TEAM NEWS

Liverpool will monitor Jordan Henderson and Joel Matip, both of whom have recently returned to training following injuries.

New signings Rodrigo and Robin Koch returned from international duty fully fit, and are available to make their debuts.

Head coach Marcelo Bielsa must decide whether to pick Illan Meslier or Kiko Casilla in goal.

MOTD COMMENTATOR’S NOTES

@Guymowbray: Liverpool start a season as champions for the first time in 30 years, whilst Leeds return to top-level football after 16 seasons down below.

To my mind, since the world changed for the worse, THIS is the Premier League occasion above all others that really misses the crowd it would have brought.

I say occasion rather than game, because the game could still be a very good watch.

Liverpool will attack in their usual intense way. Jurgen Klopp’s words near the end of last season were typically him: “We will not defend the title, we will attack the next one”.

Nothing has changed with the champions. For some fans, perhaps, not enough has changed in terms of new additions to the squad.

And not much will change for Leeds either. The intriguing character that is Marcelo Bielsa is not for changing.

This revered figure amongst almost all other coaches has got the Yorkshire side back to their rightful level with fluid, intense, and at times mesmerising football.

It’s a style that might bring a few heavy falls along the way, but that’s entertaining to the extent that Leeds have already been labelled “everyone’s favourite second team” for this season.

What?? LEEDS??!! The world really has turned on its head.

LAWRO’S PREDICTION

Leeds are a team I’ve seen a lot of in the Championship and I’m looking forward to seeing how they get on in the top flight. I love the way they play.

They are very Liverpool-like in terms of their pressing and their pace and I don’t see them struggling at all, even if this is an especially difficult opening game for them.

Prediction: 2-0

Lawro’s full predictions v soul singer and Arsenal fan Celeste

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

• Leeds’ most recent win against Liverpool was by 2-1 in the Premier League at Anfield in April 2001. Rio Ferdinand and Lee Bowyer scored for the visitors, while Steven Gerrard netted – and was later sent off – for the Reds.

Liverpool

• The Reds are unbeaten in their opening league fixture over the past seven seasons, winning six times.
• Eighteen-time champions Liverpool have begun their title defence with a defeat just once before, losing 2-0 to West Brom in 1923.
• This will be the seventh time the reigning Premier League champions have hosted a newly-promoted side in their opening game, with the title holders winning all six of the previous matches.
• Liverpool are unbeaten in a club record 59 Premier League fixtures at Anfield (W48, D11), with their last defeat coming against Crystal Palace in April 2017.
• They are one shy of conceding 2,000 top-flight goals at home.
• Mohamed Salah can become only the second player to score in his side’s opening fixture in four consecutive Premier League seasons. Teddy Sheringham did so with Nottingham Forest in 1992 and Tottenham from 1993 to 1995.
• Fifteen of Salah’s 19 league goals last season were scored at Anfield.

Leeds United

• The Whites have never lost their first game of a Premier League season, winning five and drawing seven. No team has taken part in as many Premier League campaigns without ever losing their opening match.
• The Yorkshire club last began a top-flight season with a defeat in 1981, when they lost 5-1 at Swansea.
• The winner of the previous season’s Championship has not won their first Premier League game since Sunderland beat Tottenham in 2007 (D3, L9).
• The most recent newly-promoted side to win away at the reigning top-flight champions on the opening day were Notts County against Aston Villa in 1981.
• Leeds conceded 35 league goals last season, the best defensive record of any Championship winner since QPR in 2010-11, and kept 22 clean sheets.
• Marcelo Bielsa is only the fourth Argentine to manage in the English top flight.
• Bielsa, 65, will become the second oldest post-war permanent manager to take charge of his first game in the English top flight, behind only Dick Advocaat, who was 67 when he debuted with Sunderland in 2015.