Paul Merson: Why Liverpool will exact Crystal Palace revenge

Despite winning quite handily on this ground last season, the Frenchman wasn’t about to take anything for granted, emphasizing what a “tough” game, it would be, but stopping short of playing down his side’s chances.

Manager Alan Pardew’s pre Liverpool press conference thoughts have now filtered through in the press, and here’s what he had to say. We have to focus on what they are not good at and defending is an issue at the club so we will look to exploit that.

Palace memorably left the Reds’s Premier League title bid in tatters in May 2014 after Liverpool squandered a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 with the London side at Selhurst Park.

Alan Pardew’s side have lacked a physical presence up-front in recent games, and news of Wickham’s return will boost both Pardew and the Palace faithful.

The Eagles won 3-1 at Liverpool in May in Steven Gerrard’s final game.

Philippe Coutinho is likely to return for Liverpool on Sunday.

“I still think Palace will put up a decent fight in what will be a hard-fought game, but I just fancy Liverpool”. “Especially away from home”.

“It was great to play again, it’s been a long time coming – I have been out for several weeks so it was nice to just play”, he said.

The one thing that Palace can not afford to do is play the way they did against Tottenham.

The game against Palace is followed by an global break, before Man City host Klopp’s men on 21st November. That will signal the end of what has been a particularly tricky first three months to the campaign. In contrast, Palace have won two games, one of which was at Anfield previous year.

Given the giant strides Liverpool are already making under Klopp, and the kind upcoming run of fixtures, it is understandable to feel positive looking ahead.

In the Premier League, the Reds (4-5-2) are eighth in the table on 17 points, one clear of Crystal Palace (5-1-5) in 10th with Merseyside archrivals Everton between.

Palace have proved to be nightmare opposition since that night in May 2014, but if Klopp can work his magic and defeat them, it will be yet another hurdle conquered by the giant German.