Manchester City - Arsenal
Wolverhampton Wanderers - Leeds United
West Ham United - Derby County
Liverpool - Bournemouth
Everton - Aston Villa
Brentford - Brighton
Games against The Cherries and Matt is always tough. The visitors lost their opening game and I'm sure Matt is looking to bounce back. The two teams match each other and we're in for an interesting game between two outfits who is used to be fighting at the top of the table. A win for us could give us the perfect start to the season.
Everton vs Aston Villa
It's only been four league matches since we last travelled to play Everton and the 4-2 defeat in that one was the start of a run of six games without a win in all competitions. Our overall league record against the Toffees at their ground is awful. We haven't ever beaten them in the league at their ground and haven't even taken a point since season 16 so fans travelling up the M6 can be forgiven in doing so with an element of trepidation. We have taken cup points in that time but David often plays a different type of side in those comps so his league side is a different prospect.
Even with a draw in our opening league game I would happily take a point from this one! But David is currently on holiday so maybe his eye will be off the ball and we can sneak one.
They have a full squad to choose from whilst we are just without Marin Pongracic after his midweek sending off so both sides will be strong. We'll be setting up conservatively and hoping to nick a draw or a 1-0
Making all these changes to improve the side then losing the first fixture was disappointing but we had a bad preseason match too and lost in the cup final so tbh this season is following the same route as the youths already and now facing the best team in the league will be a tough tie away from home where i expect Ed will walk with the points going on current form, we did manger to beat a managerless Club America side and Gyokeres is back from injury so will havent rolled over yet but not confident for this season yet. I reckon all this title pressure talk has done us in already
SO next game sees us up against Leeds united, if I remember correctly these are one of the teams who got promoted with us so this is a chance for us to get another 3 points in a game that should be winnible for us however Leeds will have something to prove as well so this won't be easy. We've made a decent start to the season so far winning one and drawing one and all 3 of our main strikers are already on the scoresheet which is key. We'll be changing our formation slightly for todays game and trying something slightly different. We also have Dan Ballard back from suspension so he'll come back into the defence and hopefully he's learned from his mistake from the last game.
