Our Tips for the Opening Weekend of Premier League Action

Manchester United take on Leeds United at Old Trafford on the opening weekend of the Premier League season in the Roses Rivalry in Saturday’s early kick-off.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side will be expected to mount some form of title charge following a progressive summer which has seen the Red Devils make the acquisitions of Raphael Varane and Jadon Sancho for their starting 11, whilst Leeds will be hoping for more of the same that they saw last year when they narrowly finished three points off Spurs who took the Europa Conference League place.

United were the second top scorers in the division last time out with 73 goals in 38 games, whilst Leeds’ attacking style of play flourished, seeing them hit the back of the net 62 times, the sixth-best record in the division, outscoring the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea.

The last meeting between these two at Old Trafford finished as a goal fest in what was their first Premier League meeting since the 2003/04 campaign, as the Red Devils smashed in six past the Elland Road club, with Scott McTominay scoring the quickest brace in Premier League history, whilst Bruno Fernandes also scored two and both Victor Lindelof and Dan James got on the scoresheet.

Leicester City take on Wolverhampton Wanderers at the King Power Stadium in a Midlands clash on Saturday.

Last time out in the Premier League the Foxes finished fifth in the league, missing out on Champions League football by just one point behind Chelsea who finished fourth, so Brendan Rodgers will know that his side will need to start quickly this campaign if they are to challenge once again for a Champions League place and demonstrated in their 1-0 victory against Manchester City in the Community Shield that they are more than ready.

This game will be Bruno Lage’s first competitive match in charge of Wolverhampton Wanderers, and the 45-year-old former Benfica manager will be looking to improve on his sides’ 13th placed finish that they achieved under Nuno Espirito Santo last time out. Lage and Santo tend to play a very similar style of football, so we can expect more of the same from the Molineux club this time around.

The last four meetings between these two has yielded just one goal, which came in the last game these two played at the King Power Stadium, where Jamie Vardy’s 15th-minute penalty took the spoils for the Foxes.

Newly promoted Norwich City face a tough test on the opening weekend of the Premier League season as they host Liverpool at Carrow Road.

The Canaries were promoted as champions of the Championship last time out with 97 points from 46 matches, seeing them bounce back to England’s top-flight at the first time of asking. Daniel Farke’s side have made a series of additions in order to be more competitive this time out, with the likes of Josh Sargent and Milot Rashica arriving from Werder Bremen, as well as acquiring Pierre Lees-Melou and Billy Gilmour, whilst making last season’s loans of Ben Gibson and Dimitris Giannoulis permanent deals.

Meanwhile, Liverpool just about managed to scrape into the top four in the 2020/21 season, finishing three points ahead of Leicester. What will give Jurgen Klopp some encouragement is Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez’s injury returns, as well as the promising form of Ibrahima Konate in their recent friendly win over Osasuna at Anfield.

Mohamed Salah is the player to focus on in this game as the Egyptian is priced at 5/2 to score first. Since joining Liverpool, the former AS Roma man has 95 league goals to his name in four seasons, including one against Norwich which came on the opening day of the 2019/20 campaign in a 4-1 home win for the Reds.

The next game on this list of Premier League tips comes from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium where City boss Pep Guardiola is looking for his side to get their first win at Spurs’ ground since the hosts moved into it towards the end of the 2018/19 season.

City have suffered two 2-0 defeats at the hands of Tottenham at this stadium in their first two league visits, meaning that they are yet to register a goal, but with this being Espirito Santo’s first game in charge of the Lilywhites, perhaps they could strike whilst Spurs are adjusting to the Portuguese manager’s tactics.

The Citizen’s won 25 games by the scoreline of 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 across all competitions last season which includes their 1-0 win against Spurs in the League Cup final at Wembley Stadium where Aymeric Laporte scored an 82nd-minute winner to cap off what was a dominant display from Guardiola’s men, having 21 efforts on goal compared to Tottenham’s two.

The final game on this list of tips from the opening weekend of the Premier League sees Everton take on Southampton at Goodison Park.

Rafael Benitez will be desperate to see his side get off to a positive start, following a controversial switch to the Goodison Park club, having previously managed Liverpool in the late noughties, winning the Champions League in 2005 in Istanbul.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin will be a player that Benitez will be hoping to see fire his side to glory, as the 24-year-old Sheffield born striker managed a career-best of 21 goals in 39 games last season.

The Toffees have a good home record against the Saints, winning six out of nine Premier League meetings at Goodison Park, with the Saints yet to win one since they were repromoted back to the top flight in 2012. The last meeting between the pair saw Richarlison score a ninth-minute winner in a narrow 1-0 victory for Everton in March.