Liverpool now have the defence they need to win away at their title rivals

Liverpool lost at all four of their closest challengers last season but that was before Robertson, Van Dijk and Keïta joined forces

By Martin Laurence for WhoScored

The Premier League returns with a bang on Saturday, when Tottenham host top-of-the-table Liverpool at Wembley in the lunchtime kick-off. This fixture has always been important for Jürgen Klopp. His first game in English football, in October 2015, was a goalless draw at White Hart Lane. More than half of the players who represented Liverpool that day have since left the club – Martin Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho, Lucas Leiva, Emre Can, Joe Allen, Philippe Coutinho and Jordon Ibe – and Klopp has continued to use his visits to Spurs to refine his squad.

When the sides met at Wembley last October, Spurs ran out comfortable 4-1 winners, though that heavy defeat proved something of a catalyst for Liverpool’s season. It left them ninth in the table after as many games, with just three wins and a negative goal difference. The defeat was yet another reminder of Liverpool’s defensive inadequacies, with Simon Mignolet committing costly mistakes and Dejan Lovren being unceremoniously hauled off before half time.

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