2 weeks Ago
Really weren’t sure what game to pick out as the biggest of the weekend. Sometimes when there is no obvious standout you just have to be creative. Meanwhile in the EFL and European games to watch there’s a derby that isn’t a derby and a derby that absolutely is.
Game to watch: Manchester City v Arsenal Feels very early indeed for such a seismic season-defining game, but here we are. Such are the levels that defeat at the Etihad would leave Arsenal already five points behind City and that is a tough spot in which to find oneself. Nobody has reeled Pep Guardiola’s City in after giving them a headstart.
On the other hand, do what they did last season at the Etihad and emerge with a draw and Arsenal can be pretty pleased with the way their depleted squad has emerged from an absurdly difficult week that has already featured trips to Spurs and Atalanta. The good news for Arsenal fans here is that their absentees have had more impact on their attacking play than defensive. Their organisation and resilience at the back has been largely unaffected with neither Spurs nor Atalanta getting much change out of that Arsenal defence and then encountering a brick wall in David Raya on the few occasions they do manage to slip through.
City, weird as it is to say, haven’t looked quite as good as a team with four wins out of four might expect to. They’ve already had to come from behind twice to win this season, and also face a bigger step up in class themselves here than is the case for Arsenal. They were pretty unconvincing against Inter in the Champions League this week, although the extra recovery time they’ve been granted could be significant.
Their own goalless draw against Italian opposition came both at home and a day earlier than Arsenal’s. That could be important. As, we suppose, could having a striker who’s scoring 2.
25 goals per Premier League games this season. Team to watch: Nottingham Forest A team that finished 17th last season now find themselves seventh in the early 2024/25 table having already amassed in four games a quarter of their total points total (or at least, a quarter of the total points they were allowed to keep) from 23/24. Forest are unbeaten after four games and head to Brighton on the back of their single most eye-catching result since their return to the Premier League.
That win at Anfield last week was all the more striking for being well deserved as well as hard earned, and they will rightly face the tricky trip south to another in-form team feeling pretty good about themselves. Brighton sit just one place above Nuno Espirito Santo’s side on goal difference having made their own unbeaten start to proceedings. Whoever wins this one on Sunday afternoon will find themselves, for at least a couple of hours, above Arsenal in the Premier League table.
And that’s a pretty tidy spot for anyone to find themselves in these days. READ NEXT : Five players who already ‘regret’ rejecting summer transfers, including striker who turned down Forest Player to watch: Jadon Sancho There’s a London derby at the London Stadium to kick off the Premier League weekend on Saturday lunchtime, with Chelsea making the trip to take on a West Ham side still yet to really show what they’re made of under Julen Lopetegui. The good news for the Hammers ahead of this one is, we suppose, the fact the four points they do have to their name have all come in London derbies – three at Crystal Palace and one against Fulham.
They might need to cling to such hope at this point, because Chelsea – for all their well-documented chaos and nonsense – have started perfectly well on the pitch. It’s seven points from nine for Enzo Maresca’s enormous collection of footballers since a largely understandable opening-day defeat against Man City. The win over Bournemouth last time out was inspired in large part by the performance of Jadon Sancho off the bench, and he will surely be pushing for a start here.
It appeared on the face of it one of Chelsea’s more ludicrous pieces of summer business, moving late to take a player who doesn’t appear to fill one of the more obvious holes in Chelsea’s confusing squad, but it might prove one of the best. There was never really any doubt that Sancho was a player capable of far more than he was delivering – or being allowed to deliver at Manchester United – and a loan return to the familiar surroundings of Borussia Dortmund was clearly reinvigorating last season. The early signs are that Chelsea might be able to get far more from a player who on talent alone really should be hammering at the England door than United ever managed.
Any success Sancho has at Chelsea is also likely to be amplified due to the ease with which it becomes another stick with which to cudgel Manchester United , an activity which is currently close to a national sport. Manager to watch: Oliver Glasner It’s not really a crisis yet at Crystal Palace, but at the same time they are one of only six teams yet to win a Premier League game this season, and the other five all look set for a lengthy involvement in the relegation battle. Given the way Palace finished last season, winning six and drawing one of their last seven games that included victory at Anfield and big home wins against Newcastle, Manchester United and Aston Villa, it’s undeniably disappointing for all concerned.
It really did look like Oliver Glasner was building something pretty special at Palace, and it’s perhaps most concerning that the sticky start to this season after a difficult summer has been on paper far less taxing than the freewheeling finish to last. Brentford, West Ham, Chelsea and Leicester doesn’t really feel like the sort of start that should yield only two points, and they’re if anything a touch fortunate to have as many as that having trailed against both Chelsea and Leicester and been outplayed in the first two games. Maybe this weekend’s visit of Manchester United can evoke the memories and spirit of that run-in for Glasner and co.
A repeat of May’s 4-0 win would probably be just about acceptable, but it won’t be lost on Glasner or anyone else that Michael Olise started and finished the scoring that day. Football League game to watch: Sunderland v Middlesbrough Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris has stirred the pot ahead of this weekend’s Tees-Wear Derby by declaring it not in fact a real derby game. Maybe so, but if Le Bris and Sunderland want to find themselves playing that real derby again any time soon this could be a pretty significant game nonetheless.
Sunderland’s perfect start to the Championship season came wildly unstuck in a seesaw 3-2 defeat at Plymouth last weekend and while Middlesbrough haven’t yet been entirely convincing a win at their Not Local Rivals Actually on Saturday would move them within a point of a team that started the season with four wins out of four. There are already some pretty encouraging signs that this year’s battle for promotion from the Championship could be an absolute free-for-all bunfight, and whether a proper derby or not, this already stands out as one of that battle’s key early-season encounters. European game to watch: Inter v Milan Pretty sure this one is definitely a proper derby.
Inter come into it having been arguably the better side in a cagey Champions League draw at Man City in the week, but that might also be a game that has taken a bit out of them ahead of such a key domestic engagement. City rivals Milan also faced English opposition and were ultimately swept aside with a bit to spare by Liverpool to continue what has been a tricky start for a team that has already been beaten on the road at Parma and whose only win of the season so far came against Venezia. READ NEXT : Why more than £200m worth of Premier League signings has yet to debut, including Newcastle trio.
