5 Premier League Tips - 27/8/22

Neither Leicester or Chelsea have started the season the way they would’ve hoped, but the situation at Leicester looks a lot more doom and gloom, with Wesley Fofana currently training with the youth squad as he demands a transfer to Chelsea, unsettling the squad.

Last season’s fixtures between the two sides were dominated by Chelsea, combining for 36 shots and 14 on target in their two games, whilst only limiting Leicester to a total of six shots, which might mean Thomas Tuchel has a great game plan up against Brendan Rodgers.

In every Chelsea game so far this season, they have had more corners than their opposition, whilst Leicester have had fewer corners than their opponents in their three games so far.

Despite Chelsea players having some discipline problems so far this season, picking up eight yellow cards already this season, the joint third most in the league, whilst being one of two teams with a red card, however, Chelsea will likely dominate the game, which will give Leicester players more opportunities for yellow card fouls.

After a disappointing first two games for both Manchester United and Marcus Rashford, both of them shocked a lot of people in the game against Liverpool, with Man Utd putting up an impressive display against a great team, whilst for the first time in over a year, Rashford brought a spark to a game.

Southampton play a similar high pressing game to Liverpool, leaving space in behind the defence, which suits Rashford’s style which found him a lot of success against Liverpool, which despite having a backs-to-the-wall performance, got him two shots on target.

Manchester United have the quality to beat most sides in the Premier League, but in the first two games in the league, the effort wasn’t there to be able to do so, but they outworked one of the most hardworking teams in the league in Liverpool, so if they the same effort to this fixture, they have an abundance of quality players to win the game.

The recent history is also on United’s side, with Southampton’s last win over the Red Devils coming in 2016, giving United a thirteen-match unbeaten streak against the Saints, although it does contain only six victories.

After less than desirable starts to the season, both West Ham and Aston Villa will be desperate for a win to kick start a campaign for European football, which was certainly both clubs’ aim at the start the season.

Against Crystal Palace, Aston Villa’s weaknesses were on full show, with their full-backs not being able to get near Wilfred Zaha, which would give Bowen confidence he can get his and West Ham’s goal-scoring started.

West Ham have got the better of Aston Villa the past two seasons, winning all four times, scoring an average of 2.75 a game, conceding a goal a game, and even under new manager Steven Gerrard, they still weren't able to beat the London side.

It’s these types of games early in the season that can have a huge difference at the end of the season, with both Everton and Brentford’s main objectives coming into this season in Premier League survival, and points against other teams with the same objective are vital.

Last season’s newcomers Brentford not only finished in a higher position than Everton, but did the double over the Toffees, and this season they have started the brighter team, taking four points from their first three games, including a 4-0 win over Man Utd, whilst Everton have only one point so far this season and pressure is beginning to mount on Frank Lampard.

Whilst Brentford have had a decent start to the season, their defence has been leaky in two of their three games, conceding three goals to Fulham and two goals to Leicester, but their attack has been very good, scoring eight goals, the second most in the league.

In 21 games under Frank Lampard in the Premier League, Everton have only managed four clean sheets, and so far this season they are yet to keep a clean sheet, but going forward at times they have looked dangerous at times, creating an xG of 3.8, more than Brentford, who have created 3.7 this season.

Despite having four points from their first three games, Nottingham Forest’s defence has been easily attacked, allowing the most xG against this season (5.9), at the same time conceding the most shots on target in the league so far with twenty.

Tottenham on the other hand have had the second most shots on target this season (17), and with Kane in good form to start the season, scoring in his last two games, he will likely get the opportunities to get the shots off against a Forest side that has allowed their opponents a lot of opportunities to score and they haven’t faced a player anywhere near the quality Kane possesses.