Chelsea look well placed to add to Arsenal’s early-season woes when they visit the Emirates Stadium on Sunday in what is arguably the pick of the Premier League games this weekend.
It has been a familiar story for Arsenal supporters at the start of the season, with any potential early optimism being extinguished following their lacklustre performance during their opening day defeat at Brentford.
The Gunners will now host London rivals Chelsea in their first home fixture of the new campaign, and while many sides have benefited from having home supporters back in attendance, it could prove the opposite for Mikel Arteta’s side, especially if they make a slow start.
Arsenal have won their last three meetings with Chelsea, but this is a much-improved Blues side under Thomas Tuchel, as not only are they now European champions, but they have added to their squad with the eye-catching return of Romelu Lukaku.
Lukaku is in line to make his second debut on Sunday and it would be no surprise to see him score anytime at 6/5, although even if the Belgian fails to register, Chelsea still look the value bet to win the match at 5/6.
Red Devils to Maintain Perfect Start
Manchester United will visit Southampton full of confidence on Sunday following their 5-1 victory over Leeds on the opening weekend, while they are no strangers to big wins against the Saints following last season’s 9-0 thrashing of Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side at Old Trafford.
That forms part of an 11-match unbeaten run Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side boast against Southampton, while Sunday’s hosts have only won one of their 13 league meetings with United at St Mary’s.
This is also a Southampton side in transition following the departure of key players such as Danny Ings and Jannik Vestergaard over the summer, with last week’s 3-1 defeat at Everton highlighting there are still holes to fill in their squad.
The depleted Saints have only won five of their last 27 league games, a run that dates back to December last year, and it is difficult to see anything other than a United win on Sunday.
One crumb of hope for the Saints is they do tend to score in this fixture, as they have netted in five of the last six meetings, so backing a United win and both teams to score at 23/10 could prove the way to go.
Nuno Return Could Prove Tight Affair
Bruno Lage will be taking charge of Wolves for the first time on home soil on Sunday and there will be a familiar face in the opposing dugout at Molineux, with the man he succeeded, Nuno Espirito Santo, set to bring his Tottenham side to town.
Spurs enjoyed an impressive 1-0 victory over Manchester City on the opening weekend of the season and Nuno is likely to go with a similar starting XI after making wholesale changes for their midweek loss to Pacos de Ferreira in the Europa Conference League.
One notable returnee could be striker Harry Kane, who is yet to feature this season amid continued speculation regarding his future at the club.
Kane’s potential return would certainly boost Spurs’ goal threat, but this still looks like being a cagey game given six of Wolves’ last nine Premier League games have yielded under 2.5 goals.
Wolves were also beaten 1-0 on the opening weekend by Leicester and this has the feeling of a game that could once again be decided by a single defining moment, with under 1.5 goals in the match looking an intriguing option at 2/1.
*All odds correct at time of writing.
