Norwich City vs Liverpool

Liverpool will kick off the new Premier League season at Carrow Road against newly-promoted Norwich City this weekend.

Norwich gained their fifth top-flight promotion since 2004/05 in style, finishing top of the Championship last season with a staggering 97 points from 46 games. After selling a couple of indispensable first-team players, including Emiliano Buendia, the Canaries’ hopes of improving upon a disappointing haul of five victories in their last Premier League campaign (D6, L27) look pretty slim. Worryingly, both Norwich’s previous Premier League seasons saw them succumb to immediate relegation. To avoid a similar scenario this time around, Norwich manager Daniel Farke will be desperate to increase his underwhelming win ratio of 13.16% in England’s top tier. But a run of eight Premier League Matchday 1 fixtures without winning (D3, L5) may douse any embers of optimism when it comes to a flying start.

Meanwhile, Liverpool pieced together an impressive ten-game unbeaten streak (W8, D2) down the final stretch of last season to earn a third-place finish. A turbulent campaign, highlighted by Virgil van Dijk’s long-term injury, saw the Merseyside heavyweights claim just two victories from six Premier League clashes against newly-promoted sides (D3, L1). However, a clean slate here is well on the cards here, especially considering the ‘Reds’ have never lost an opening game of a new top-flight season under Jurgen Klopp’s stewardship (W4, D1). As if the projections for this encounter couldn’t be more transparent, Liverpool are riding on a 14-game unbeaten Premier League streak against Norwich (W12, D2), a run that includes seven successive league victories at Carrow Road. Yet, it’s worth noting that their last three Premier League wins at this venue all came by a single-goal margin.