Liverpool can’t afford Suarez to see red now

If Liverpool are to seal the deal on their first title in 24 years then it is vital that Luis Suarez doesn’t end this Premier League campaign as he began it.

One of the many reasons why, before the start of the season, Liverpool were long odds to end up as top of the pile in May was because, first, there were real doubts about the club’s capacity to retain the services of the Uruguayan.

Even when that issue had been resolved, there remained a lot of uncertainty about how the temperamental striker would respond after being consigned to the sidelines for the first five games of the campaign as he saw out the second half of his 10-match ban for that inexplicable bite at Branislav Ivanovic this time last year.