Premier League questions: A look ahead to the weekend’s action

Will Wayne Rooney or Romelu Lukaku find the target against former clubs? Can Slaven Bilic quieten his critics with another West Ham win?

Sky Sports Premier League will be showing four big games over the weekend, starting with the Friday Night Football clash between Bournemouth and Brighton.

Roy Hodgson takes charge of Crystal Palace for the first time when Southampton visit in front of the Sky cameras on Saturday, while it’s a bumper card on Nissan Super Sunday.
First up, Chelsea host Arsenal at Stamford Bridge before attention turns to Manchester, where Rooney’s Everton travel to United.

Ahead of the action, we consider the questions for each Premier League game this weekend…
Four games in and Bournemouth are one of two teams still without a point. The other, Crystal Palace, have sacked their manager.

It’s not the last two defeats – to Manchester City and Arsenal – that will necessarily worry Bournemouth fans, but rather the two that opened the campaign as they fell to West Brom and Watford without scoring a goal.

Now, with Frank de Boer gone at Palace and West Ham easing the pressure on Slaven Bilic after their win over Huddersfield, attention will turn to Howe’s future if the Cherries fail to beat Brighton at home in the Friday Night Football clash.

Left-back Charlie Daniels is the Cherries’ only goalscorer so far this campaign and Howe’s side must find their touch in front of goal against their south-coast neighbours.

Newly-promoted Brighton started similarly slowly, but their first goals in the 3-1 win over West Brom suggests they are finding their feet.
Palace sacked De Boer after making the worst top-flight start since 1925 and on Saturday they entertain Southampton looking for their first goal and first point of the season.

Yet in Southampton, the Londoners might find a compliant opponent. Saints are in horrid form, having failed to score themselves in four out of five games in all competitions – their only goals coming in a 3-2 win over West Ham on August 19.

There were signs of life for Palace in the Super Sunday defeat to Burnley – they had two cleared off the line after peppering the Clarets’ goal with 23 shots – and they need points here.

After Southampton, they face consecutive trips to Manchester City and United before hosting Chelsea.
Stamford Bridge has not been a happy hunting ground for Arsenal in recent years.

The Gunners have not kept a Premier League clean sheet at Chelsea in their last 12 visits, conceding at least twice on eight occasions.

Unsurprisingly that defensive fragility has coincided with a run of five consecutive Stamford Bridge defeats.

Their form away from the Emirates this season hardly bodes well ahead of Sunday either, with a 1-0 loss at Stoke followed by their 4-0 humiliation to Liverpool.
Rooney’s return will dominate the build-up to Sunday’s clash – live on Sky Sports Premier League – but it’s his replacement who is likely to take centre stage come kick off.

Lukaku has enjoyed a dream start to his United career, scoring four goals in his first four Premier League appearances for the club. Only two players have managed five in their first five – Louis Saha and Robin van Persie.

Meanwhile, his former team have struggled for goals since his departure, scoring just twice in four league games.

Dig a little deeper and the problem looks even worse. Ronald Koeman’s side have attempted just seven shots on target this season; a joint-low alongside Swansea City.

That’s actually fewer than Lukaku (nine shots on target) has managed by himself.
The atmosphere around Watford is buoyant after a strong start to the campaign and they should pose a stiff test of City’s title credentials at Vicarage Road.

Their strength lies in midfield – Nathaniel Chalobah and Abdoulaye Doucoure ran the show in the 2-0 at Southampton – but the partnership has not been tested at the very highest level yet.

Their manager Marco Silva will want a fast start to capitalise on any City sluggishness after their Champions League trip to Feyenoord.

But even then, Pep Guardiola boasts such a formidable array of talent he could easily rotate and keep his side fresh.

Particular attention will need to be paid to Kevin de Bruyne, who has provided the joint-most assists (29) since his City debut two seasons ago.
The dismissal of Sadio Mane against Manchester City not only had significant implications on the result at the Etihad Stadium – it may also have a longer-term effect on Liverpool’s results.

Mane serves the first of his three-game ban on Saturday against Burnley and Jurgen Klopp is well aware of the forward’s importance.

Liverpool have won just five of the 12 Premier League games that Mane hasn’t started since August 2016 (42%), compared to 63% of games when he has started (19/30).

However, Liverpool have won five of their six Premier League matches against Burnley, and nine of the last meetings at Anfield across all competitions.
For David Wagner’s early-season surprise package it was back down to earth with a bump at the London Stadium on Monday Night Football, as the club who had been rooted to the bottom handed out a first Premier League defeat to the new boys.

They say the greatest triumph is not in never falling but in rising again, and against the Foxes on Saturday, Wagner will be looking for the first signs of that necessary durability.

If Huddersfield can show themselves to be thick of skin and hardy of spirit against the 2015/16 champions, then their presence in the Premier League’s upper echelons might not be the flash in the pan some have predicted.
The knives were well and truly out for the West Ham boss after a catastrophic start to the season but the pressure has eased slightly after Monday’s 2-0 win over Huddersfield.

The Croatian is a long way from being in the clear and those critics who have accused him of being tactically out of his depth are yet to be silenced, in spite of the moral-boosting win against the Terriers.

It will take a few more performances of that calibre to get the naysayers humming to Billic’s tune. Can they keep the ball rolling against the Baggies?
Newcastle looked like a side with a renewed sense of purpose against Swansea last Sunday.

With the club likely to be in the market for reinforcements in January, a good number of Rafa Benitez’s squad know they are playing for their futures on Tyneside.

Against the Swans, they showed what they can do when properly motivated. The task now is to keep that momentum going against Stoke, who impressed in a 2-2 home draw with Manchester United.

So while the win at Swansea was a welcome bonus but it is likely to be Newcastle’s home form that decides their league status.
Harry Kane went three games without a goal in August so he’s predictably hit four in three for club and country since the calendar flipped into September.

His double at Everton means he now has 23 goals in 21 league appearances in 2017. Only Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and PSG’s Edinson Cavani have been more prolific.

But it was always a matter of time before Kane hit the back of the net again.

The real problem for Tottenham has been their record at Wembley, where they have already dropped more points (five) than they did during last season’s entire campaign at White Hart Lane (four).

The visit of Swansea should offer them the ideal chance to end their league wait for three points at the stadium.

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