We’re approaching matchday two in the English Premier League, with nine fixtures taking place between Friday and Monday across the country.
There are two clashes that stand out above the rest, but that’s not to say that the other games won’t be full of drama and goals.
Here are the standout fixtures for the weekend ahead.
Manchester City vs Newcastle United – Saturday, 20:00
With both Newcastle United and Manchester City fresh off the back of dominant opening weekend wins, this match looks certain to deliver. Newcastle put Aston Villa to the sword with a superb performance on their way to a 5-1 victory at St. James’ park, while City made easy work of Vincent Kompany’s Burnley side, running out 3-0 winners.
Newcastle’s style is an all-intensity, mega physical approach that can blow teams away in a matter of minutes. When you combine this with the technical quality in their side they become an extremely difficult team to live with.
Kieran Trippier has superb crossing ability, and Callum Wilson and Alexander Isak are quickly turning into one of the best attacking partnerships in the league. Italian Sandro Tonali scored on debut and can definitely cause problems for City, too.
Manchester City have enjoyed another week of silverware, winning the UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla in Greece. It will be interesting to see if they can play to their best ability against Newcastle United with just three days between the matches against another top team. City will be expecting to win this match but Newcastle are a team that nobody can afford to have an off day against.
Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester United – Saturday, 17:30
Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs side drew 2-2 with Brentford on the opening weekend – not a bad result when you consider how strong Brentford are when playing at home. This week will see them return to White Hart Lane for a huge fixture against Manchester United, who scraped past Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday.
Without Harry Kane, Tottenham have to find an extra 30 goals from somewhere if they’re going to succeed this season. Richarlison, Heung-Min Son and Dejan Kulusevski made up Spurs’ front three last week, but it was two defenders who got on the scoresheet for Tottenham in Christian Romero and Emerson Royal. James Maddison’s ability to put the ball in dangerous areas for his teammates to attack will something that United have to look out for
United looked far from their best against Wolves, with their midfield constantly overrun due to Bruno Fernandes and Mason Mount’s positioning leaving Casemiro isolated for much of the game. With Rasmus Hojland not yet ready to start after his big money move from Atalanta, Erik ten Hag will be hoping that the likes of Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho are at their best to make the most of any errors from Spurs’ defence.
Bet on Tottenham vs Man United
