Gunners eye City scalp
SPURS COULD GO TOP AS LIVERPOOL SEEK TO BOUNCE BACK
Arsenal could leapfrog Manchester City in an early season showdown for the Premier League title tomorrow as crisis-hit Manchester United seek some respite at home to Brentford.
Tottenham have the chance to go top when they travel to Luton today thanks to a controversial win over Liverpool last weekend.
The Reds are looking to channel their fury at being wronged by a VAR error at Spurs to bounce back at Brighton.
Arsenal’s dreams of a first Premier League title since 2004 were shattered by City’s strong finish to last season.
That included two victories for Pep Guardiola’s men over the Gunners and Mikel Arteta’s record against his former mentor does not read well.
Arteta has lost all seven league games against Guardiola during his time in charge at the Emirates, with the aggregate score reading a painful 19-3.
Arsenal smashed their transfer record to beat City to the signing of Declan Rice with the aim of wrestling the title away from Manchester.
And City gave the contenders to their crown a huge boost when the champions suffered a shock 2-1 defeat by Wolves last weekend.
But the Gunners could be without the talismanic talent of Bukayo Saka for tomorrow’s clash.
The England winger, who has started 87 consecutive league
games, limped out of the midweek Champions League defeat by Lens.
City are also without one of their key men as Rodri completes a three-game ban for his red card against Nottingham Forest last month.
United were supposed to be in the middle of a run of winnable fixtures that would get their season back on track.
Instead, they find themselves battling to avoid a third straight defeat when Brentford visit Old
Trafford today after painful home losses to Crystal Palace and Galatasaray.
Erik ten Hag’s men are already seven points off the top four after losing four of their opening seven games of a Premier League season for the first time.
Brentford have only beaten United once since 1938 but that came last season, when Thomas Frank’s men won 4-0 at their London ground.
Ten Hag did not expect an easy ride after an encouraging first
campaign at the helm but the problems are piling up.
An injury-ravaged defence and error-prone goalkeeper Andre Onana continue to leak goals, while Marcus Rashford looks a shadow of the player who scored 30 goals last season.
Liverpool travel to England’s south coast full of righteous anger after falling victim to an embarrassing VAR blunder last weekend, while Brighton are still hurting from a 6-1 mauling by Aston Villa last week. –