By Gary Fulcher, Daniel Rhodes, Samira Kumar and Mihail Vladimirov.

Liverpool closed the gap on leaders Chelsea to just one point following the nervy 2-1 win over Sunderland at Anfield on Wednesday evening, and with title favourites Manchester City (three points behind Chelsea with two games in hand) travelling to the Emirates to face Arsenal and Chelsea facing Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday, the Reds will be hoping to capitalise on any slip ups by beating Spurs on Sunday; 4pm kick off UK time.

Despite thrashing Tottenham 5-0 at White Hart Lane back in December, Tim Sherwood’s side will be dangerous opponents who have proven to be difficult to beat in this fixture over recent seasons. We’ve won two, drawn one and lost four of the last seven league encounters with Spurs home and away, while at Anfield we’ve won one, drawn one and lost one of the last three encounters in the league. They may be seven points behind 4th-placed Arsenal but they still harbour ambitions of clinching a Champions League place for next season, so with that and revenge for the 5-0 hammering in mind, they shouldn’t be lacking in motivation.

Since suffering that 5-0 defeat in December – which sealed Andre Villas-Boas’ fate – Tottenham had their best run of the season in the Premier League, winning five and drawing one before they suffered another five goal mauling at White Hart Lane, this time going down 1-5 to Manchester City at the end of January. Following that defeat Spurs have won four (1-0 against Everton (H), 4-0 against Newcastle (A), 1-0 against Cardiff (H), 3-2 against Southampton (H)), drawn one (1-1 with Hull away) and lost three (0-1 to Norwich away, 0-4 to Chelsea away and 0-1 to Arsenal at home).

Tottenham have the best record on their travels this season (60% win ratio), picking up 29 points from 16 matches. Only Manchester City with 30 points have picked up more points away from home but they have played one game more than Spurs. Defensively, only Chelsea (14), Manchester City (13) and Arsenal (13) have kept more clean sheets than Tottenham’s 12, however 21 of the 40 goals that Spurs have conceded in the league prior to this match came against the current top three: Chelsea (1-1 at home, 0-4 away), Liverpool (0-5 at home) and Manchester City (0-6 away and 1-5 at home).

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