Every weekend is turning into a massive weekend in the Premier League, which is fantastic. It’s exciting every single week.
I said at the beginning of the Premier League season. I don’t think that these four teams that we’re talking about as being real contenders, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool, can afford to drop too many points and lose too many games.
So, every weekend has been so exciting, and it just shows the quality of the Premier League. The likes of Brentford are winning, Crystal Palace are winning, Everton are up there, and Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. are in the top five. It’s really interesting.
Chelsea vs Manchester City
It’s the one that everyone is going to be watching this weekend.
Chelsea are flying. You can’t knock them.
Thomas Tuchel is a real tactician. He makes little tweaks here and there and he’s got his team firing on all cylinders. The Romelu Lukaku signing was seen as the final piece of the jigsaw, but the whole squad are playing their part. They’re getting goals from everywhere. You see in in the weekend, Thiago Silva scored from a set piece, in a game where Lukaku is very influential but doesn’t score, they still run out 3-0 winners.
Easy weekend for them against Tottenham. Wasn’t a great first half, but in the second Tuchel’s tactics played exactly into Chelsea’s hands. Bringing Mason Mount off and putting Kante on. It was a slick second half by Chelsea and they ran out easy winners in the end.
Coincidentally, Liverpool sit top with them with identical records, which is absolutely crazy; scored 12 conceded one.
I think if you look at City, well they’ve dropped five points already. Pep Guardiola won’t be happy with that. A draw against Southampton at the weekend was a big slip up by them. Again, defensively they’ve been solid.
I say they’ve dropped five points, they’ve also got a massive three games coming up. One in the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain, then they’ve got Liverpool after that, and Chelsea this weekend. Guardiola knows the importance of not dropping any more points.
I think in saying all this, both defences are very, very good. It’s going to be a tight game I feel.
I’m going to go a draw between these two, between Chelsea and Manchester City and I’m going to go 1-1.
- A 1-1 draw is available at 23/5 (5.60).
Arsenal vs Tottenham
The second big game of the weekend, Brentford vs Liverpool… Just joking!
It’s got to be the North London derby!
Arsenal against Tottenham. Years gone by this fixture has thrown up some classic encounters between the two teams. Really exciting games.
These two managers now come together. Arteta, you know, he’s been under a lot of pressure since the start of the Premier League. Really still looking for his best team in my opinion. You look at the two results they’ve just had, which have slightly taken the pan off the heat for Arteta; the Norwich and the Burnley game in which they ran out 1-0 winners in both games.
You’d expect Arsenal to win those games. Burnley and Norwich both struggling in the bottom and wrong end of the Premier League, but they were still games they had to win, and they did that. Arteta tweaked the team and the formation- which still leads me to believe he doesn’t know his best side. He has gone away from that three at the back system and gone 4-1-4-1 against Norwich and 4-2-3-1 against Burnley and they both proved to be the right decision to bring positive results.
Six points on the board now. When you look at the table, they are only three points behind seventh, so another couple of wins are really going to push them up the league. It’s going to be a tough afternoon.
One thing I did notice about Spurs which was surprising is that they’ve only scored three goals in the Premier League. I know they’ve missed Son in the last couple of weeks, but Harry Kane just looks a shadow of his former self. He doesn’t look the player that we’ve all come accustomed to, scoring lots of goals and being highly influential with assist. He looks a man whose had a move taken away from him last minute. They need him to start performing and start scoring goals.
Defensively they’ve been ok. Last week obviously they shipped three goals against Chelsea and they’ll want to put that right against Arsenal. They’ll feel like they’ve got an opportunity to go to Arsenal and take some points – especially with the form Arsenal are in right now. Confidence is still low, all be it on the back of those two wins.
I think Arsenal have got enough. I think It’s Tottenham who are struggling. I’m going to go with an Arsenal 2-0 win.
- A 2-0 Arsenal win is available at 10/1 (11.00).
Liverpool vs Brentford
Liverpool away at Brentford – I’m going to go with a Liverpool win.
I think Liverpool have been sensational, just like Chelsea. Jurgen Klopp has tweaked the team just like Tuchel, tweaked the formation slightly and it’s produced really good results and really good performances.
They ran them out against Crystal Palace at the weekend – maybe a bit of an anti-climax after the AC Milan Champions League midweek encounter where they were sensational for 30 minutes.
Brentford have started the season really, really well. Obviously, it’s been tough at times but they just look very comfortable in their surroundings. Ivan Toney is looking like he’s one for the future when it comes to his England prospects, but when it comes to the Premier League, he’s hit the ground running and proven to be a handful.
The squad seem to know their jobs and they will make it difficult for Liverpool – as Arsenal will tell you in that first game of the season when they went to Brentford and lost (2-0).
I just think Liverpool have got too much at the moment. They’re flying and they know the importance of not slipping up, certainly against the lower teams in the league.
I’m going to go for a Liverpool win and I’m going to go 3-0.
- A 3-0 Liverpool win is available at 9/1 (10.00).
Jason McAteer Treble
- Chelsea v Man City to draw, Arsenal & Liverpool to win at 11/1 (12.00).
Championship Treble
I’ve had a little look at the league and at the games which have really stood out.
Coventry are flying under Mark Robins whose doing a fantastic job. Sitting fourth in that league with five wins this season. They do have one of the best defensive records as well. They’re at home and they’re coming up against a Peterborough side which had a good win last weekend against Birmingham, but defensively they do leak goals.
So I’m going to go with a Coventry win at home.
The second game I’m going to pick is a win for Bournemouth against Luton. Luton have only won twice this season and obviously Bournemouth are flying under Scott Parker. Dominic Solanke has already scored six goals for them in the Championship this season, so he’s starting to really find his form after having a tough time since singing from Liverpool.
Bournemouth are sitting top of the league with five wins and three draws, and I can’t see them losing against Luton – so I’m going with a Bournemouth win.
The third one will be Bristol City against Fulham.
Aleksandar Mitrović with six goals this season and Fulham going really well, but they’ve had two defeats in their last four games, and I just think the confidence has been a little bit rocked, although they are sitting in the top three.
I’m actually going to go for a Bristol City win!
Unbeaten in the last four, they’ve got a good bit of form under them. They’re at home and it will be an intimidating atmosphere for Fulham.
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