Football returns to Anfield following the international break, with Liverpool bidding to become the fourth team to win 14 consecutive English top-flight matches in Premier League history, in this, the baptism of the 2019/20 season.
What’s more, the Reds could become the first team to do such a run while scoring more than one goal in each game; a fantastic achievement that demonstrates how much Liverpool are thriving under the guidance of manager Jürgen Klopp, the German now in his fourth full season with the club.
This weekend Liverpool welcome Newcastle United, a team they have scored more goals against than any other.
The Magpies have seen 98 goals sail past them at the hands - or rather feet and a bit of skill - from the Anfield outfit in 25 Premier League seasons.
Only Everton have conceded more from a single club, with 107 shipped to Arsenal and a century to Manchester United.
Last year’s joint-Golden Boot winner, Sadio Mané, can be respectively predicted to be a main instigator of more misery for the Magpies on their ventures to the North-West.
The 3-1 victory over Arsenal - the last home game for Liverpool before the hiatus of international football - registered Mané’s 50th game at Anfield without suffering defeat at the ground.
Mané has now recorded 40 wins and 10 draws at the stadium.
However, this stretches way back to his Southampton days, when he first arrived in England five years ago. Mané joined the South-Coast club from RB Salzburg in a £10million move on deadline day summer 2014, having missed Saints’ opener, a 2-1 loss at Liverpool in mid-August.
The season after, a Southampton side - starring Mané - held Liverpool to a 1-1 draw on Merseyside, starting that remarkable streak.
The real ‘50’ however can now be done in Liverpool colours with three points from Newcastle at home in this fifth gameweek of the season.
Liverpool haven’t lost a game at home in the Premier League since April 23 2017, scoring 110 during the time proceeding. They are on the longest undefeated streak at home in any of Europe’s top five leagues, better than any team in the Premier League, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Serie A, or La Liga.
Crystal Palace were the last team to inflict defeat in the domestic league on Liverpool’s home turf, in a 2-1 win. At the time Mané was sidelined with a knee injury for the final eight matches of the 16/17 Premier League season.
In a terrifying triptych alongside Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, Mané has excelled. His best-ever tally came last year with an exceptional, not-bettered, goal haul of 22 successful strikes in the English top tier.
This season, the Senegalese has had a hand in three goals in four league games.
It’s not the most ridiculous decision to back him to adding to that and marking it on an unblemished ‘50’ at the stadium that religiously chants his name.
