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The Guardian - UK

Sport

Paul Doyle, Simon Burnton and Nick Ames

Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Premier League preview: looking ahead to the weekend’s action

1) Friday night fireworks at Stamford Bridge

Liverpool are in rampant attacking form, Eden Hazard seems to be on song again, Diego Costa is back to his magnificent and provocative best and David Luiz is set for his second Chelsea debut: everything points to the most entertaining Premier League match of the season so far and another momentous match between two clubs who have built up a rich back catalogue of classics together. Given the wonderful maelstrom that is likely to be unleashed, it will be a big and surprising vote of confidence from the respective managers if Daniel Sturridge and Cesc Fàbregas start. For the rest of us, this is set to be a cracking way to kick off a fun Friday night. PD

Jürgen Klopp: Chelsea’s Diego Costa is a world-class striker.

2) Xhaka adding to Arsenal’s growing stability

It has generally been good news for Arsenal since that opening game of basketball against Liverpool. They have tightened up since then and, even if you find it hard to look beyond the manifest cracks on view in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at PSG, there is early encouragement to be drawn from the addition of Shkodran Mustafi and his partnership with Laurent Koscielny. It will only improve with time and they will find things easier when Granit Xhaka is restored to the starting line-up. Arsène Wenger rested the Swiss international for the win over Southampton and the trip to Paris, only bringing him off the bench with 19 minutes to play in the latter, and while it is a sensible move not to overexert a newcomer to the Premier League (perhaps Wenger has learned a thing or two about overplaying midfielders) he will presumably be restored to the team at Hull City. Xhaka was excellent in the away games at Leicester and Watford, and the thought occurs that it is exactly games like these – Premier League away matches where Arsenal have sometimes struggled for stability – where he will be needed the most. On paper there will be tougher assignments despite Hull’s respectable start to the campaign, but if Xhaka can steer Arsenal quietly through this one he will have again done exactly what he was bought for. NA

3) Spurs to feel at home again with Sunderland visiting

Tottenham did a very good job of Spursifying Wembley on Wednesday night, plastering their livery on every available surface in the vicinity of the national stadium and hanging cockerel-bearing banners from every lamppost in the borough, but the fact remains that it wasn’t their borough, and in the end it was Monaco who took ownership of the only part of town that actually mattered. With the sun caressing the largely white-shirted, record-obliterating crowd of 85,011 as they made their way to the ground, it might have been a night of celebration and glory, but became something of an ordeal.

On this occasion the fixture list has been kind to Spurs, giving them an immediate return to their proper actual home for a game that is emphatically winnable, and which they very often emphatically win: in the last six seasons they have nine victories and three draws from their 12 matches against Sunderland. The Black Cats have won only one of 21 league games at White Hart Lane going back to 1978 – and, famously, none of their past 23 league games played in August or September – and their display in losing at home to Everton on Monday veered between the tedious and the terrible. Tottenham won’t have it so good again: their two remaining home fixtures in the Champions League group stage are followed by visits to Arsenal and Manchester United. SB

Pochettino: Tottenham players need to show more passion

4) Hard-working Manchester City staying dominant

Accepted wisdom would tell you that it is the teams who don’t have the ball that work hardest of all; that constant chasing, chivvying and harrying in search of possession massively increases a player’s workload. But it turns out that perhaps the biggest impact made by Pep Guardiola has been on his players’ workload – last season Manchester City weren’t even in the Premier League’s top 10 hardest-working sides, ranked by the average distance covered by their players each game. This year they’re at No2, just behind Liverpool (Bournemouth, last season’s No2, are eighth). Kevin de Bruyne is City’s top athlete, having covered 46km in his four matches so far (that put him sixth overall, with Burnley’s George Boyd the overall leader on 49.6km). With his side playing more passes per match and enjoying more possession than any other, in the top three for total shots and pass accuracy and leading the league on goals scored and, of course, points won, perhaps Guardiola is aiming not just at victory but at total, across-the-board statistical domination. SB

Pep Guardiola has had an immediate impact on his players as Manchester City manager. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

5) A familiar feeling for Manchester United fans

José Mourinho’s words after the dull Europa League defeat at Feyenoord may have reminded you of someone. “We were just in control of the game and waiting for the possibility to win or not to win,” he said of Manchester United’s performance, adding that they were “playing at half-pace”. United supporters have certainly become used to away reverses in Europe of late but Mourinho could more specifically have been describing any number of the games overseen during Louis van Gaal’s tenure: control, but little in the way of dynamism or intent. It was a reminder that Mourinho’s ideas will take time to translate themselves into action and suggested, too, that the absent Wayne Rooney has not been the only encumbrance to United’s attacking style.

Paul Pogba is supposed to liven things up in the long run but Thursday saw his second sluggish performance of the week and United’s other players cannot afford to wait for him to ignite. The predictable questions about his deployment have already been raised – the Manchester derby certainly passed Pogba by, to put it kindly, when he was paired deep with Marouane Fellaini – and looking through United’s squad it is difficult to see a blend that you instinctively feel will click. They will win plenty of games under Mourinho but plenty of old habits have to be undone and no one should be too surprised if more bitter medicine is in store yet. A high-octane display at Watford, pointless at home so far, would be timely. NA

Football Weekly Extra: Leicester batter Brugge and Celtic collapse in Barcelona

6) Barkley’s place in danger at in-form Everton

Those who watched Everton’s game at Sunderland on Monday on Sky would have witnessed a particularly punishing moment of pundit-humbling. Jamie Carragher and Phil Neville spent much of the build-up to the game eulogising the ability of Ross Barkley, who proceeded to play poorly for 45 minutes before being substituted at half-time. Barkley may have been left out of Sam Allardyce’s England squad but he had played all but six minutes of Everton’s three previous league games this season, and started all but two of their top-flight matches last season (coincidentally he was also substituted at half-time the last time they visited Sunderland, last May). Now his place in the Everton team is in genuine peril, with Koeman publicly criticising his performance both at the Stadium of Light and again in Thursday’s press conference looking forward to the game against Middlesbrough.

“There was a reason to change him, he lost many balls,” Koeman said on the latter occasion. “We showed [him] the clips, and there is no escape.” Of his chances of starting this match, he said only that “he needs to improve, but we will see at the weekend”. Despite Barkley’s current travails, Idrissa Gueye’s excellent recent performances and Romelu Lukaku’s return to goalscoring form offer Everton plenty of encouragement ahead of this game, as did Middlesbrough’s defeat to Crystal Palace last weekend: the way George Friend failed to handle Wilfried Zaha and Christian Benteke repeatedly escaped his markers may well have Yannick Bolasie and Lukaku literally salivating on Saturday. SB

7) Hughes under pressure for trip to Palace

Mark Hughes gave the officials an earful during his team’s home tonking by Tottenham last weekend, but the manager may have detected an ominous tone in the post-match verdict of the Stoke City chairman, Peter Coates. “Against Tottenham we conceded a goal and then fell to pieces, there’s no point hiding from that fact – it was a very poor performance,” said Coates, who knows there are some mitigating factors (injuries and odd refereeing) for his club’s sorry form, but also knows that Stoke should not have not been as disjointed and sluggish as they have been during a run of one win from 11 league matches. “I’m sure that what I have seen, Mark and his coaches have seen and they will want to sort it out very quickly,” said the chairman. Hughes, then, could do without another a bad display at Selhurst Park, where his team lost twice last season, in the FA Cup and the Premier League. Stoke’s full-backs have looked particularly vulnerable recently, so the manager will have to make sure they are adequately protected against Palace, whose wingers could otherwise wreak havoc. PD

Stoke’s defence was pulled apart by Tottenham in Saturday’s 4-0 defeat. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters

8) Ranieri and Dyche hope to avoid embarrassment

There is always a temptation to take Burnley lightly, given their pre-season relegation favouritism and the disappointingly meek surrender of their top-flight status two seasons ago, but the reality is that this is not just a potentially testing fixture for Leicester, but also a crucial one. Given the unconvincing start to their domestic campaign, and with last week’s heavy defeat at Anfield kicking off a run of nasty away fixtures that between now and November takes them to Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham, the champions cannot countenance failure here. Any failure to fully focus on a fixture that lacks some of the cachet of Wednesday’s trip to Brugge in the Champions League or next Saturday’s visit to Old Trafford could severely damage both their ambitions and their self-esteem.

There is also pressure on the away team, or at least their manager: Sean Dyche started the season by mocking the respect with which the Premier League’s foreign managers, including Claudio Ranieri, are treated, describing him and Pep Guardiola as “two geniuses, one adding pizza and one taking it away” and complaining that the press “questioned me for playing 4-4-2 and then everyone played it last year and it was, ‘amazing Ranieri, tactical genius’”. These were easy claims to make before a ball had been kicked, and said at least half in jest, but should he be outfoxed by the Italian here he might resolve to keep such quips quiet in future. SB

Ranieri: Champions League music brought best out of Riyad Mahrez

9) Southampton’s back-up brigade boosted by Europa League

Cuco Martina was on his way out of Southampton a few weeks ago but his move to Everton was aborted when Jérémy Pied suffered a season-ending injury. Rather than curse his luck, the Dutchman apparently resolved to play his way back into Claude Puel’s plans and, following his excellent performance against Sparta Prague on Thursday, there has got to be a strong chance of him making his first Premier League appearance of the season against Swansea on Sunday. Far from hampering the club’s Premier League campaign, the Europa League could turn out to be a boon for Southampton: Puel got his first win at the club, Charlie Austin scored his first goals of the season, Jay Rodriguez continued his comeback with another goal and the team produced a smooth collective performance in which several individuals, most notably Martina, were outstanding.

Match report: Southampton 3-0 Sparta Prague

Cuco Martina and Charlie Austin both took their chance to impress in the Europa League Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP

10) Pulis dispensing with the handbrake?

West Ham are fragile at the moment and if they carry on defending as they have been in recent weeks, then Tony Pulis’s West Brom side will have a fair chance of scoring twice in a league match for the first time since March, and bringing some much-needed glee to a club that seems locked in a joyless limbo. So expect Pulis to tell his team to exploit the visitors’ jitters and go out all guns blazing. And don’t forget to buy some magic beans. PD

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