It’s a bumper Super Sunday in the Premier League with four games taking place off the back of a busy week of European action. Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester United all tasted success in European competition during the week and will be hoping to carry that momentum into a big weekend in the Premier League.
Crystal Palace v Leeds (2.00)
Despite sitting in the relegation zone, Crystal Palace shouldn’t be too down about their start to the season with the Eagles posting plenty of promising efforts. That includes last weeks narrow 2-1 loss against Chelsea with Patrick Vieira blasting VAR for some decision that went against his side. The only sides to turn Palace over this season have been Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea and the Londoners can take confidence from the fact they are unbeaten in ten of their last 12 competitive games at Selhurst Park (W6, D4). Throw in the fact Palace are unbeaten in their last six home games against Leeds and this could be viewed as a decent opportunity for Vieira’s men to reignite their season.
As for Leeds, they’ve failed to build on their stunning 3-0 win at home to Chelsea in August with the Whites winless in their last four league games, including a drab scoreless draw at home to struggling Aston Villa last time out.
Scoring goals has been a problem for Palace this term (8 goals in 7 matches) and with Leeds struggling to break down an out of form Aston Villa last time, this could be a low scoring affair. Recent H2H’s would back up that argument with the last four meetings between the sides failing to produce more than 2 goals on any occasion.
VERDICT: Under 2.5 goals (Evs)
West Ham v Fulham
West Ham boss David Moyes may well have found what he needs to finally kickstart the Irons season with summer signing Gianluca Scamacca scoring two big goals in the space of a week. The Italian international, who arrived for a fee in excess of £30 million from Sassuolo bagged his first goal in England during Saturday night’s 2-0 win against Wolves before the 23-year-old came off the bench to find a winner in Thursday’s Conference League clash against Anderlecht. Having only scored 5 league goals all season, Scamacca could be the tonic West Ham need.
Fulham currently sit in the lofty heights of 8th place but the Cottagers were well beaten (1-4) by Newcastle last time out and they have only kept one clean sheet all season (0-0 away to Wolves). Scamacca may smell blood in the water and could cause the Fulham defenders plenty of issues with his strong hold up play meaning he can bring team mates in to play, draw defenders out of their comfort zone and create space for others to exploit while he’s also display his own goal scoring ability in recent matches.
VERDICT: Scamacca to score anytime (8/5)
Arsenal v Liverpool
Who would’ve thought Arsenal would be going into a Premier League game against Liverpool as 8/5 favs. The Gunners are riding the crest of a wave presently with last weekends NLD win against Spurs the latest in a series of highs under Mikel Arteta. Thursday’s 3-0 win at home to Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League was a nice way to keep the momentum ticking along while Liverpool also enjoyed a good midweek thanks to a 2-0 win at home to Rangers in the Champions League.
The only blot in Arsenal’s copybook this season is that surprise defeat against an out of form Manchester United at the time with Arsenal fans still wondering how they lost to a United team who’ve struggled so much this season. Immediately, pundits pointed towards Arsenal’s frailty in big games and they will have to prove they can perform on the big occasion against Liverpool on Sunday.
It’s been a sluggish start to the season for Jurgen Klopp’s side with thw Reds dropping points in 5 of their 7 EPL matches to date. Defensively, Liverpool have been much easier to get at that years gone by and with Arsenal flowing with confidence at present, they’ll fancy their chances in front of goal. Arteta’s side have scored 3 goals in each of their last 3 matches (all comps) and have scored 2+ in their last 4.
Despite Liverpool’s well documented issues, they have managed to keep ticking over in the final third, scoring in all bar one game this season (0-0 v Everton). With the way both teams like to play, we should get plenty of goals here.
VERDICT: BTTS (1/2)
Everton v Manchester United
Having narrowly survived relegation last season, who would’ve foreseen Everton having the best defensive record in the league at this stage of the season? Unbeaten in 7 in all comps, the Toffee’s have only conceded 7 goals in 8 league games.
As for Manchester United, they had to work hard for their Europa League win on Cyprus on Thursday and it will be interesting to see how much that effort has taken out of the legs for Sunday’s trip to Goodison. Marcus Rashford is likely to come back into the starting XI, most likely for Ronaldo which will create further headlines about his future.
United fans won’t need reminding of their last league game, a 6-3 defeat against City in the derby. If anyone thought the wins over Liverpool and Arsenal would lead to plain sailing for Ten Hag for the remainder of the season, how wrong they were with United appearing to take two steps back every time they put a foot forward.
Luckily, for United, Everton aren’t exactly matching their strong defensive work with goals at the other end of the park with Frank Lampard’s side scoring 7 goals in 7 matches.
The Goodison faithful are always well up for this fixture and will be on the back of the visitors from the get go. Games at Goodison have been low scoring affairs this season with no more than two goals in any of their 4 home games this term.
With both managers never too far away from finding themselves in crisis mode, this could be a cagey affair.
VERDICT: Under 2.5 goals (Evs)