After a brief break for a number of international friendly matches the Premier League resumes with its unfamiliar look.
While Sir Alex Ferguson and his struggling Manchester United stars resume their relegation dog-fight, Sven-Goran Eriksson and the beaming Manchester City faithful will be hoping to maintain a perfect record when they face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
Three wins from their opening three matches would have been nigh on unimaginable for City fans when they saw they would be facing their illustrious neighbours so early. But after seeing off the Premier League champions on Sunday thanks to a single goal from Brazilian Geovanni, City head south full of optimism.
Bookmakers are offering a price as short as 33-1 that Sven can prevent City from tasting defeat in their opening 12 matches.
Can the former England boss keep the run going and challenge for a Champions League spot? We’re running a poll on this over at the new Reuters Soccer website, so pop across and leave a vote. Better yet, let us know what you think of City’s long-term prospects by leaving a comment.
A few other questions to think about before this weekend’s fixtures:
Can Liverpool overcome their frustration at last weekend’s penalty affair at Anfield and get the three points they need from a tricky fixture away to Sunderland? Rafa Benitez has been complaining about fixture “unfairness” as well as the Gabriel Heinze decision but he seems to have lost the sympathy of even Liverpool bloggers (see Have You Ever Been to Liverpool as an example).
It’s about time Man Utd started winning, isn’t it? The champions are at home to Tottenham on Sunday, in a late kick-off, and by that time they could be 10 points off the pace! As Sailesh Ganesh writes at Red Rants, United have actually played pretty well so far, despite the results. “If this is Manchester United in crisis, I cannot imagine us in full flow,” he says. Let’s see if they hit their stride this weekend.
Speaking of Tottenham, can a side tipped as Top Four contenders shrug off all the Jol controversy and prove those first two defeats were just freak results?
Patrick Johnston, London
Trackback
5 comments so far
To answer the question in your headline: no, shouldn’t think so. Back to business as usual at the weekend, I think: Liverpool to draw, Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal to win.
- Posted by LondonActually, I’ve got a good feeling about this one for City. Why not? Arsenal haven’t been all that good so far and Lehmann is not playing (I know, you could say that’s a good thing… but…)
- Posted by rafaLiverpool to beat Sunderland handily; Spurs to get a point. Come on!
No chance. City are going down. I wouldn’t be surprised if Berbatov does the business for Spurs as long as he hasn’t signed for United by then:)
- Posted by redderthaneverThanks for the link back mate!
Anyway, it is high time United start winning. Hopefully Spurs, with all their problems, would buckle.
And the link on the Liverpool blog about Rafa, I have to say, there are at least some Scousers out there who can see reason.
- Posted by Red RanterNo, it’ll be 1-0 to Arsenal — Fabregas to score. Do I win five pounds?
- Posted by rafa