LIVERPOOL ARE FAVOURITES

Liverpool have been rated as high favourites to get the first victory of the New Year in the first match itself. Liverpool will be facing Sunderland in the first match of 2013, and they will be looking to continue where they left off in 2012.

Liverpool finished the year on a strong note with a 3-0 victory over struggling QPR during the weekend. Luis Suarez was one of the outstanding players for the team in this match, and he is once again rated to be the favourite to open the scoring against Sunderland as well. Martin O'Neil's men will be coming into the match after the 2-1 defeat against Tottenham.

However, they will have the reasons to be confident ahead of this encounter because they have three victories in the last five matches. As a result of the nine points collected from his matches, Martin O'Neill has been able to reject any talk of relegation from the league for the moment. Liverpool have been extremely inconsistent at home. Even though they have beaten teams comfortably away from home, they have lost to the likes of Aston Villa only recently. Suarez has scored three goals in his last three games for the club, and he will be looking to continue the good run of form against Sunderland as well.

After this encounter, Liverpool will be playing against teams from the bottom half of the table in the next few matches. Hence, there is belief around Anfield that they can finally make up their positions up the table. The club are currently in the bottom half of the table with just 25 points on the board. The possibility of finishing in the top four looks beyond them right now due to the 10 point advantage held by Tottenham and Arsenal in the Premier league.