The Premier League doesn’t skip a beat following midweek European action with Matchday 9 starting on Friday.
Pregame narrative: Arsenal and Liverpool highlight the weekend, while Manchester City and Aston Villa are in favourable spots at home.
Check out the best Premier League picks for the upcoming action from Oct. 25-27.
Premier League picks
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Prediction: Manchester City vs. Southampton over 3.5 goals
When: Oct. 25: 10:00 a.m.
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Manchester City leads the league with 19 goals over its first eight matches. The defending English champions are led by all-world striker Erling Haaland, who has scored 10 of their 19 goals despite failing to hit the back of the net in the last three.
City is finding ways to win after injuries to Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne, even if it hasn’t been easy, most recently scoring the winner at Wolves in the final seconds of stoppage time.
Southampton owns the second-worst defensive record in the Premier League, conceding 18 goals over its first eight matches. As porous as the Southampton defence has been to begin the season, its attacking unit has been equally inept.
The Saints have scored just six goals, led by Cameron Archer’s two over his five appearances. Manager Russell Martin isn’t usually one to park the bus, but given their early struggles and this being a trip to the Etihad, that may be the best route to success.
Similar to City’s prior opponents, Southampton will lean on counterattacks to get Archer and Co. a good chance or two.
Expect Manchester City to repeatedly break down the deep-lying Southampton backline.
Premier League picks: Back Villa to win
Prediction: Aston Villa to beat Bournemouth
When: Oct. 26: 10:00 a.m.
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Saturday’s matchup between fourth-place Aston Villa and 11th-place Bournemouth at Villa Park boasts a mouthwatering line in favour of the home side.
Aston Villa enters the match unbeaten over its last seven Premier League fixtures. Over that span, it has outscored opponents 13-to-7 on aggregate. Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran have combined for nine goals with the latter’s four goals all coming from the bench.
After beating a 10-man Fulham side 3-1, Villa hosted Bologna in a midweek Champions League matchup before facing the Cherries.
With the likes of Amadou Onana, Jacob Ramsey, Tyrone Mings, John McGinn, and Ezri Konsa each having returned from injury in the past week or two, Villa’s depth will come in key during a brutal scheduling stretch.
Bournemouth comes to Villa Park full of confidence after defeating a 10-man Arsenal squad 2-0. The Cherries are paced by Antoine Semenyo, who has had a bit of a breakthrough to begin the season, scoring three goals and assisting once.
Villa has a busy stretch of matches, but it doesn’t have to travel and its depth should come in key against a Bournemouth team perhaps feeling too good about itself after last week’s win.
Matchday 9 SGP
Prediction: Arsenal and Liverpool to draw and Under 2.5 goals
When: Oct. 27: 12:30 p.m.
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Arsenal and Liverpool are two more English teams facing a gruelling run of games which involves three straight weeks of midweek matches.
After falling to Bournemouth following yet another red card, Arsenal played Shakhtar Donetsk in a midweek Champions League showdown. Mikel Arteta will be tasked with determining a different starting XI with William Saliba out due to suspension.
Combined with questions on the fitness of Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, Arsenal may approach things a bit safer than usual.
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Liverpool has enjoyed a positive beginning to the season, as evidenced by its position atop the table. It dispatched Chelsea 2-1 in its previous fixture and had to travel to Germany to play RB Leipzig on Wednesday.
The Reds have conceded just three goals over their first eight league matches, owing much of their defensive success to the midfield ranks of Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister.
Expect two somewhat tired teams vying for position in the title race to probe one another cautiously and not drop points.
Player to pop: Bryan Mbeumo
Mbeumo has scored six of Brentford’s 14 goals this season and has goals in three of the last four.
He’s played almost every minute in league action and is on penalty duty, meaning he should easily reach double-digit goals this season.
While he surprisingly doesn’t have an assist, that should change shortly given his role on set pieces and his history (at least six assists during all five of his seasons with Brentford).
Meanwhile, Brentford’s opponents this weekend, Ipswich Town, has leaked goals at the third-worst rate in the Premier League, conceding 16 times.
Making things worse for a team that will be threatened by relegation all season is that Ipswich is battling injuries on its back line.
