The fun filled Premier League enters it’s 11th week with Chelsea vs Liverpool as the opening game.
Chelsea Vs Liverpool – 12:45 GMT
Troubled Chelsea will play as host to Liverpool at the Stamford Brigde in the lunch time kickoff. Word on the streets is that Mourinho’s job at Chelsea hangs on the outcome of this game making this game very special to the Special One.
Chelsea is going into the game with their confidence at its lowest having recorded only one win in their last seven games across all competitions.
Liverpool is not doing any better. Though they are unbeaten in their last 10 games in all competitions, they only recorded their 1st victory in this unbeaten run only last Wednesday when they defeated AFC Bournemouth by a lone goal in the league cup.
The availability of Pedro and his international team mate Deigo Costa is still in doubt and all will depend on a late fitness test. Matic will be up for selection having already served his one game suspension.
Ivanovic is still out and it’s unknown whether summer signing Baba Rahman will get to start after he was redrawn when Chelsea were trailing Stoke City in their league cup defeat on Tuesday night. Klopp will still be unable to count on injured Sturridge but Benteke is fit like-wise summer signing Firmino.
Swansea City Vs Arsenal – 15:00 GMT
Arsenal will travel to south Wales to play Swansea City on Saturday afternoon after their midweek setback in the league cup against Sheffield Wednesday.
The defeat wasn’t much a problem but the injuries to Oxlade Chamberlain and Walcott, together with the absence of Ramsey, Wilshere, Rosicky, Arteta and Welbeck has left Arsenal short of wide attackers and midfielders in a crucial week of the season where they face Bayern Munich and North london rivals Tottenham Hotspur after the trip to Swansea.
The home side on the other hand are coming off from their first win in seven games coming from behind to beat Aston Villa 2-1. If Swansea can pull an upset, one player they will be counting on is Andre Ayew who has managed to score against all the top clubs he has since faced in the EPL from Chelsea, Manchester United to Spurs.
Crystal Palace Vs Manchester United – 15:00
The Selhurst Park will be the venue of attraction as Man United seeks to return to winning ways. Everything seemed to be going on well for United with their emphatic 3-0 win at Everton but their performance has taken a nose dive failing to record a win in their last 3 games across all competition, with a back-to-back barren draw raising questions about the potency of their attack.
Crystal Palace themselves are having no joy in attack with none of the centre forwards scoring even a single goal in the league so far. They have scored only four in their last six games with 3 of them coming from spot kicks converted by Johan Cabaye, himself a doubt for this game.
Put away the scoring problem and this is a game between high flying Eagles, 7th on the table and 3rd placed Man United.
West Brom Vs Leicester City – 15:00
Tony Pulis will welcome Claudio Raneiri to the hawthorns in his bid to win three games on a row. The Baggies had an indifferent start to the season but Pulis has finally been able to make the team play the according to his style.
This can be seen in their back-to-back 1-0 wins over Sunderland and Norwich. Leicester is having a very good season with only one defeat so far.
Raneiri made 10 chances to his side for the league cup game in midweek and will have everyone available including premier league top scorer James Vardey who has scored 2 more goals (10) than Saturday’s opponent.
Like always, Ghana leftback Jeffrey Schlupp is expected to keep his place in the 1st XI.
Manchester City Vs Norwich – 15:00
League leaders Manchester City are expected to make ends meat of 16th placed Norwich will they meet on Sunday. Pellegrini’s side put 7 pass the canaries in this fixture last season and saturday’s game is expected to go according the script.
Alex Neil’s side has been defeated in their last four games in all competitions. Can there be a more terrible time to visit the Etihad?.
Sunday
Southampton Vs AFC Bournemouth – 16:00
Another game week and Ghanaians are still waiting to see Christian Atsu make his premier league debut for the cherries. The Saints will welcome their fellow south-coast club to the St. Mary’s Stadium. Bournemouth has conceded 10 goals in their last two league games, clearly a sign of weak defence.
The home side are expected to carry the day.
Monday
Tottenham Hotspur Vs Aston Villa – 20:00 GMT
Tim Sherwood was sacked last week after losing six games in a row leaving Villa rock bottom. Jordan Ayew seemed to have given his manager a lifeline but goals from Sigurdsson and Andre Ayew sealed the fate of Sherwood.
Care taker MacDonald supervised the team for their midweek league Cup defeat at Southampton, a game Jordan Ayew won a dying minute penalty with a solo run which was converted by Sinclair but it was too little too late to overturn the result.
Former Lyon boss Remi Garde has been tipped to take over the Villians but before that MacDonald will be tasked to get a result against Spurs on Monday night.
With Harry Kane back to form, Villa is on course to spend another week at the bottom of the log.
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By: Rahman Osman/citifmonline.com/Ghana