As the debate about which is better between playing a team that had lost their last game or won it continues to rage, Chelsea welcome a Liverpool side to Stamford Bridge on Saturday at 6.30pm, which has lost the last two.
Of course, Enzo Maresca’s side has gotten into the habit of losing a player to a red card. Something it has done in its last three EPL games, which would negate any advantage of playing a Liverpool possibly out of form, should it happen again.
Chelsea have also blown hot and cold, all at once, this season. So it remains unclear if they are fish or fowl. When the players are all pumped, they can put on a rousing performance, but they are unlikely to deny Liverpool their bounce-back win.
Leeds and Tottenham Hotspur
Earlier in the day, at 1.30pm, Leeds welcome Tottenham Hotspur to Elland Road to settle yet another debate — which is whiter between The Whites and Lilywhites.
Arsenal fans will more than likely be singing “why did you bring a hammer to a gunfight?” at the end of their game against West Ham United at the Emirates at 4pm.
The Gunners scraped a win against Newcastle last time out. While the Hammers showed a slight improvement to draw 1-all against Everton. But this is not the game new manager Nuno Espirito Santo would have wanted so early in his reign.
The saving grace for the Portuguese is that his Arsenal counterpart, Mikel Arteta, has unnecessarily withdrawn into a defensive game this season until his team trails. Nuno is not an attack-minded mentor himself, so this is likely to be a boring game shaded by Arteta’s men in the end, though.
Manchester United
After the horrid time that Manchester United fans have endured recently, they welcome Sunderland to the Theatre of Dreams. They hope to avoid the nightmare of losing yet again at home. Given how United have been disjointed this season, anything can happen. But still, they should have enough to grab the three points.
Newcastle United will pull out the carpet for Nottingham Forest at 3pm on Sunday. With both sets of fans praying it is their side that rises from the slumber first. Forest are only a rosebush under new manager Angelos Postecoglou. So one has to wonder how long before club owner Evangelos Marinakis puts their similarity of name to the side and kicks this Greek-born Australian to the kerb?
Manchester City close off the EPL weekend with the long trek to Gtech Stadium for a meeting with Brentford at 5.30pm on Sunday.
If City lose this one, they can always blame it on the almost 340km trip.
