Premier League, Week 13: Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur win Sunday

Liverpool may have won, but the single goal didn’t arrive until the 85th minute. On the whole, the performance was disjointed and disappointing. The same issues that have plagued the side this season were evident, and it seemed as though the Reds won in spite of those flaws, rather than because they overcame them.

Against Stoke, Lambert struggled, isolated when the midfield was unable to get the ball to him, but not providing much help when the attack did reach the final third. Some of that was fatigue after playing 90 minutes against Ludogorets on Wednesday, but even then, it was an underwhelming performance from the former Southampton striker.

Southampton’s season has gotten off to a dream start under new manager Ronald Koeman, but they’ve finally hit the part of their schedule where they come up against some real tests. They host Manchester City on Sunday, and it’s the first of three consecutive games against sides that were favored to finish in the top four this season.

Despite their spectacular early season form, Southampton are coming off a disappointing 0-0 draw against Aston Villa. Though that game finished 1-1, Villa had a number of chances that they failed to take and very easily could have come up with an upset win.

Gerrard isn’t exactly suited to the defensive midfield role he’s been playing, so this is a long time coming. But Gerrard has long been seen as undroppable by the Liverpool faithful, and continues to get nominated for player of the year awards despite playing well below his former level, simply because he’s Steven Gerrard and the one trick he still has in his bag is really, really fun.

If Liverpool manage to save Rodgers’ job by running riot over Stoke with Gerrard riding pine, things are going to get really fun on Merseyside.

Injury-prone Manchester United have had a very peculiar start to the season, and find themselves up in a Champions League spot despite having won less than half of their opening few matches. The jury is still out on boss Louis van Gaal, though should the Red Devils finish the season in fourth place, it’ll probably be considered a job well done.

Key player - Ángel di María (Manchester United)

Picking Liverpool’s goalkeeper as the key player may seem like an odd choice, but his recent performances for the Reds have been pretty unimpressive to say the least. Even Liverpool goalkeeping legend Bruce Grobbelaar has been criticising Mignolet. The Belgian shot-stopper have to be on better form in this match, or Liverpool could well find themselves dropping yet more points.

Liverpool injuries and suspensions

West Brom have been pretty patchy themselves so far this season, but Alan Irvine’s side are still own in a respectable mid-table spot heading into the weekend. In Saido Berahino, they also have one of England’s top attacking talents in their ranks, who is capable of doing damage against any side. Let’s see if the Gunners’ makeshift defence holds up.

With Arsenal’s midfielders dropping like flies, Aaron Ramsey will soon be the last man standing. And, considering his importance to the Gunners, that’s just as well. Unlike any other Arsenal midfielder, he adds a creativity and a dynamism in the centre of the park which can unlock defences in an instant. With Wenger’s style often lacking in penetration, an on-form Ramsey is vital.