It is only the second week in the premiership and the drama is already heating up. For instance who would have thought Burnley would beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge or that Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta will combine with Chicharito to play against Manchester United and still lose by four unreplied goals? Watford and Leicester almost embarrassed Liverpool and Arsenal respectively. Well, that is the English Premier League; results are as unpredictable as the English weather. Are we going to get more drama this week? You bet, after all this is the most exciting league in the world. The question therefore is not if there would be drama and talking points, but where they would come from?
Spurs v Chelsea
This is undoubtedly the game of the week. A new but steadily growing local rivalry is developing in London and it is between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurs. True, there is the North London thing with Spurs and Arsenal, but that is just for bragging rights, the rivalry between the two young turks from Stamford Bridge and White Hart Lane seems to be the real deal, it is a battle for premiership titles. Both teams had mixed fortunes last weekend. While Spurs defeated Newcastle 2-0 away, Chelsea lost 2-3 at home to Burnley. Both teams have not been exactly active in the transfer market this window. Spurs have sold highly rated defender, Kyle Walker to title rivals, Manchester City, but they have replaced him with Kyle Walker-Peters, who was man of the match in their game against Newcastle. Chelsea sold Nemanja Matic to title rivals Manchester United and replaced him with Bakayoko who is not likely to play for another month. Spurs left back, Danny Rose is in hot water with the club’s management for saying he doesn’t get paid what he is worth and was ready to leave the club. To make matters more interesting, Chelsea were reported to have made a £50m bid for Rose this week. However, Spurs’ bosses have told their Chelsea counterparts that no deal will be discussed until after the Sunday showdown at Wembley Stadium, mind games, anyone? Another twist in this match-up is the venue. Chelsea defeated Spurs 4-2 at Wembley last season in the FA Cup. Spurs used Wembley as their home ground in the UEFA Champions League, and they only won once in the games they played at Wembley last season, leading pundits to start talking about “Wembley Hoodoo” for Tottenham Hotspurs.
Although Spurs have failed so far to make a significant addition to the team, they appear solid. At least the first 15 players. Their only shortcoming is there is no depth in the team. This is a factor that appears to have cost them the premiership title in the last two campaigns. One would have thought that is the first thing they would address this season, but then, there is the little issue of them building a new stadium so an intelligent balancing job is necessary here.
If one game is destined for twists and counter twists, this match-up at Wembley is. Don’t be surprised if you see David Luiz in the midfield on Sunday. Cesc Fabregas is suspended, Timoue Bakayoko is injured, Nemanja Matic is at Old Trafford, Ruben Loftus-Cheek is at Crystal Palace. This game looks like a score draw.
SWANSEA V MANCHESTER UNITED
In the last three games between them at the Liberty Stadium, Swansea beat United 2-1 twice, only to lose 1-3 to a Mourinho-led team last season. The key matches on Saturday are between Alfie Mawson and Romelu Lukaku on one hand and Tammy Abraham, signed on loan from Chelsea, and Eric Bailly on the other.
Swansea lost Gylfil Sigurdsson to Everton and the deal happened too late for them to have replaced him for this game. Nevertheless, they still have Wayne Routledge and Jordan Ayew to assist Abraham in front of the opponent’s goal.
Manchester United appeared solid against West Ham last Sunday, winning 4-0. Defensively, they were perfect, with the combination of Jones and Bailly in charge. The power of Matic and Pogba also appeared too strong for West Ham midfielders. The pace of Rashford and Lukaku caused Zabaleta and his teammates a lot of heartache and headache. The question now is, can the new- look United team continue with the way it started against West Ham or is it the same old story of blowing hot and cold that we have been witnessing at the club since Sir Alex Ferguson left?
LIVERPOOL V CRYSTAL PALACE
These appear to be tough times for Crystal Palace’s new boss Frank de Boer and his players. First, they lost 0-3 at home to premiership new boys Huddersfield Town; then they lost talisman Wilfried Zaha to injury. He will be out for four weeks. Andros Townsend can come in to replace him and Yohan Cabaye is also returning to fitness. Another player who can take over Zaha’s position is teenage sensation from Belgium, Jason Lokilo. Watching Liverpool play against Watford last weekend, you could sense a bit of vulnerability and naivety in the players. There was no leader , especially in the defence. Sadio Mane looks like the only world class player in the team, the others are at best, just good players, not sure any of them would have been able to get into the first eleven in the Liverpool team Rafa Benitez led to Champions League title. If even that team could not win the premiership, what hopes do Liverpool fans have with this new team of average players?
STOKE V ARSENAL
This game has a personal edge to it. Jese Rodriguez was a promising player at Real Madrid. He was so talented, people were already talking about him taking over from Cristiano Ronaldo as the main man at the Bernabeu . Then Real Madrid played Schalke 04 in the Champions league in 2014 and his dreams were shattered. A certain Sead Kolasinac who was a defender for Schalke made a rash tackle and he ended up damaging Jese’s Anterior Cruciate Ligament, more popularly known as ACL. Rodriguez was never the same after that. Although he was sold to PSG, he still could not perform to the levels expected of his talents. PSG loaned him to Stoke and his first game for his new club is going to be against Kolasinac who now plays for Arsenal. It sure seems to be a contest between broken legs and broken hearts. Aaron Ramsey will once again come face-to-face with Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross who broke his leg in 2010.
A while ago, Arsenal fans and their players will be shaking by now because a trip to Stoke City, especially in the days when Tony Pulis was in charge, meant war. But since Mark Hughes took over and decided he wanted to turn Stoke into a mini-Barcelona, opposing teams have found playing there quite profitable. Arsenal went to the Bet365 stadium and came back 4-1 winners. Hughes recruited soft players like Shaqiri, Bojan, Affellay, etc, hoping to play with the flair of Barcelona. He seems to have learnt the hard way because he has now signed hard men like Darren Fletcher and Kurt Zouma to join Ryan Shawcross. Leicester took advantage of Arsenal’s vulnerability when defending set pieces and it almost paid off. Stoke may try that strategy too. However, Arsenal already have Shkodran Mustafi and Francis Coquelin, two defensive players who missed the Leicester game, back so Stoke may find a tougher nut to crack than Leicester had.
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