Premier League weekend preview: key fixtures and storylines

Ipswich will host Nottingham Forest on Friday at 8pm BST in the Premier League, opening a weekend of matches featuring contests such as Aston Villa v Manchester City and Liverpool v Brighton across Saturday and Sunday.

Nottingham Forest arrive after seven league games with five points and five goals, a record the article describes as eerily similar to last season when their eighth game was a 3-0 home loss to Chelsea that marked the end for Ange Postecoglou; Oliver Glasner is not under similar scrutiny but must address Forest being the division’s lowest scorers. Morgan Gibbs-White is available after missing the narrow defeat by Arsenal, while Liam Delap’s goals record was noted: 12 of his 14 career Premier League goals were scored for Ipswich, six of them at Portman Road. Glasner said before Friday evening’s game: "What we need to improve is getting [Delap] into more positions where he can score," adding, "He’s one of our best finishers." Ipswich’s offensive depth was also highlighted: eight different Ipswich players have scored in seven games; only Brighton and Brentford can better that total this season.

Aston Villa visit Manchester City on Saturday at 12.30pm BST following their 2-1 win at the Etihad in May, a result that completed a league double over City and came four days after Villa’s Europa League triumph in Istanbul where Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers and Emi Buendía were the scorers; Buendía is the only one of those three still at Villa as Unai Emery rebuilds. Manchester City sit in form such that a victory would make them just the third side to win their first eight games of a Premier League season, a benchmark underlined in the preview.

Arsenal host Everton on Saturday at 3pm BST and could hand a chance to 16-year-old Max Dowman after Bukayo Saka suffered a suspected quad muscle injury in Wednesday’s 2-2 Champions League draw at Bayern Munich; Dowman became the youngest Premier League goalscorer with a solo strike against Everton in March but has played only nine Premier League minutes this season despite scoring twice against Ipswich in the Carabao Cup. In London’s other big fixture, Chelsea v Tottenham at 5.30pm BST, Tottenham’s poor recent record at Stamford Bridge — six consecutive defeats and just two points there since April 2018 — frames Roberto De Zerbi’s selection dilemmas after a 3-1 win over Coventry, including whether to persist with the 3-4-2-1 system and James Maddison or to reintroduce Conor Gallagher’s dynamism.

Coventry v Fulham on Saturday at 3pm BST brings a meeting of teams sitting either side of the dotted line after shaky starts and recalls their only top-flight encounters in 1967-68 when Coventry took a single point from two games and stayed up by a point while Fulham went down. Coventry have shown flashes — notably a 4-1 win at Newcastle — but Frank Lampard urged a change of mindset: "I can’t keep applauding the players, believing they deserve to be here," he said. Hull v Brentford on Sunday at 2pm GMT contrasts styles: Brentford have had more possession in only one league game this season, their 1-1 draw at Leeds, while Hull are the most possession-averse team, averaging just over 30%; both sides have three goals apiece from dead balls and Keith Andrews said of Igor Thiago: "Thiago at the moment is a very marked man, but we’ve got goalscorers throughout the team," adding, "Thiago being Thiago wants to score more goals, and he’s certainly not far away." The preview records Thiago as having scored one goal in seven this season.

Liverpool v Brighton on Sunday at 2pm GMT features Brighton on a six-game winning run in all competitions, with five clean sheets and 22 goals in that run and the article refers to them as the Premier League’s highest scorers; Brighton’s form was set against the context of Liverpool’s defensive issues in the comeback against Villarreal, which were "not limited to Virgil van Dijk’s early lapses." The piece also lists a trio of attacking names — Rio Ngumoha, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak — as threats following recent performances, and states, "Andoni Iraola is yet to savour a first home league win as Liverpool head coach – Anfield has seen only four home wins in 13 league games this year."

Manchester United v Bournemouth on Sunday at 2pm GMT examines Manchester United’s internal turmoil after Bruno Fernandes’s abdication of captaincy duties, described as "accusing his manager of being tactically inept," and questions whether there is another star act to win games beyond Fernandes. Crystal Palace v Newcastle at 2pm GMT sees Palace under pressure defensively — they have not kept a clean sheet at Selhurst Park in six months and have conceded eight goals in four home league games — and welcome back Axel Disasi from suspension after his red card against Ipswich; the article notes Disasi was brought in on loan from Chelsea, had to watch from the sidelines as Palace were beaten by Brighton, and states, "Disasi owes Sage a favour and he will be desperate to make up for his poor start to life in south London."

Sunderland’s meeting with Leeds at the MKM Stadium on Sunday at 4.30pm GMT is framed as a moment for a reaction after a difficult start, with Nordi Mukiele singled out as "among Sunderland’s best players and most influential dressing-room figures" and quoted: "Leeds will be the right moment to show everyone we are not dead." Mukiele added: "We have not been good enough. Right now it’s not us; we are not Sunderland. I believe we can go back to the top. I believe in this team and this staff. We have quality." The preview notes Sunderland begin the weekend bottom of the table and that they have three league fixtures before the international break: Leeds, Coventry away and Chelsea at home.

Sunderland’s fixture against Leeds on Sunday at 4.30pm GMT starts a run of three league games for the club before the international break, with those matches — Leeds, Coventry away and Chelsea at home — identified in the preview as an immediate opportunity for the team to respond.