four points adrift of their opponents. They will take encouragement from their result at Arsenal whereas Liverpool may not have got their disappointment from Thursday out of their system yet. I think it’s too much to expect Suarez to win tough away games like this for his new club just yet - the same could be said of Andy Carroll. Therefore I think the away win is least likely at 9/5, a home win is more conceivable at 7/4 but the most likely outcome is the draw at 23/10 with SkyBet, which also represents the best value for a punt.