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Liverpool lurched from calamity to respectability against Trabzonspor and will look to apply a similar gloss to their Premier League start against an Albion defence beaten six times when they last left the Hawthorns. Victory would be Liverpool’s 2,000th in 4,223 league games and all their big guns are expected back having missed the trip to Turkey and Friday’s five-hour flight home. Albion last won at Anfield when Jeff Astle secured a 1-0 victory in 1967 and they have not scored on this ground since 1985, when Garth Crooks grabbed the consolation in a 4-1 defeat for a side managed by Nobby Stiles. Andy Hunter

Venue Anfield, Sunday 3pm

Tickets Sold out

Last season n/a

Referee L Probert

This season’s matches 1 Y2, R0, 2.00 cards per game

Odds Liverpool 1-4 West Bromwich Albion 15-1 Draw 5-1

Liverpool

Subs from Jones, Rodríguez, Pacheco, Aurélio, Kyrgiakos, Babel, Lucas, Wilson, Spearing, Shelvey, Kelly

Doubtful Agger (concussion), Gerrard (back), Rodríguez (virus), Wilson (virus)

Injured None

Suspended Cole (second of three)

Form guide LD

Disciplinary record Y2 R1

Leading scorer Ngog 1

West Bromwich

Subs from Myhill, Barnes, Shorey, Bednar, Zuiverloon, Cox, Méïté, Wood, Moore, S Reid, Fortuné, Tchoyi

Doubtful Thomas (ankle)

Injured Mattock (ankle, 18 Sep), Miller (thigh, 18 Sep), Cech (foot, 25 Sep)

Suspended None

Form guide WL

Disciplinary record Y3 R0

Leading scorer Odemwingie 1

Match pointers

• Liverpool have won their last 12 meetings with Albion in all competitions

• Albion have failed to score in their eight Premier League meetings with Liverpool

• 29% of the goals Liverpool conceded last season came in the 15 minutes before half-time, the highest proportion in the division

• Albion have had four shots on target so far this season – the joint lowest total in the top flight

• Liverpool have kept 17 clean sheets in their last 20 matches at home to newly promoted teams

Premier LeagueLiverpoolWest Bromguardian.co.uk

• 26-year-old leaves Liverpool for Serie A on loan
• Agreement in place to make the move permanent

The Liverpool midfielder Alberto Aquilani has completed his season-long loan move to Juventus – with the deal including an option to make the transfer permanent for £13.1m at the end of this season.

Aquilani, who underwent a stringent six-hour medical examination yesterday, struggled to make an impact after his £17m move from Roma last summer, and, while the loan had been seen as a chance for him to prove himself to Liverpool, it now appears his Anfield career may be over.

A Juventus statement read: “Juventus Football Club announces that an agreement with Liverpool FC for the free temporary acquisition of the registration rights of the player Alberto Aquilani has been reached.

“The agreement also includes the option right, to be exercised at the end of 2010-11 season, for the definitive acquisition by Juventus of the football player at the price of £13.1m, to be paid in three years.”

Aquilani, 26, was signed by the former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez as a replacement for the influential Xabi Alonso but his first season on Merseyside was hampered by injuries. It was more than two months into last season before he made his debut for the club and he featured only sporadically.

The current Liverpool manager, Roy Hodgson, said last week: “It’s very important that he plays regular football, every week, as the number one man on the teamsheet. I can’t promise him that here so if a loan move to Italy could help him in that respect it might be good for all parties.”

The deal effectively completes a swap for Denmark midfielder Christian Poulsen, who moved to Anfield from Juventus earlier this month.

LiverpoolJuventusTransfer windowguardian.co.uk

• Liverpool defender says Gary Lineker sleight lifted his game
• Anfield veteran confident Roy Hodgson’s squad can recover

If it requires only modest improvement for Liverpool to regain their Champions League status, as Jamie Carragher contests, then the despair of José Reina’s fumble against Arsenal will not reside long at Anfield.

The recovery Roy Hodgson was employed to oversee began in several individual performances on Sunday. Carragher attributes his own to a pre-match sleight from Gary Lineker.

Before kicking a ball in this Premier League season the defender was informed his 32-year-old legs had gone by the Match of the Day presenter. Carragher heard the refrain frequently at the start of last season and expects more of the same this term. On day one, and from the former Everton striker he used to follow from the Gwladys Street, however, such a post-mortem was sure to prompt an indignant response.

“I read Gary Lineker before the game saying my legs had gone so I wasn’t in the best of moods before kick-off and I was more determined to play better than I normally am,” Carragher said.

“You have good days, bad days, but we did OK against Arsenal. Later on I’ll probably make a couple of mistakes and people will say I’m finished again. You look at Pepe [Reina], who was very disappointed after the game, but he’s one of the best goalkeepers in the world.”

Carragher was not the only Liverpool defender, or senior player, whose form fluctuated last season, contributing to the club’s sorry seventh place and hastening Rafael Benítez’s departure from the political in-fighting of Anfield.

Martin Skrtel and Glen Johnson were similarly troubled, and also responded impressively against Arsenal, while Javier Mascherano put aside his desire to leave to produce a committed display, and Steven Gerrard appeared re-energised in mind and body.

“I made too many mistakes at the start but I think I got my game together from the Man United game at home last season, from November onwards, so I like to think I had a good second half of the season,” the defender said. “But the whole season was unsatisfactory, doom and gloom, and so everything anyone did was criticised.

“I understand that we’re paid a lot of money and we’re in the limelight. When things don’t go well, there’s deserved criticism. Liverpool shouldn’t be finishing seventh and getting knocked out of every cup early so we deserved that last season.”

It is only one game, and uncertainty still surrounds a club in the process of separating the wheat from the chaff among potential new owners, but the Anfield veteran is confident Hodgson’s squad can recover this season. “We’re Liverpool. I