Liverpool and Southampton

The first Premiership game of the weekend is an intriguing contest between Liverpool and Southampton from St. Mary's. The game can be seen live on Pay Per View and kicks off at 12.45pm.When Harry Redknapp first looked at how Southampton could escape relegation, he is sure to have identified Kevin Phillips as vital to the survival chances. A four goal burst from the striker in the last four games would appear to back this theory up.It is therefore cruel news that Phillips faces three weeks on the sidelines after damaging ankle ligaments. The news could not come at a worse time for the Saints who now look extremely light weight in attack.To make matters worse for the South Coast club, they take on a Liverpool team on Saturday reeling from the midweek FA Cup defeat at Burnley, as well as the unfortunate loss at home to Manchester United last weekend.With the Reds are one place and seven points behind local rivals Everton, who hold the much coveted fourth Champions League qualifying spot, expect Rafael Benetiz to be sending out a full strength team in pursuit of maximum points.The second leg of the Carling Cup next Tuesday won't enter the manager's thoughts, as we have seen time and again this year, the main priority is the league.A best price 5/6 isn't though quite big enough to tempt us into backing Liverpool.What does appeal is the 11/8 available on Milan Baros to score. The Czech striker looked very dangerous when coming on as a substitute at Burnley in midweek, and didn't look to be suffering from his recent hamstring injury.Looking back at recent seasons, and it is evident that a high percentage of Baros goals do come away. One theory for this is home teams place more emphasis on attack, which leaves them exposed more often to speedy strikers.