Sports Mole looks at how newly-crowned Premier League champions Liverpool could line up for Thursday's showdown with closest challengers and former holders Manchester City.

Liverpool's first match as champions of England for 10,650 days comes at the home of the team they have just dethroned on Thursday as they face Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

Defeat for City at Chelsea last week mathematically secured the title for Liverpool in record time, keeping them an unassailable 23 points clear of their closest challengers with seven games of the season remaining.

The Merseysiders, who last lifted the trophy 30 years ago, will now have their sights set on breaking Man City's own records for most points, most wins and biggest title-winning margin in Premier League history.

Jurgen Klopp's men could take another stride towards that at the Etihad, and here Sports Mole looks at how they might line up for the top-two showdown.

Out: Joel Matip (toe)
Doubtful: Xherdan Shaqiri (calf), James Milner (hamstring)

> Click here for Liverpool's latest injury and suspension news ahead of this match

Liverpool will not be able to call upon Joel Matip again this season after the toe injury he sustained in the Merseyside derby proved to be more serious than first thought, although that may not affect Klopp's plans too much.

Indeed, the champions could name an unchanged side to the one which thrashed Crystal Palace last week, with James Milner and Xherdan Shaqiri their only other injury concerns.

The XI named against Palace was what most would regard as their strongest team, and with eight days between matches and no other competition left to fight for this season there appears to be little reason for Klopp to make many changes.

All of the regular members of the first-team squad have already made enough appearances to earn Premier League medals, and the youngsters currently short of the five-game threshold - the likes of Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Neco Williams - will no doubt benefit from the five-sub rule.

There are still individual targets for some key players to reach too - Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane are both still in the Golden Boot race, Trent Alexander-Arnold needs just one more assist to break his own single-season record for a defender and Virgil van Dijk is on course to become only the fifth outfield player to play every minute of a Premier League title-winning campaign.

Roberto Firmino will be looking to maintain his impressive away record this season, which includes six goals in seven away games against top-half opposition.

> Click here to see how Manchester City could line up for this contest