Arsenal’s miserable start to the Premier League season could get even worse as Chelsea unleashes record signing Romelu Lukaku for his debut on Sunday, while Liverpool and Manchester United look to build on a promising start to their title challenge.
The Blues believe the Belgian striker can be the final weapon needed to turn a squad that already won the Champions League last season into a Premier League title contender.
Lukaku is already in the top 20 all-time Premier League goalscorers with 113 to his name for West Brom, Everton and Manchester United.
Under pressure
Manager Mikel Arteta is under pressure after a 2-0 defeat to newly-promoted Brentford to open the new season. City’s title defence got off to a faltering start with a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham last weekend with the future of Harry Kane still hanging over both clubs.
According to reports, Kane remains unhappy at Spurs chairman Daniel Levy’s stubborn stance to not negotiate with City despite the English champions’ willingness to break the Premier League transfer record for the second time this month.
City’s bid for the England captain could go as high as £150 million before the window closes, but Pep Guardiola will have to continue without the number nine he craves for Saturday’s visit of Norwich.
Guardiola’s men should be much stronger for an extra week’s training with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Rodrigo, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Aymeric Laporte in contention after starting on the bench against Spurs due to their limited pre-season after reaching the latter stages of Euro 2020.
Full house
Sean Dyche’s men return to Anfield in very different circumstances this weekend in front of the first full house for a Premier League game since before Liverpool ended a 30-year wait to win the title in 2020.
In front of a home crowd, Klopp’s side has not lost a league game since 2017.
United will also be confident of building on its opening 5-1 win over Leeds when the Red Devils travel to Southampton on Sunday.
