Premier League Preview: City travel to happy hunting ground

This weekend’s Premier League offering is another mouthwatering one, with Manchester City’s clash against Chelsea on Sunday the pick of the fixture list. 

With 11 games now played in the top-flight, the table is tighter than ever with five points separating 1st from 5th and only two standing between bottom side Sheffield United and 17th placed Luton Town following the Hatters’ well-earned 1-1 draw against Liverpool on Sunday afternoon. 

After Arsenal came away from their visit to St. James’ Park on Saturday evening with nothing following an extremely controversial goal scored by Anthony Gordon, the title-race remains wide open and it is Manchester City who sit top on 27 points – just one point ahead of Tottenham heading into Gameweek 12. 

The weekend’s battles commence on Saturday at 12.30, as Wolves welcome Spurs to Molineux. The boys from the Black Country – who sit 14th – were enjoying an upturn in form prior to last weekend’s trip to Sheffield United after a poor start which saw them win just one of their opening six games. 

A shock 2-1 win over Manchester City at the end of September was accompanied by two draws against in-form sides Aston Villa and Newcastle as well as a 2-1 victory away at Bournemouth throughout October, so there was an expectation that they would go to Bramall Lane and win on Saturday especially given the Blades’ recent woes. 

The game panned out much differently, though, and Sheffield United registered their first win of the season with a 2-1 victory courtesy of a contentious last-minute penalty converted by Oliver Norwood, leaving Gary O’Neil’s side pointless. 

They welcome a Tottenham team who have begun the season in fine form. Ange Postecoglou’s new-look Spurs side have been a breath of fresh air this season and have established themselves as firm title-contenders this term but fell to their first defeat of the campaign against Chelsea on Monday night after an emotionally-charged clash in north London. 

Spurs ended the game with nine men following Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie’s dismissals either side of the break, with Chelsea finally exploiting their exposed structural shell late on through Nicolas Jackson, who grabbed a hattrick in the final 25 minutes to secure a 4-1 victory for the Blues. 

Perhaps more concerningly, both James Maddison and Micky van de Ven – two of the clubs’ most important players – limped off injured in the first half and could be ruled out for the foreseeable future, further depleting Tottenham’s already wafer thin squad, which makes the trip to the West Midlands a challenging one this weekend. 

Irrespective of the circumstances surrounding their win on the north side of London, Chelsea will carry a great deal of momentum into their clash against Manchester City on Sunday. 

The Blues have endured another underwhelming start this term despite a huge financial outlay in the summer but have climbed into the top half of the division after their 4-1 win over Spurs, although they do remain nine points outside of the top-four and five behind Newcastle in 6th. 

The west Londoners have a dismal record against City in recent times and have not beaten Pep Guardiola’s side since the 2021 Champions League final – losing the last six games against the Cityzens in all competitions without scoring a single goal. Bleak reading. 

This weekend, Mauricio Pochettino’s side do battle with a City side who have regained their typically destructive form following a mini-blip where they bowed out of the League Cup after a narrow loss to Newcastle and fell to defeats against Wolves and Arsenal in the Premier League. Since, City have won their last four games in all competitions and scored 14 goals during that period, conceding just three times. 

As a result, the form book would suggest that City turn up to Stamford Bridge on Sunday and win fairly convincingly but as we saw on Monday, anything can happen in this beautiful chaotic league where exciting unpredictability is never lacking, and if Monday’s game is anything to go by, you won’t want to miss a second of this one. 

A perfect Sunday roast accompaniment as the action continues to come thick and fast – just how we like it. 

Premier League GW12 – fixtures in full:

Saturday 11 November
12:30 Wolves v Spurs (TNT Sports)
15.00 Arsenal v Burnley
15.00 Crystal Palace v Everton
15.00 Man Utd v Luton
17:30 AFC Bournemouth v Newcastle (Sky Sports)

Sunday 12 November
14:00 Aston Villa v Fulham
14:00 Brighton v Sheffield Utd
14:00 Liverpool v Brentford
14:00 West Ham v Nottingham Forest (Sky Sports)
16:30 Chelsea v Man City (Sky Sports)