With another Premier League gameweek firmly behind us, the landscape at the top of the table is unchanged as Liverpool have held onto their four point lead over last season’s champions Manchester City.
This weekend the action resumes with Jurgen Klopp’s men playing host to Crystal Palace and with City playing a day later, it is once again an opportunity to heap more pressure on their nearest title rivals.
Last weekend Liverpool travelled to the South Coast to face Brighton and although it was not a classic performance by any stretch of the imagination, it was certainly a job well done as they came away with all three points.
Going into the game Liverpool had an issue at centre back with Fabinho having to play in a position that he would not usually find himself in, however he managed to deal with the little attacking threat that Brighton put his way.
Liverpool weren’t firing on all cylinders at The AMEX and you got the feeling that it was going to be one of those games where just a single goal would make the difference, something that ended up being that exact case.
After a dour first half the game eventually sparked into life just minutes after the restart when Mohamed Salah was felled in the box and a penalty was subsequently awarded. The Egyptian international duly stepped up and slotted home to give the Reds a much needed all three points.
Not only was it a case of needed points to extend the gap at the top of the table, it was also a welcome return to form after back to back defeats in all competitions to Manchester City and Wolves respectively.
And now that they’ve returned to winning ways the aim will be to continue their positive momentum with a win over Crystal Palace, who themselves lost to Watford in their last Premier League outing.
Selhurst Park was the setting for their most recent defeat and although they took the lead through a Craig Cathcart own goal, it would actually be the Northern Irish international who would go onto restore parity for the Hornets.
From there Watford managed to find an extra gear and had Tom Cleverley to thank for a well taken finish that meant that Javi Gracia’s men made the short trip back home to Vicarage Road with maximum points.
That defeat means that Palace are just four points clear of the drop and even though they currently find themselves lying 14th in the table they cannot afford to rest on their laurels in the battle to stave off relegation.
Before Christmas they surprised just about everyone when they got the better of Manchester City at the Etihad, the question now is whether they can pull off another shock result and blow the race for the title wide open.
Everyone connected with City will hope that is the case, but with Liverpool finding their groove once more then the most likely outcome is that the hosts pick up a win and extend their gap at the top to seven points for 24 hours at least.