5 Premier League Tips for the Weekend’s Action - 29/10/22

Matches between Leicester City and Manchester City has produced many high-scoring matches down the years, with last season seeing City win a game 6-3 whilst the season before Leicester won 5-2, but at the King Power Stadium in the Premier League, City have been very dominant in recent years, winning four of the last five fixtures there, keeping clean sheets in four of those games, so City dominating the game is to be expected.

Whilst Leicester have been getting results recently, their overall play hasn’t improved as such, beating Leeds and Wolves a combined 6-0, but losing on xG a combined 1.9-3.1, which adds to the basis that City will dominate the game and will ultimately make chances.

Over the years with City, the shots were mainly shared around, but this season Haaland is their focal point, taking 4.4 shots per 90 minutes this season in the Premier League, and if City dominates the game like they can do to any team and if Leicester are still allowing teams chances, Haaland will not be afraid to shoot on sight against them.

Matches between Manchester United and West Ham in recent years have never really produced high-scoring games with West Ham usually sitting back and daring Man Utd to break down their tough defence, which has come with varying success, but in the past four matches at Old Trafford between the teams, the game has ended as 1-0 to Man Utd, with their other game ending 1-0 to West Ham with two very heavily rotated teams in the League Cup.

Man Utd will be confident coming into this game with their good home form and West Ham’s poor away form, with Man Utd winning three, losing and drawing once in their five home games, whilst West Ham away from home have won once, drawn once and lost four, scoring only three goals.

After all their summer signings taking time to gel together, Nottingham Forest are starting to get results this season after Steve Cooper’s more defensive approach and Taiwo Awoniyi has been a victim of Cooper trying to find his strongest side, only starting five Premier League games this season, but as shown in his performance against Liverpool, when he gets service, he can be a massive threat.

Arsenal have been a great surprise this season, but games might be starting to catch up with them drawing at the weekend away to Southampton and losing in the Europa League to PSV Eindhoven, and tired legs could really benefit Awoniyi as his all-energy style could cause Arsenal problems and could lead him to get more chances to get shots on goal.

Both Fulham and Everton are looking to be two sides this season that teams are going to hate playing against, with both playing solid, defensive football, with not much focus on ball retention.

Fulham have averaged 45.7% possession and Everton even lower at 42.9%, which could see this game as a cagey affair with neither team taking hold of the game which could see chances for both sides.

Both Fulham and Everton have shown that they can score goals this season, with Everton netting three in their last game against Crystal Palace whilst Fulham have scored eight goals in their last three games.

Both teams have also shown to concede chances, with Fulham giving up the most xG in the league this season with 21.6, whilst Everton have given up the fourth most with 18.7, and with both Aleksandar Mitrović and Dominic Calvert-Lewin both returning from their injuries recently, both teams have quality in forward areas to take these chances.

This game between Brighton and Chelsea is interesting in many ways, with Graham Potter returning to Brighton with his new club Chelsea, Brighton’s new manager Roberto De Zerbi looking for his first win and Brighton looking for their first win over Chelsea since their first game against the Blues in 1933.

Brighton under De Zerbi have played good football without producing the results, but have shown many positives in carrying on what Potter built at the Amex and are coming up against a Chelsea side that are getting results under Potter but aren’t yet producing great performances, losing on xG in three of their last four games without losing once.

Danny Welbeck has been one of the reasons Brighton are able to produce the performances they do, with his energy leading the line, his hold-up play and his off-ball runs being some of the best in the league, but also he is one of the reasons Brighton struggle, scoring no goals so far this season from 2.9 xG, but Chelsea’s vulnerability to headers, with the last two goals against Brighton being from headers could, with the last from Welbeck, it could see Welbeck net for the first time this season.