Premier League
Manchester Showdown: City And Arsenal Face Off In Premier League Title Battle
Manchester City host Arsenal in a showdown between the Premier League title favorites on Sunday, while Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou badly needs a win when his side host Brentford.
Liverpool aim to recover from a surprising home loss to Nottingham Forest as Bournemouth heads to Anfield, while Manchester United seeks revenge in their match against Crystal Palace.
Sportxparte looks at the pick of this weekend’s Premier League action.
Early title tussle
A clash between the top two features the unstoppable force of Manchester City’s in-form striker Erling Haaland facing off against the immovable object in Arsenal’s obturate defense.
Haaland has set a Premier League record by scoring nine goals in the first four of the season.
But Arsenal have only conceded once, when down to 10 men against Brighton, and kept clean sheets already away at Aston Villa and Tottenham.
The top two in each of the past two seasons already occupy those positions once more.
“It’s another unbelievable team that defend well,” said City boss Pep Guardiola. “They don’t concede chances, they don’t concede goals. In many aspects they control everything.
“Was the biggest challenge for the title the last two seasons, they are there and will be there for many years because they created a depth of squad and a young team.”
City is the only team to achieve a perfect 12 points so far, but a shaded Arsenal kept them to just two points by securing a hard-fought 1-0 win against Spurs in last weekend’s north London derby
The Gunners are set to be missing captain Martin Odegaard once more due to an ankle injury but can welcome back Declan Rice from suspension.
City are also set to be without their creative hub as Kevin De Bruyne limped out of Wednesday’s 0-0 Champions League draw against Inter Milan.
Postecoglou under serious pressure
Arsenal’s third consecutive away derby win at Tottenham ramped up the scrutiny on Postecoglou.
Spurs have managed to earn just four points from their first four Premier League matches of the season, and their form has been on a downward trajectory for a while now.
After a blistering start under the former Australia manager, Tottenham have won just 13 of their last 32 league games, including seven defeats in the last 11.
Postecoglou has emphasized his commitment to winning silverware in his second season in charge but narrowly avoided a League Cup exit to second-tier Coventry in midweek.
With trips to Manchester United and Brighton to come, Spurs need to steady the ship against a Brentford side that troubled City last weekend in a 2-1 defeat.
United’s momentum
What a significant change a week has brought for United manager Erik ten Hag. The Dutchman returned from the international break under pressure after back-to-back defeats to Brighton and Liverpool.
However, two victories and 10 goals scored against Southampton and Barnsley have brightened the atmosphere ahead of the upcoming trip to Crystal Palace.
The low point of a dismal league campaign last season arguably came in a 4-0 thrashing by the Eagles in May.
However, Ten Hag is confident that this weekend will be a different scenario, as he now has a wealth of options instead of grappling with an injury crisis.
“It was a 4-0, totally deserved, but Saturday will be different,” said Ten Hag. “From February onwards, we had to find 11 players to construct a team.
“Now it is 18 and we can pick one.”
