The Premier League's top two teams go head to head on Wednesday night when champions Liverpool welcome leaders Tottenham Hotspur to Anfield.
Only goal difference separates the two sides after 12 games of the season, making this mouth-watering midweek fixture a perfectly-poised contest in the Premier League title race.
Liverpool boast the best home record and attacking record in the division, but come up against a team unbeaten on their travels and with the best defensive record in the league this season.
Here, Sports Mole selects its strongest combined XI from both squads, using only players who could be in contention to play this weekend.
Even with their injury troubles, Liverpool provide seven of the 11 players in this team, including the goalkeeper Alisson Becker, despite Jose Mourinho's claim that Hugo Lloris is the best in the league.
Liverpool's record with and without Alisson speaks volumes, and it is worth noting that seven of the 18 goals they have conceded this season came in two games which Alisson missed.
Indeed, despite Spurs boasting the best defensive record in the division this season and the Reds missing first-choice centre-back pairing Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez, Liverpool have three of the back four too.
Trent Alexander-Arnold has perhaps not quite hit the heights of last term so far but remains one of the most dangerous attacking full-backs in world football to beat Serge Aurier and Matt Doherty to a place, while on the opposite flank Andrew Robertson is a fairly easy pick despite Sergio Reguilon's bright start to life at Spurs.
It was in the middle where there was a bigger question mark over who to pick, with both Eric Dier and makeshift centre-back Fabinho firmly in contention.
In the end, we have gone for Joel Matip despite there being a doubt over his fitness for the game due to a back injury, and Toby Alderweireld, who has arguably been the standout performer of all the centre-back options in this team.
The toughest decision of the lot came in midfield, where Georginio Wijnaldum is desperately unlucky to miss out having held the fort for much of the season in Liverpool's injury-hit midfield.
Moussa Sissoko has also been in fine form this term, but the performances of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg deserve to be recognised while captain Jordan Henderson has immediately reiterated his importance to the Liverpool team since coming back in after a brief injury absence.
A 4-3-3 formation would have allowed us to include another midfielder, but would have also then forced us to leave out one of the star-studded front four, which is already missing Roberto Firmino.
Tanguy Ndombele and Steven Bergwijn have also played important roles in Tottenham's success this season, but the four men chosen were all impossible to leave out given their form this season.
Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min have both helped themselves to 10 goals already in 2020-21, with Son also chipping in with four assists and Salah two as well.
Harry Kane is just behind in the scoring stakes with nine to his name, but he leads the way in assists with an incredible tally of 10 already this season, meaning that he has directly contributed to 19 goals in just 12 league games.
Of the quartet, Sadio Mane is the only one lagging slightly behind in terms of numbers with four goals and one assist so far, but there is no doubting his overall contribution to the cause for Liverpool.
Video prediction
Watch the Sports Mole Football Shorts prediction for this game below:
body check tags ::
