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Premier League Preview – Matchday 2

Deke Hardman in Editorial, English Premier League 17 Aug 2018

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The pick of the fixtures from matchday two in the Premier League comes in Saturday’s late kick-off, with Chelsea facing Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.

Maurizio Sarri and Unai Emery had very different outcomes from their first game in England’s top flight with the Blues running out 3-0 winners at Huddersfield Town while the Gunners fell to a 2-0 home defeat to Manchester City.

It’s almost seven years since the Gunners last won at the home of the Blues, and a win for the hosts this time around would see them leapfrog Liverpool into first place, with the leaders not playing until Monday evening.

The champions are also looking to follow their opening day victory with a second, with Huddersfield coming to Town.

Tough start

After beginning their second campaign in the top flight with matches against the last two league winners, David Wagner’s are hugely fancied to drop back to the second tier though if you fancy them beating the odds the can be backed at 1/1 to stay up.

Bournemouth had a fine start to their season, beating Cardiff by two goals to nil and they will be hoping to pile more misery on bottom-of-the-table West Ham United after they were thumped by Liverpool.

Crystal Palace will hope to not go the same way as the Hammers as they face Jurgen Klopp’s men on Monday evening while Watford will hope for a second straight win as they travel to face a Burnley fresh from booking their place in the next stage of the Europa League.

Homesick

Manchester United survived a scare to secure an opening day win over Leicester City and will hope for an easier time of it from their trip to Brighton and Hove Albion while Tottenham Hotspur begin their home campaign, but not where they had hoped to.

With the North London club’s new stadium not yet ready they kick-off at Wembley, with Fulham their opponents.
The Cottagers have fond recent memories of the national stadium having beaten Aston Villa in the play-off final less then three months ago while Spurs only lost two of their league games there from nineteen – those defeats coming to Chelsea and Manchester City.

Top six challengers

Elsewhere on Saturday afternoon Leicester welcome Wolverhampton Wanderers to the King Power Stadium looking to bounce back from their disappointment at Old Trafford, while the visitors will be keen to build on last weekend’s point against fellow top-half hopefuls Everton.

The Toffees are currently favourites to finish highest of the sides who didn’t finish in the top six of the league last season and they begin their home campaign with the visit of Southampton, who played out a goalless draw with Burnley last Sunday.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Deke Hardman


Freelance football writer with a love of the game that goes back to the mid nineties when both his beloved Nottingham Forest and England had genuine hope of acheiving some level of success. A regular contributor to both SoccerNews.com and FreeBetting.com, Deke also dabbles in music journalism with his heart and head still stuck in the latter years of the twentieth century.

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