Chris Sutton is tipping Bournemouth to inflict a second Premier League defeat of the season on Liverpool as two of the top flight's form teams go head to head on Saturday.

The Cherries are pushing for a Champions League spot on current form, having not lost in their last 11 league games, and Andoni Iraola's men will be buoyed by back-to-back thrashings of Newcastle and Nottingham Forest.

Bournemouth won 4-1 at St James' Park a little under a fortnight ago before last weekend's 5-0 victory over Forest — another of this season's surprise packages.

What makes Bournemouth's form even more impressive is that it comes against the backdrop of significant injury issues: Iraola could be without as many as nine players against Liverpool on Saturday.

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Despite that, Sutton is backing Bournemouth for a 2-1 victory over Arne Slot's title pretenders. In his BBC Sport predictions, he said: “Liverpool had the luxury of resting players for their final Champions League group game, Wednesday's defeat at PSV Eindhoven, and still finish top of the table.

“There are some who will question whether that is in the spirit of the competition, but if you were Reds boss Arne Slot then what would you do?

“They are trying to win everything at the moment and they had earned the right to make those changes. His players will be well rested for this game but I just have a feeling about Bournemouth at the moment.

“The Cherries are depleted by injuries, and you cannot discount Mohamed Salah winning it for Liverpool the way he has done so many times before. But Andoni Iraola's side have already beaten Arsenal and Manchester City here this season, as well as Forest and Newcastle, and they have taken as many points as Liverpool - 22 - in their past 10 matches.

“My first thought was to go for a 2-2 draw but then I was reminded of the pledge I made last week to be braver and back Bournemouth more. That helped me to be right about them beating Forest, so I don't really have much choice but to carry on being brave, do I?”