By Gary Fulcher & Daniel Rhodes.

Liverpool see out 2015 with a trip to Sunderland’s Stadium of Light on Wednesday evening – 7.45pm kick off UK time – as the Premier League campaign reaches the half-way stage. The Reds are faced with four games in the space of 10 days – all away from home – starting at Sunderland, with trips to West Ham (league), Stoke (League Cup) and Exeter (FA Cup) guaranteeing to push an already injury-ravaged squad to its limit.

Sam Allardyce’s side sit in 19th place five points adrift from safety. Only bottom side Aston Villa have won fewer games than Sunderland’s total of three, while no team in the division has conceded more than the Black Cats’ total of 37. Their 1-4 defeat at Manchester City on Boxing Day was their fourth consecutive league defeat, although three of those defeats came against Arsenal (1-3), Chelsea (1-3) and Man City (1-4) all away from home, with Watford recording a 1-0 win at the Stadium of Light sandwiched between the defeats against Arsenal and Chelsea.

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