Key events
5 min Mukiele’s first long throw of the gmae is headed away by Van Dijk. The ball goes back to Mukiele, who blooters a cross straight out of play.
3 min A dangerous cross from Hume flashes across the face of the Liverpool goal. Brobbery was wiped out by Van Dijk just before that but the referee didn’t give a free-kick.
3 min Liverpool have started with Szoboszlai on the right, Gakpo on the left and Wirtz in the No10 role. The future is now.
1 min Liverpool kick off from right to left as we watch. They are in red; Sunderland are sporting their stylish Hummel change strip.
YNWA is being sung with the usual gusto at Anfield. The players on both sides look ready for business; let’s get it on.
“I’m generally a fairly pessimistic fan,” writes – shock, horror – Matt Dony, “but even I’m not enough of an eejit to have foreseen this league table. (Well, yeah, maybe I am, but my eejit-hood is usually directed in other directions.) Sunderland have been tremendous, and no one can argue that they don’t deserve their league position. I hope they carry on at this pace. Apart from tonight. It would be a good time for Wirtz and Isak to put it all together and cause havoc. In other pessimistic-fan news, planning on powering through the night, Rob?”
I didn’t get much sleep last night, thanks to the selfish imperatives of a complete eejit, so I’ll be grabbing as much as possible between 11pm and 4am.
“Evening, Rob,” writes Ian Copestake. “Am sitting not far from the ground but thankfully encased in a bungalow. Wouldn’t like to get a casey on the thigh tonight. Glad also that Arne has coped so well with his unease at dropping Mo by doing it again.”
David Conn
When the Independent Office for Police Conduct published the final report on its mammoth investigation into the Hillsborough disaster, the response from bereaved families and survivors was conflicted.
Some of the IOPC’s findings could be regarded as historic, in particular that 12 former officers would have had cases to answer for gross misconduct, including Peter Wright, the chief constable of South Yorkshire police at the time of the 1989 disaster.
But the passage of time, 36 years, since the alleged failings is so great that all the officers have long retired – or, like Wright, are dead – meaning nobody will face any disciplinary proceedings.
The report ends the decades of inquiries, investigations and a generational fight for justice, with the conclusion that 97 people were unlawfully killed, but nobody has been held accountable.
Sunderland have not so much defied expectations as torn them to shreds. You have to go back 20 years to find a promoted side that has picked up as many points after 13 games – Wigan Athletic in the 2005-06 season. Newly promoted sides simply do not start like this anymore.
In fact, the three promoted teams in each of the last two seasons have all ended up facing relegation, and playoff winners fare even worse: seven of the last 11 clubs to come up via the playoffs have gone straight back down. Promoted clubs are supposed to wobble, scrap, cling on; Sunderland have politely declined that script.
Arne Slot has admitted feeling unease at dropping Mohamed Salah after the striker’s eight phenomenal seasons at Liverpool, and said he wants him “doing something special” on the pitch rather than sitting miserably on the bench.
Omitting Salah was Slot’s big call at West Ham on Sunday when the Liverpool head coach found a solution to the Premier League champions’ dismal run of results. The Egypt international, who will depart for the Africa Cup of Nations on 15 December, has struggled to hit his customary heights this season and is not guaranteed to return against Sunderland at Anfield on Wednesday.
Team news
Mo Salah is again on the bench for Liverpool, who make one change to the side that won at West Ham: Andy Robertson is in for Milos Kerkez at left-back.
Sunderland switch to a back five, with two changes to the side that started against Bournemouth on Saturday. Trai Hume and Brian Brobbey come in for Bertrand Traore and Wilson Isidor.
Liverpool (4-2-3-1) Alisson; Gomez, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Gakpo; Isak.
Subs: Mamardashvili, Endo, Kerkez, Salah, Chiesa, Jones, Ekitike, Nyoni, Ngumoha.
Sunderland (5-2-2-1) Roefs; Hume, Mukiele, Ballard, Alderete, Reinaldo; Xhaka Sadiki; Le Fee, Talbi; Brobbey.
Subs: Patterson, O’Nien, Geertruida, Neil, Mundle, Adingra, Traore, Mayenda, Isidor.
Referee Stuart Attwell.
There are five more Premier League games tonight, including the leaders Arsenal at home to Igor Thiago Team. You can follow those with Daniel Harris.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Liverpool v Sunderland at Anfield. Who’d have thought, when the fixture list was released in the summer, that Sunderland would be above Liverpool going into this game? An eejit, that’s who, or somebody who time travelled back from the future with a copy of the Utilita Fotball Yearbook 2026-27.
There are two sides to this unlikely story. Liverpool’s form collapsed after a perfect start to the season; Sunderland started brilliantly and have maintained that level. They’ve already had some famous results, including victory at Stamford Bridge, but a first win at Anfield since 1983 would top the lot.
Kick off 8.15pm.
