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Football London
Football London
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Rob Guest

Jurgen Klopp faces key Liverpool decision that could hand Tottenham second successive triumph

Football fans will not want to take their eyes off the final day of the Premier League season on Sunday with plenty still to be decided at both ends of the league table. Just one point separates Liverpool and Manchester City in the title race, with Tottenham then in the driving seat to pip Arsenal to the final Champions League spot.

Relegation also still needs to be determined with Burnley, Leeds United and Everton fighting for their lives, although Frank Lampard's men can secure Premier League football for next season providing they beat Crystal Palace on Thursday evening. There's also one more thing that is still up for grabs on Sunday afternoon, and it involves Spurs' Son Heung-min.

Appearing like Liverpool's Mohamed Salah would runaway with the Premier League Golden Boot only a few months back, Son has closed to within one of the Egyptian star's 22 strikes going into the final game of the season after a tremendous run of form. Failing to find the back of the net on Sunday against Burnley despite having a couple of decent openings, the South Korean has netted ten times in his last nine league fixtures to hit 21 goals for the season.

READ MORE: Jurgen Klopp makes 'very strange' Tottenham claim when answering Liverpool and Man City question

Salah, on the other hand, has six from his last 14 league fixtures and that has opened up the door for his challenger to pip him to the gong on the final day. With Liverpool in action on Tuesday evening away at Southampton, the Egyptian did have the opportunity to extend his slender lead over Son but he wasn't included in the matchday squad through injury.

Sustaining a groin issue in last Saturday's FA Cup final against Chelsea, Salah was only on the pitch at Wembley for 33 minutes before he was withdrawn by Jurgen Klopp. Not included in the matchday 20 for Tuesday's trip to the south coast, Klopp indicated ahead of the game that the target for Salah and Virgil van Dijk is to be back in time for the final day against Wolves.

"Virgil is definitely not [fit] but that was pretty much clear before the game already that we felt that this is the game to leave him out," said the German, as reported by Liverpool Echo. "He has played a lot and at the moment with it being Saturday-Tuesday again, it was clear that they're both OK. So the target for both is that they can both be involved at the weekend [against Wolves], properly involved on the bench or starting or whatever.

"We will see with that because that would be perfect for the game, but if not, we take each day afterwards. It is very positive or we have no doubt about the Champions League final, but we are pretty realistic about the Wolves game, but tomorrow, not."

Klopp and his coaching team now just need to decide whether or not to start Salah at Anfield this weekend against Wolves or leave him on the bench with the Champions League final against Real Madrid coming six days later. Salah himself will want to start the game if fit as he will be intent on securing his third Premier League Golden Boot award after winning the prize in 2017/18 and 2018/19.

Wolves may be the ideal opponents for Liverpool this weekend with their form tailing off massively in recent weeks after going six games without a win. Hit for five against Man City one week ago and only drawing 1-1 with already-relegated Norwich City at Molineux, Salah and co will be licking their lips with the Anfield crowd set to drive them on in their title charge.

Norwich's terrible defensive record will also give Son a lot of hope on Sunday after shipping 79 goals in their 37 league games so far. Likely to see a number of twists and turns in the Premier League on the final day, we could be set for exactly the same in terms of the Golden Boot as Salah and Son look to come out on top.

Seeing Harry Kane prevail in the race for the prize 12 months ago as he pipped Salah by one goal, a second successive triumph for Tottenham could potentially all rest on Klopp's big call over his star man.

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