Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
1) Merseyside derby offers shape of things to come
Ten years to the day after their most recent win over Liverpool, Everton entertain the Premier League champions at Goodison Park in a topflight fixture that is about as mouthwatering as they get under the current conditions. Despite the 7-2 defeat at Aston Villa, Liverpool go into the game as odds-on favourites against a side that, under the stewardship of Carlo Ancelotti, finally appear to have overcome their almost pathological inconsistency. Their white-hot winning streak of seven matches in all competitions since the season began will end at some point, but there are few compelling arguments that suggest it will do so against a team that have looked curiously out of sorts lately. We could learn a lot from this game, not least whether Everton are genuine title contenders in what is already shaping up to be a very peculiar season, and whether the extraordinary humiliation visited upon Liverpool by Villa was an aberration or an early indicator of a far greater malaise. BG
Everton v Liverpool, Saturday
12.30pm BST (BT Sport)
2) Saints will ask questions of Chelsea at both ends
Southampton have yet to get going this season but are precisely the kind of team who Chelsea will not want to face: organised, athletic and with the firepower to tax an extremely dodgy defence. In particular, Danny Ings and Che Adams can cause all sorts of problems for whichever centre-backs Frank Lampard sends out – most likely Thiago Silva and Kurt Zouma. Neither will appreciate being pressed in possession and neither has spent much time in the kind of man-to-man duels a genuine striking partnership will foist upon them. Chelsea have the attackers to damage any team, though, as Crystal
Palace discovered. It will be interesting to see whether Lampard sticks with Tammy Abraham as a focal point and Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Callum Hudson-Odoi roving behind, because with Mason Mount looking sharp and Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech now fit, he has as many options as he could possibly need. The skill is in picking which combination will work best against which opponent. DH
Chelsea v Southampton, Saturday 3pm (BT Sport Box Office)
3) Partey time for Arsenal at the Etihad?
Arsenal had already made two big signings this summer but the addition of Thomas Partey feels different. While Willian offers experience and Gabriel Magalhães has vast potential, Partey is a 27-year-old operating at the peak of his powers, arriving from a club that have operated on a higher plane to Arsenal in recent years. He could be a gamechanger and Arteta will surely be tempted to start him at the Etihad. “We knew before we signed him that he is fit, he is very willing to start playing,” the manager said. There will be the temptation to draw conclusions if he plays but, given the praise heaped on Lucas Torreira soon after his arrival, instant adulation or condemnation must be avoided. But Partey is exactly the kind of elite player required for the test City will provide; if he and Arsenal can pass it, the signs their revival is gathering pace will look irresistible. NA
Manchester City v Arsenal, Saturday 5.30pm (Sky Sports)
4) United must make changes after Spurs shocker
The international break has put distance between United and their 6-1 loss to Spurs, but those responsible should not escape punishment for the hilarious rancidity of their display. Though David de Gea did not make any catastrophic errors last time out, his catatonic aversion to leaving his line or commanding his box is the last thing a faltering defence needs behind it. It is time for Dean Henderson to be given a go, while in front of him, Alex Telles for Luke Shaw is a no-brainer. It might seem risky to throw in Axel Tuanzebe but he is quick, composed and intelligent – everything United currently lack. And the balance of the team also needs addressing: you cannot field two wide attackers with no defensive duties when you have a slow back four and midfielders who do not assist the full-backs. So Nemanja Matic should be replaced by either Scott McTominay or Fred, whose job it must be to cover the width of the pitch, while Bruno Fernandes and Donny van de Beek – in for Paul Pogba – run up and down. If Ole Gunnar Solskjær is not vigilant, the players who helped him into this mess could soon help him lose his job; it’s time to step up the Fergie tribute act from parking spaces and Cliff visits to calculated gambling and exhibition ruthlessness. DH
Newcastle v Manchester United, Saturday 8pm (Sky Sports Box Office)
5) An early basement battle at Bramall Lane
Chris Wilder’s team are still very good and should start moving up the table soon. But doubts may take root if the Blades still have zero points after Sunday’s home game against the bottom club, Fulham. Scoring goals has been United’s biggest problem so far this season, so the young man they signed for £23.5m to address it, Rhian Brewster, could be given a debut. Fulham, reinforced their defence on transfer deadline day by signing two new centre-backs, Joachim Andersen and Tosin Adarabioyo. Something has got to give at Bramall Lane, where both sides will be hoping to kickstart their season. PD
Sheffield United v Fulham, Sunday 12.30pm (BT Sport Box Office)
6) Palace primed to pounce on break against Brighton
Crystal Palace sit rock bottom of the Premier League’s possession table, seeing less than 37% of the ball in their four games so far. They are unlikely to improve that figure in the derby with Brighton, given Graham Potter’s emphasis on dominating the ball, but their counterattacking approach has served them well enough so far. It could be that Roy Hodgson is willing to allow Brighton to take the initiative and invite mistakes: for all their eye-catching play, the Seagulls are being rather too easily exploited so far this season, even if the circumstances against Manchester United were unfortunate. Eberechi Eze and Wilfried Zaha offer constant speed and menace on the break so the pattern of this contest may well have been set in advance. A win would see Brighton leapfrog their hosts and, with a particularly tough start behind them, they could do with a result to avert any early alarm bells. NA
Crystal Palace v Brighton, Sunday 2pm (Sky Sports)
7) Ndombele has chance to cement his midfield place
You do not have to look too far to find people queuing to praise José Mourinho’s tough-love treatment of Tanguy Ndombele. Things are certainly heading in the right direction after what the France midfielder admitted last week were “a number of differences of opinion” between the pair last season. “Since then we have each tried to put our egos to one side,” Ndombele said, and both men deserve credit for turning the situation around. The 69 minutes Ndombele completed in the rout at Old Trafford, which also brought Spurs’ first goal, felt like a significant step and now Mourinho will want to see whether he can produce that intensity over a run of games. West Ham are capable of more or less anything, so whether they are the ideal opponents for a similarly mercurial talent remains to be seen. NA
Tottenham v West Ham, Sunday 4.30pm (Sky Sports)
8) Southgate keeping tabs on English talent
The King Power is the place for Gareth Southgate to be on Sunday so that he can catch a glimpse of an exciting England future. As well as checking out Harvey Barnes and
James Maddison, he could run the rule over a potential England defensive partnership – Villa’s Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa – and reconsider his attitude towards two attacking talents he has never seemed to appreciate properly, Jack Grealish and Jamie Vardy. Fitness permitting, all of those players should help to make this Sunday-night showdown a thriller. Brendan Rodgers’ main question will be whether the visit of a side who fired seven goals past the champions is the right occasion to hand a Premier League debut to the 19-yearold centre-back Wesley Fofana. PD
Leicester v Aston Villa, Sunday 7.15pm (Sky Sports Box Office)
9) Baggies and Clarets have chance to arrest slide
Must-win or dare not lose? It is far too early to start reading the last rites to anyone but both West Brom and Burnley need to improve quickly and there may just be a little tension when they run out at the Hawthorns on Monday. Sean Dyche describes his group as “a little bit wounded”, although more in terms of injuries than any morale loss from their pointless start; Johann Berg Gudmundsson is at least back in contention for a starting place and his creativity should add to Burnley’s attacking threat. They can also call on Chris Wood, one of the league’s most underrated strikers; the New Zealander scored the winner in this fixture’s most recent iteration, back in March 2018, and will be keen to test his old club’s worryingly leaky defence. West Brom have conceded more goals than anyone so far while taking fewer shots; both sides will fancy their chances of arresting some grim-looking statistics on Monday night. NA
West Brom v Burnley, Monday 5.30pm (Sky Sports Box Office)
10) Tactics v talent in an oldschool classic
This is the kind of fixture whose details should be the preserve of James Alexander Gordon, the vidiprinter and those in the ground, not played in front of empty stands for a Monday night TV audience – but here we are. Wolves have had a strange start to the season – good against Sheffield United, both outclassed and dominant against Manchester City, then thrashed by West Ham, of all teams. Though they have toggled formations and personnel in that time, their fundamentals remain the same: they will sit deep and retain possession in order to launch quick counters, a strategy that looks ill-advised against a Leeds team who move the ball faster and more aggressively. For all the tactical conjecture this match-up inspires, in Raúl Jiménez, Adama Traoré, Pedro Neto and Daniel Podence, Wolves have system-busting individuals good enough to upend all Marcelo Bielsa’s training-ground endeavour in bursts of good, honest, old-fashioned talent. This should be a good one. DH
Leeds v Wolves, Monday 8pm (Sky Sports)