Paul Merson has backed Trent Alexander-Arnold to return to action with Liverpool’s first team in midweek despite James Milner’s ‘incredible’ performance against Pep Guardiola’s men.
The Merseysiders will face West Ham United after securing a 1-0 victory against Premier League rivals Manchester City.
“I hope Trent Alexander-Arnold returns for this game,” the former England international wrote for Sportskeeda.
“James Milner was brilliant – he was the oldest player on the field against one of the youngest, and I can’t tell you how good that performance was.
“I know Joe Gomez got the Man of the Match award, and rightly so, but for Milner at 30 years old to play like he did against Phil Foden was unbelievable.”
There were fears that a seven-goal thrashing of Rangers in the Champions League would signal another false dawn ahead of what was the Reds’ biggest clash of the season so far.
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However, Jurgen Klopp’s men came through their latest test with flying colors, and a second successive league victory against 12th-placed David Moyes’ side would mark a real improvement in the state of domestic form.
Rival supporters will no doubt scoff at the prospect of us moving up the table enough to catch up with the league leaders (not an entirely unfair assumption).
It’s a target we’ll have to set aside for now, although there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t successfully chart a path back to the announced Champions League spots after proving our capabilities against the title holders.
A fit and fit Alexander-Arnold will be absolutely integral to us achieving that goal.
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