Liverpool can go top of the Premier League on Saturday, for the first time this year, and even if it is only for a couple of hours current leaders Manchester City will be feeling the pressure.
The match against Watford, managed by former Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson, is the lunchtime kickoff at Anfield with City — who were 14 points clear in February — at Burnley in the afternoon.
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Both games have big implications at each end of the table, with Watford (18th) and Burnley (19th) deep in the drop zone and resurgent Liverpool only a point behind defending champions City at the top.
Juergen Klopp’s reds are on a roll with nine wins in a row and a 14-match unbeaten run in the league that they will want to extend as they head towards what could be a title-defining meeting with City at the Etihad on 10 April.
Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane return from the international break happy at least to be on the same side after Mane’s Senegal sealed their place at this year’s World Cup finals on Tuesday at the expense of Salah’s Egypt.
The last time Liverpool and Watford met in the league in mid-October, when Italian Claudio Ranieri was in charge at Vicarage Road, Liverpool won 5-0 to go back on top of the league.
Salah and Mane both scored then and Roberto Firmino bagged a hat-trick.
Hodgson has an almost fully-fit squad but, asked how he was looking at the trip, told reporters: “With trepidation, I suppose.”
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