Featured image courtesy of Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Week One threw up a few shocks with Liverpool drawing with Fulham and Leeds, Bournemouth and Brighton all winning. The sample size will remain small until the start of September but owners, coaches and fans will start panicking if results or performances do not pick up by the end of this Match Week. The weekend action commences on Saturday lunchtime at Villa Park.
All games are Saturday 3pm kick-offs unless stated.
Aston Villa v Everton (Saturday 13th August, 12:30, Live on BT Sport)
Everton will go into this match between two sides who’ve lost already, but should play Aston Villa with a slightly more confident streak about them due to how narrow their defeat to Chelsea was. Salomón Rondón being available will help give the Toffees a forward line focal point to play into and past on the break.
The hype of this game is because two of England’s greatest midfielders in Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard are facing off for the first time in management and it would not be a surprise if neither are in charge of their clubs by the end of the season. Gerrard has encountered greater success in his short time as a manager, but the current label being pinned about is that his former assistant Michael Beale (current QPR manager) was the real brain behind it all.
The greater talent in this match-up will be wearing a Villa shirt and it will be criminal if they do not lead the team to victory. Villa’s transfer strategy has been bold and has showed they do have a vision, but if Gerrard cannot inspire his players this weekend, then the rest of the month does not bode well as they face Palace, West Ham and Arsenal.
Everton have demonstrated a recruitment policy which resembles a Supermarket Sweep – pace for instance at centre back is lacking in the form of Conor Coady and James Tarkowski. The heart of the away side will be probed constantly by the Brazilian magician Philippe Coutinho and he always seems to link better with Danny Ings and Ollie Watkins at home.
A fun battle will be former Everton play Lucas Digne taking on young Scottish fullback Travis Patterson.
Player to Watch – Jacob Ramsey
Arsenal v Leicester City
Arsenal love this fixture, because they’ve dominated over the Premier League games and on the whole the Gunners are unbeaten in the last three meetings against Leicester.
Since Brendan Rodgers joined the Foxes in 2019, this seems to be the first time the club are in a state of disarray for quite some time. With Kasper Schmeichal gone, there are now rumours of other key players going and throwing a two goal lead away versus Brentford won’t have calmed the nerves of some Leicester supporters this season. To be fair to Brentford, they did throw the kitchen sink at the home side, tweaked the tactics and utilised the five sub rule.
In previous seasons an over-confident Arsenal would be a dream come true for a team to take on and bring them down a peg or two, but after last Friday’s opening Premier League game result at Crystal Palace, this unit seems like they are on the right path and are capable challengers for at least a Champions League slot.
Oleksandr Zinchenko looked good going forward from left back but if Kieran Tierney is capable of starting he should do so with the Ukrainian possibly taking Granit Xhaki’s centre mid position unless Mikel Arteta would rather the Scottish international fill in at right back. Ben White was woefully exposed one-on-one at Selhurst Park and Jamie Vardy would look to play in that left channel to cause havoc but if Harvey Barnes was fit that would be the mismatch of the weekend.
It’s hard to see where else The Foxes could hurt the home side bar the left, so therefore a long afternoon defending could be on the horizon for Leicester. Expect Gabriel Jesus to be gagging for that first goal of the season.
Player to Watch – Gabriel Jesus
Brighton & Hove Albion v Newcastle United
Confidence is brimming at both these clubs after opening day wins. Brighton did boast the better result away at Old Trafford for the first time in their history, while St. James’ Park was the venue of Nottingham Forest’s first taste of many defeats this season.
The key part of this game will be the compact organisation of both teams, they are set out to play their own way going forward and watertight in defence. Playing away suits both sides and if they are going to challenge higher than last season, home wins are essential. A draw seems the likely result but if either team could nick it then it will be Newcastle because they possess more off-game script talent than Brighton in players like Allan Saint-Maximin, Bruno Guimarães and Callum Wilson, who is the best penalty box fox on the field.
A Brighton side without Marc Cucurella survived last weekend but Kieran Trippier from deep will offer the issues Manchester United failed to pose.
Player to Watch – Callum Wilson
Manchester City v Bournemouth
The saving grace prior to this match is that Bournemouth won on the first day. Away days at the top sides are free hits for the predicted struggling sides but the feeling within Scott Parker’s squad after the match will be higher knowing this result will not equal two defeats from two. It’s hard to select a single player within the Cherries squad who could cause problems to the Champions.
Kieffer Moore has a unique skill set for top flight football and is one of my players to watch this season from the promoted sides. Not only is he a target man but he has the ability to affect games off the ball too. Goals should be a plenty and expect Jeff Stelling to be linking back to this one at regular intervals.
Manchester City to win this one convincingly and could already be ahead of Liverpool with a significant margin after only two games.
Player to Watch – Jack Grealish
Southampton v Leeds United
Southampton’s loss or even the manner to Spurs in week one was not a shock because they are in trouble this season and relegation is a real possibility. They are short of Premier League attacking talent, which coupled with the soft back-line, offers the fans little hope. New additions must be brought in before the window closes to give themselves a fighting chance. It remains to be seen if their best player Kyle Walker-Peters even stays beyond the end of August. Top clubs are watching him, and funnily enough a great destination would be where he left as a Spurs player. Playing wing back now, Antonio Conte must have watched him thinking why did he leave!
The jury is out still on Leeds under Jesse Marsch, as he is very unlikable to other clubs fans and the team bumble along. Goals against last season suggested they should have lost to Wolves on the opening weekend but here we are facing a strong possibility they go into match week 3 with two wins. Patrick Bamford may see this game as a perfect opportunity to score his first goal of the season and springboard his attempt to gatecrash the England World Cup Squad.
Player to Watch – Kyle Walker-Peters
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Fulham
Thankfully this game is hidden at 3pm and a major contender to be last on Match of the Day. Neither side offer much in excitement, as Wolves should be a fundamental top flight team and Fulham are finding their way.
A lot of hope evolved from the Liverpool draw but it feels like it could diminish for Fulham by 5pm on Saturday. They will look to emulate their West London rivals Brentford and grab a early season win at Moulinex like The Bees did last season. The form book does not support a away win though, because the best they have mustered is a draw back in 2011 when Andy Johnson scored – no one within the ranks now possesses pace like he did!
Wolves post-Conor Coady will be interesting and it’s clear now that Max Kilman is the key defender, he could even take the former captains’ England slot. South Korean Hwang Hee-chan showed glimpses of promise last season and I fully expect him to push on this term, potentially grabbing ten goals plus.
Player to Watch – Hwang Hee-chan
Brentford v Manchester United (Saturday 13th August, 17:30, Live on Sky Sports)
United entered both games with Brentford in poor form last season but squeezed out wins both times with goals to spare, so the home side will be looking for some sort of vengeance to turn the screw on new boss Erik Ten Hag and embarrass Christian Eriksen who chose to ply his trade at Old Trafford. The player all pundits believe will have a field day facing Harry Maguire and co is Ivan Toney and they are correct but Bryan Mbuemo is also key to Brentford and he will find a lot of joy down the United left hand side.
Pace and power is also brimming within the forward line of Manchester United. If Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Anthony Martial see a lot of the ball they will cause problems to Pontus Jansson and new signing Ben Mee, who do lack speed.
Three at the back would make sense for Brentford especially if they go the route of a defensive midfielder playing there seeing as Vitaly Janelt and Christian Nørgaard have played that role before. Spanish eyes will be on this game between the two David’s – Raya and De Gea. Battling it out at either end, as time goes on it could be one or the other filling a Spain World Cup goalkeeping squad place.
Player to Watch – Ivan Toney
Nottingham Forest v West Ham United (Sunday 14th August, 14:00, Live on Sky Sports)
Super Sunday begins with the City Ground hosting a top flight game for the first time in over twenty years. Any positive result will stem from the crowd playing their part like last season’s FA Cup run rather than Steve Coopers tactics. Brennan Johnson is a great prospect and should use this season as audition to play his way to a top club in the future. West Ham’s defence will not enjoy the pace and direct goal running that Forest have but a lack of support to Johnson may frustrate Forest.
David Moyes knows how to defeat sides like Forest and his Hammers side will look to squeeze the life out of the home side, so I expect the goals for the away side to come in the second period. Aaron Cresswell’s delivery from set pieces looks to be a key factor this season, so Dean Henderson will need to be imposing to stop that threat on Sunday.
Player to Watch – Jarrod Bowen
Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur (Sunday 14th August, 16:30, Live on Sky Sports)
It’s a shame this Battle of London is occurring so early in the season, not for the viewers of course but at least one of these pretenders will drop points in the quest to challenge the Big Two.
Antonio Conte will throw the kitchen sink at his old club and it’s hard to see how they will cope. Severely depleted in defence, Chelsea’s new defensive signings will need time to blood into Thomas Tuchel’s system. Raheem Sterling looked bright versus Everton but his service could be cut off while his England strike partner Harry Kane will be assisted from so many angles. Yves Bissouma battling N’Golo Kante looks like it has the potential to be a passing of the torch moment in the Premier League.
These clubs do not like each other, Stamford Bridge will be a den of anger within the stands and this usually brings plenty of bookings on the pitch too (remember that night in 2016?). Tottenham top of the league Sunday night seems like a sure thing as I write this preview, then again this is Spurs, historically they find a way to shoot themselves in the foot.
Player to Watch – Harry Kane
Liverpool v Crystal Palace
The final game on Monday night is a must win for Liverpool and as much as Palace could spring a surprise they won’t. Patrick Vierra’s young guns huffed and puffed against Arsenal, seemingly offering some threat but they were always one step behind. If they perform in the first half Monday like the opener then Liverpool will blow them off the park.
Luis Diaz facing Nathaniel Clyne is a gigantic mismatch, once a great defender Clyne now is a major shadow of himself. Wilfried Zaha will be living off scraps as the home side will dominate possession, it’s a shame he never played in a front three like Klopp lines up. Second season syndrome for Viera is firmly smacking him in the head as with Villa, City and Brentford pending a win-less August is a possibility.
The Fulham result was a blip for Liverpool, it’s not often they go two without a win, while the form book in this fixture sides with them. The last home defeat to Palace was 2017 when a brace from recently departed Christian Benteke saw them celebrate.
Player to Watch – Luis Diaz
This weekend’s games are blighted by the rail strike, please everyone stay safe making your way to games, once you do, the action surely will reward the effort you made.
