Liverpool Preview

By Mark Heys
November 30 2007

The month of November saw Bolton Wanderers pick up an away draw at European giants Bayern Munich and defeat Premiership champions Manchester United last weekend so first on the agenda for December will be a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool on Sunday afternoon

Not since January 1954 have Bolton managed an away league win against Liverpool but they did manage to win in the League Cup and FA Cup at Anfield in recent times.

Only Olympique Marseille have managed to beat Liverpool on their home ground this season and the Merseysiders form of late has seen them hammer the likes of FC Porto, Newcastle United and Besiktas.

That said, Bolton have improved under Gary Megson and confidence is high for the trip across the North West for what will be the first fixture of a hectic December.

Megson is likely to welcome back Reds old boys El-Hadji Diouf and Nicolas Anelka to the starting line up after both sat on the bench for the midweek UEFA Cup draw against Greek side Aris Thessaloniki.

Nicky Hunt and Kevin Nolan are suspended and midfielder Danny Guthrie is ineligable to play due to the terms of his season long loan agreement from Liverpool.

Gavin McCann is a doubt with a head wound which forced him out of the Aris tie early in the first half but his former Aston Villa team mate Jlloyd Samuel has recovered from a recent hamstring injury.

Jamaican international Ricardo Gardner will come in for French defender Gerald Cid and veteran Ivan Campo will play some part after being absent in the midweek game.

Ricardo Vaz-Te, Heidar Helguson, Joey O'Brien and Blerim Dzemaili are still out injured and unlikely to be risked for what is Megson's second Premier League game away from the Reebok.

Liverpool are without the injured trio Xabi Alonso, Daniel Agger, Fabio Aurelio and winger Jermaine Pennant who is out for the long term with a broken leg,

LAST TIME WE METl

01/01/2007 LIVERPOOL 3 (Crouch, Gerrard, Kuyt) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

BOLTON WANDERERS: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt, Tal Ben-Haim, Abdoulaye Faye, Ricardo Gardner, Kevin Nolan (Andranik Teimourian), Ivan Campo, Gary Speed (Idan Tal), Kevin Davies, Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf (Ricardo Vaz-Te)

SUBS NOT USED: Abdoulaye Meite, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)

LIVERPOOL: Pepe Reina, Steve Finnan, Sami Hyppia, Jamie Carragher, John Arne Riise, Jermaine Pennant, Steven Gerrard (Fabio Aurelio), Xabi Alonso, Mark Gonzalez (Luis Garcia), Dirk Kuyt (Robbie Fowler), Peter Crouch

SUBS NOT USED: Daniel Agger, Jerzy Dudek (GK)

PLAYED FOR BOTH:

Nicolas Anelka, Peter Beardsley, El-Hadji Diouf, Danny Guthrie, Roger Hunt, Sammy Lee, Jason McAteer, Phil Neal, Jon Otsemobor, Mark Seagraves, David Thompson, Peter Thompson, Johnny Wheeler

DID YOU KNOW?

Henrik Pedersen was the last Bolton player to score at Anfield when netting a consolation in the Boxing Day fixture in 2003.

El-Hadji Diouf was brought to Liverpool instead of Nicolas Anelka in 2002. Now the two are strike partners at Bolton Wanderers.

Bolton's last win against Liverpool came at the Reebok Stadium fifteen months ago courtesy of goals from Gary Speed and Ivan Campo.

Robbie Fowler scored on his 31st birthday when these two sides played against each other in March 2006. His strike proved to be the only goal of the game.