In the 1994 basic Forrest Gump, the protagonist says an immortal line which might etch itself within the collective psyche of film historical past. “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.”
For the sake of this weekend’s motion, simply exchange the phrase ‘life’ with the Premier League.
Widely considered one of the vital unpredictable and thrilling leagues on the planet, the Premier League throws up a plethora of surprises each season, and with the best way that the brand new season has began, it seems like it should keep true to that picture this weekend.
In Gameweek 1, Manchester United suffered a nightmare begin as they went down 2-1 to a Brighton staff which has had their quantity for a few seasons. Liverpool got here from behind to register only a 2-2 draw with newcomers Fulham and Chelsea might solely scrape one objective previous an Everton staff which lots of people are saying are relegation favourites this time period.
Elsewhere, the opposite 3 groups of the standard large 6, Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham, had a begin befitting their stature.
As Gameweek 2 is sort of upon us, right here’s wanting on the matches to look ahead to this weekend:
Chelsea vs Tottenham (Sunday, 9 PM)
Two groups who had a really contrasting begin of the season lock horns on Saturday, with Chelsea simply stuttering previous Everton final week and Tottenham blowing away a hapless Southampton. On Sunday, the 2 conventional London rivals will add a extra intriguing chapter to their rivalry.
After a very long time, Tottenham seemingly has an higher hand over the Blues. With gamers like Son Heung-min and Harry Kane already wanting like threats, Chelsea may have a tough time maintaining with them within the defensive third.
🗣 “I don’t believe everything that Antonio Conte says in games like this.” 🤣
Thomas Tuchel believes there isn’t any hole between Tottenham and different prime golf equipment pic.twitter.com/d4LtMmYpTj
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) August 12, 2022
One Spurs participant who’s seemingly underneath everybody’s radar is Sweden’s Dejan Kulusevski, who has been performing constantly since arriving in Tottenham in January and Chelsea will look to neutralize him in addition to deploy N’Golo Kante to counterbalance the Swede’s risk. Chelsea will even look to their new signings Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly, each of whom had a good sport in opposition to Everton, to see them over the road this time round.
Arsenal vs Leicester City (Saturday, 7.30 PM)
A buoyant Arsenal will tackle Leicester City, who appear to be reeling on the defensive entrance on Saturday.
After promoting Kasper Schmeichel to Nice, the goalkeeping choices of Leicester are restricted. The Foxes conceded two second-half objectives in opposition to Brentford within the second half regardless of being 2-0 up at halftime within the earlier match. Arsenal, in the meantime, are on a roll with their new signing Gabriel Jesus bedding into an already stellar attacking lineup consisting of Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard.
However, the London membership will should be cautious of striker Jamie Vardy, who appears to catch fireplace each time he performs in opposition to Arsenal, with the Gunners having been burned by the English striker on a couple of event. The Foxes even have expertise like James Maddison, Harvey Barnes and Arsenal goal Youri Tielemans, who’ve the flexibility to vary the complexion of any sport on their day.
Looking so as to add to his tally in opposition to the Gunners in #ARSLEI on Saturday 📈
Delivered by @2xlFinance pic.twitter.com/GM4yFHlTkP
— Leicester City (@LCFC) August 12, 2022
Brentford vs Manchester United (Saturday, 10 PM)
In years previous, an away journey to Brentford would have been a routine one for Manchester United. But quite a lot of water has handed underneath the bridge since then with Erik Ten Hag’s United run starting with a 2-1 loss to Brighton.
This shouldn’t be a surprising outcome now, with United conceding 4 objectives to Brighton the final time they met. But that was the outdated regime, the brand new one was supposed to begin with the hope of a brighter future however in the end fell again to the identical malaise that has been haunting the Red Devils since Alex Ferguson left in 2013. This Manchester United haven’t any id, no correct manner of taking part in and Ten Hag will want extra time to mould the staff in his picture.
Another large query looming is will Cristiano Ronaldo begin in West London? The Portuguese striker’s place on the teamsheet looks like a no brainer, however owing to a tumultuous pre-season throughout which he didn’t play a lot, Ten Hag selected to not play him at Old Traffod final week. It’ll be curious to see what he does on Saturday.
Erik ten Hag on Cristiano Ronaldo: “Cristiano had a good training week, I thought he played a little bit longer than half an hour, he’s had two half games and for the starting XI we will see tomorrow”. 🔴 #MUFC
“My decision, I keep it”, he added.@utdreport
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 12, 2022
With Marcus Rashford getting linked with PSG and Antony Martial out injured, Ronaldo, on paper, is a shoo-in to get again within the beginning eleven however stranger issues have occurred earlier than within the Premier League.
Honourable mentions
Manchester City vs Bournemouth (Saturday, 7.30 PM)
Liverpool vs Crystal Palace (Tuesday, 12.30 AM)
All the matches will probably be broadcast on the Star Sports Network and will be livestreamed on Disney+ Hotstar.
