1) Chelsea to end Liverpool’s 100% record?
Still looking for his first home win as Chelsea manager, Frank Lampard will do well to get off the mark against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge. While he and his coaching staff will have scrutinised Napoli’s midweek Champions League win over Jürgen Klopp’s side looking for weaknesses, they are unlikely to have learned much they didn’t know already. Diligently maintaining your shape, getting behind Liverpool’s advancing full-backs and hoping at least one of your central defenders can perform a passable imitation of Kalidou Koulibaly is all very well in theory, but a lot easier said than done. And while the prospect of Liverpool’s preposterously-talented front three drawing blanks again seems remote, Lampard can at least take heart from the fact Liverpool only beat one of their fellow top six teams on their travels last season. BG
• Chelsea v Liverpool, Sunday 4.30pm (all times BST)
2) Özil remains an enigma in an inadequate Arsenal side
Last November Unai Emery left Mesut Özil out of a trip to Bournemouth because he foresaw “a very demanding match with physicality and intensity.” The Spaniard also expected last Sunday’s assignment at Vicarage Road to be a very demanding match with physicality and intensity – so he picked Özil for the first time this season, explaining that he wanted the player’s technique to be the antidote to Watford’s power. Over a year into the job, Emery is still grasping for hopeful solutions in a squad that remains inadequate. So, even though Özil was omitted for Thursday’s Europa League trip to Eintracht Frankfurt, it is hard to anticipate the make-up of Arsenal’s midfield for Sunday’s home match against Aston Villa. Except to say that Granit Xhaka will probably be in it because Emery clearly believes the captain is more dependable than any of his other options. PD
• Aston Villa v Arsenal, Sunday 4.30pm
3) Jagielka preparing for ‘strange’ Goodison return
There can’t be many 37-year-old footballers who have spent their entire career playing for major clubs in a single country without ever once facing a former team. Phil Jagielka may end the weekend without that record having changed – he has played just a single minute of Premier League football so far this season, and was not even on the bench for either of Sheffield United’s last two matches – but sentimentalists will surely be united in hoping he gets a chance to soak up some 360-degree applause as his first and current team, Sheffield United, visit the club he represented for 12 years, Everton. “It will be a really strange feeling for me to go to Goodison,” he says. “To be at a club so long and go back will be quite strange and, I imagine, generate a mixture of emotions. I can’t tell you exactly what I expect.” SB
• Everton v Sheffield United, Saturday 3pm
4) United must make hay before tough trips pile up
Since winning at Crystal Palace way back in February Manchester United have taken three points from six Premier League away games, despite only one of them being against another top-six side (Arsenal, where they lost in March). Over that period only Tottenham, with two points, have a worse away record. Failure to win at West ham would extend to nine their run of away games without a win in all competitions, something that last happened to them five years ago. But it is a slightly rogue statistic: though there were certainly several poor performances last season they have dominated both of their top-flight trips in this campaign, would have beaten Wolves but for Paul Pogba’s penalty miss and had 21 shots at Southampton, with eight on target (the home side had two). The fixture computer has given them a lopsided season with only one away game against a top-six side before 2020 dawns. With that in mind, a imminent improvement to that record on their travels can be expected. SB
• West Ham v Manchester United, Sunday 2pm
5) Watford’s emphasis on attack may be problem for City
Manchester City’s 6-0 dismantling of Watford in May’s FA Cup final was the beginning of the end for Javi Gracia. And maybe the second half of last weekend’s match against Arsenal was the start of an upturn under Quique Sánchez Flores. The manager’s priority on his return was to make Watford more solid but against Arsenal they demonstrated how troublesome they can be to opposing defences, especially brittle ones who insist on trying to tip-toe their way out of their own box. Fernandinho looked comfortable alongside Nicolas Otamendi during City’s mid-week win but Watford, encouraged by their own display against Arsenal and the problems that Norwich caused the champions last weekend, could prosper if they aim for City’s most vulnerable spots. PD
• Manchester City v Watford, Saturday 3pm
6) Leicester are running out of time to break the ‘Big Six’
Leicester were the classier team for large parts of their matches at Chelsea and Manchester United earlier this season but a haul of one point from those games is not the sort of return that will nurture their hopes of breaking into the top six. They need to start beating the big teams. Sunday’s visit by Spurs is an opportunity to do just that, especially as Leicester have had the whole week to prepare while Mauricio Pochettino’s side were being given the run-around by Olympiakos. The comparison between the full-backs will be especially interesting, with Serge Aurier and Danny Rose likely to return to the Spurs team and attempt to keep the excellent Ricardo Pereira and Ben Chilwell on the back foot. Son Heung-min and Lucas Moura should start in support of Harry Kane, as both have looked sharp this season, unlike Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen, the latter being especially wan in his last outing. PD
• Leicester City v Tottenham, Saturday 12.30pm
7) Saints face ominous run if Adams continues to misfire
Southampton have already played Liverpool and Manchester United, and after this match they play the remainder of last season’s top nine in seven consecutive league games, a testing run that concludes only when Watford visit on the last day of November, so they could probably do with getting some points here. Ralph Hasenhuttl demonstrated his flexibility in last week’s victory over Sheffield United, with another new shape – the fourth in five league games – but reshuffled with barely half an hour gone and his team on the back foot. The game duly ended with a third successive 1-0 away win in all competitions, ensuring they enter this weekend in full confidence. One thing that would improve their prospects would be if the otherwise impressive Che Adams located his shooting boots: the £15m summer arrival has taken 11 shots so far this season, four more than any other Southampton player, but nine of them have been off target and none have gone in. If Adams’s luck comes good, the Saints might not find their upcoming run of fixtures quite so daunting. SB
• Southampton v Bournemouth, Friday 8pm
8) Wolves need to address their stuttering starts
Last season Wolves were significantly worse in the first half of matches than in the second, ‘winning’ just eight first halves. Had all games finished at the interval they would have come 15th, but happily ‘won’ 15 second halves, scoring nearly twice as many goals (30-17) after the break than they managed before it, and came seventh. Inevitably, their habit of starting poorly repeatedly forced them to battle back from adversity, something that to their credit they frequently achieved – they won 14 points from losing positions, worse only than Liverpool (16) and West Ham (15) and significantly more than this weekend’s opponents, Crystal Palace, who managed only five. Wolves’ damaging habit is one that has significantly worsened over the summer: only in their goalless draw at Leicester in August have they not been losing at the break, but so far no side has bettered them after it. The problem is, this season they are struggling, and sit 19th on three points. SB
• Crystal Palace v Wolves, Sunday 2pm
9) A reshuffle of the Burnley pack from Dyche
Following their heroics against Manchester City last weekend, Norwich travel to Burnley for a test of a very different kind. Sean Dyche has said he could make changes to his line-up, after Burnley were rather fortunate to take a point at Brighton, courtesy of a very late Jeff Hendrick strike. The Irish international has struggled to get a look in this season, but impressed last weekend along with his fellow substitutes Matej Vydra and Jay Rodriguez and could find himself in the starting line-up against Norwich. Fitness permitting, opposing sttrikers Ashley Barnes and Teemu Pukki are stonewall certainties to start, having scored 50 goals between them in the past calendar year. BG
• Burnley v Norwich, Saturday 3pm
10) Brighton head north with high hopes
Since their promotion to the Premier League alongside Newcastle in 2017, there are only two teams that Brighton have played every season and not yet lost to: West Ham, with whom they drew their fifth top-flight meeting last month, and Newcastle. It is the continuation of a seagull-savoured trend: across the last 30 seasons the teams have met 12 times, with Brighton winning six, losing just twice (both in their promotion year) and drawing the rest. Last October Brighton won 1-0 at St James’ Park, pushing Newcastle to the bottom of the table in the process, and the home side may consider revenge overdue. “We need to be really pushing to get the three points,” says Jamaal Lascelles. “These games are six-pointers. At home to Brighton, we’ve definitely got to fancy ourselves. Anyone who is going to be in and around us, we’ve got to be taking points off them.” SB
• Newcastle v Brighton, Saturday 5pm