Friday, September 11, 2026

Premier Table: Match Week 4 Preview


The Manchester Derby on Sunday highlights the weekend Premier League schedule. Manchester United performances have been all over the board this season, ranging from dominant to sad in three matches which has produced four points from nine on the table. Manchester City, meanwhile, seems primed for another title race despite the departure of Manager Pep Guardiola. New man Enzo Maresca has started with three league wins.

Newly promoted Hull City is undefeated as the Tigers visit Stamford Bridge on Saturday for a match of irresistible force versus immovable object. Chelsea has found the net eight times this season, to share league high honors with Brighton. The Tigers are yet to concede a goal this season.

Tottenham Hotspur is one of only two clubs, along with Aston Villa, which hasn’t scored a goal this season. Once again, the “top six” north London side is in the relegation end of the table despite major spending in the offseason. Everton, Spurs opponent on Saturday, has appeared to rely on smoke and mirrors to capture its five points early into the season. The club’s ownership has left David Moyes with a threadbare roster. Rumor has it that the club is once again up for sale with the Friedkin Group looking to make a quick profit by selling the club it acquired less than two years ago.

The other goalless team, Aston Villa, will host Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Winless Forest has found the net twice under former Crystal Palace Manager Oliver Glasner. Glasner’s replacement in south London, Pierre Sage, has already notched his first Premier League win, the Eagles winning a London derby with Fulham last weekend. Sage will be looking for a second win when newly promoted Ipswich visits Selhurst Park on Saturday.

Fulham Manager Alvaro Arbeloa is already feeling the pressure as his winless Cottagers prepare to play Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday. Only twice before have the Cottagers lost the first four matches of a topflight season and both times, they were relegated.

Sunderland knocked off the Cottagers to open the season and will be trying to make it three consecutive home wins against London clubs on Saturday. The only problem is that it is defending champion, and currently unbeaten and untied, Arsenal that is visiting the Stadium of Light. The Black Cats have won only one of their last 29 league meetings with the Gunners.

While winning but once, both Leeds and Newcastle remain unbeaten as they face off at Elland Road on Monday. Newcastle have lost just once in their last eight visits to the historic venue where the Whites have played for more than 100 years. Newcastle has been remarkably efficient this season, scoring six goals from just eight shots on target.

Other Week 4 matches will see Frank Lampard and Coventry City try to get their first win of the season as they host the high-flying attack of the Seagulls visiting from Brighton while Brentford will try to remain undefeated when the Bees visit winless Bournemouth .

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Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Premier Table: Match Week 3 Results

Arsenal made it three for three with a 3-2 victory in their London derby with Chelsea. The Gunners won their third straight outing with a comeback win featuring goals by former Chelsea man Kai Havertz and Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard who swept in the winner in the 54th minute. Morgan Rogers woke up the Emirates crowd with a fifth-minute goal which gave Chelsea the lead in the 5th minute. Arsenal’s response to this early wakeup call against a quality opponent demonstrated the tenacity of the defending Premier League champions who have their eyes set on a second league title under Manager Mikel Arteta.

Manchester City also won a close match at home, but against a far more surprising opponent. Newly promoted and winless Coventry City gave the Citizens all they could handle but fell victim to Erling Haaland’s third goal of the season in a 1-0 final at the Etihad.

Another newly promoted side is undefeated after Hull played to a goalless draw at Aston Villa. The Tigers don’t pack much of a wallop, but their defense has so far stood the test to make them an interesting story to date in their promotion season.

The weekend’s other goalless draw occurred at the City Ground where host Nottingham Forest kept Tottenham Hotspur ”0 for the season,” no goals and no wins. Nottingham Forest hasn’t been much better under new manager Oliver Glasner. The Tricky Trees have scored only twice in managing two draws and a loss in their three contests.

A high-flying Brighton attack, meanwhile, was mostly grounded versus Leeds. The Seagulls still lead the league (along with Chelsea) in goals scored but were held to a 1-1 draw on Saturday by visiting Leeds which remains one of seven remaining undefeated clubs after three matches. Only Arsenal and Hull have now conceded less than the two goals allowed by the stingy Whites after three matches.

Liverpool showed a little more defensive stability, although the competition must be considered in a 2-0 win over Ipswich Town, the Reds’ first victory of the season. Liverpool has scored two goals in all three of its matches but this time, the opposing side didn’t score two as well, the Tractor Boys clearly lacking the cutting edge to threaten Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool side. The former Bournemouth manager will be rubbing his hands though over an attack which appears to be coming together in the wake of several departures up top, including longtime star Mohamed Salah. Alexander Isaak scored both goals in his first double since his rampaging day at Newcastle. Both Isaak’s goals were assisted by Cody Gakpo who was expected to be gone this transfer window but is seeming quite at home. Bradly Barcola, another attacker snatched up in the recent transfer window from PSG, made a late debut in the match and adds further threat to Andoni’s rejuvenated front line.

Isaak’s former mates in the northeast are playing better than expected after the departure of longtime manager Eddie Howe and stars such as Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali. New Magpie manager Matthias Jaissle is getting improved production from some of the club’s returnees. Anthony Malaga and Yoane Wissa have suddenly looked dangerous after being largely ineffective last season. On Saturday it was Harvey Barnes and Jacob Ramsey who provided the goals in a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth which kept Newcastle undefeated. Even more impressive is that the Magpies clawed back from a two-goal deficit with Barnes finding the net in the 88th minute to salvage the point versus the visiting Cherries.

Brentford remains undefeated but there are warning signs as the Bees conceded a late goal for a second consecutive week in a 1-1 draw with Sunderland. That’s four points left on the table after only three matches for Brentford.

Everton, meanwhile, came back to capture a point for a second straight week when unlikely hero Ainsley Maitland-Niles stunned Manchester United in the 96th minute of play at Hill Dickinson Stadium. The former Arsenal fullback joined Everton on transfer deadline day from Lyon and paid immediate dividends for the Toffees with his first Premier League goal since 2019. The excitement that accompanied a 5-2 pasting of Ipswich Town is now in the past for Manchester United supporters who must consider the fact that the Red Devil defense has conceded two goals in each of the first three matches with none of those matches having been played against goalscoring powerhouses.

Crystal Palace fans, meanwhile, are breathing a sigh of relief after the Eagles made the quick trip across town to Fulham and came away with their first victory of the season, a 3-2 win at Craven Cottage. Ben Chillwell had the 77th minute winner for Palace, just days after his Tuesday free transfer from Strasbourg. Chilwell had come into the game just three minutes earlier in relief of wing back Tyrick Mitchell who scored the first two Eagle goals. As new Crystal Palace Manager Pierre Sage celebrated his first Premier League win, former Real Madrid Manager Alvaro Arbeloa may already be on the hot seat with Fulham. The Cottagers are one of two clubs to have lost all three of their Premier League matches this season, conceding seven goals in the process. Only Saturday’s opponent Crystal Palace and newly promoted Ipswich Town have conceded more. Not only are supporters growing anxious, but an unhappy locker room is showing early signs of the player discontent which tainted Arbeloa’s short stint at Real Madrid. 

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Friday, September 4, 2026

Premier Table: Match Week 3 Preview

Arsenal faces its stiffest test of the young season when high rolling Chelsea pays a visit to the Emirates on Sunday. After swatting Coventry in the league’s opener two weeks ago, Arsenal was businesslike, if less than impressive, against an Aston Villa side reeling from transfer window departures. Now undefeated Chelsea under new manager Xabi Alonso arrives for a London derby against the Gunners.

Chelsea has been living dangerously, bagging two wins despite allowing five goals over the first two matches. Only Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace have conceded more goals than Chelsea. Meanwhile, there is still some question as to whether Arsenal has enough firepower to successfully defend its title after winning the Premier League last season on the strength of its defense and set piece proficiency. Deals for Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior and Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez failed to reach the finish line. Leonardo Trossard, Gabriel Jesus and Ethan Nwaneri left the club while Christos Tzolis, formerly of Belgian side Brugge is the only addition of note. Chelsea midfielder Morgan Rogers was another player that Arsenal was rumored to covet but the attacking midfielder instead departed Aston Villa for the Blues. Rogers and best mate Cole Palmer will need to be at their best to deliver a first win for Chelsea over Arsenal in twelve meetings.

While Arsenal and Chelsea have both won their two matches to date so far, Liverpool is yet to edge into the win column, drawing both league matches under new manager Andoni Iraola. The former Bournemouth manager should have a good chance at that elusive first league win when his Reds visit Ipswich Town to begin the Premier League match weekend schedule on Friday.

Frank Lampard is also looking for his first win this season but is far less likely to find it when Coventry City, which was hammered by Arsenal in the league opener and then tripped up by fellow newcomer Hull last week, must now travel to the Etihad to face Manchester City and its galaxy of stars led by striker Erling Haaland.

Unbeaten and untied Hull, meanwhile, will try to keep the party going in front of its home fans versus Aston Villa on Saturday. A high scoring match should not be expected. Hull has yet to allow a goal this season. Aston Villa is yet to land a shot on target.

Nottingham Forest Manager Oliver Glasner gets a second chance to deliver a first win in front of the Tricky Trees home supporters when Forest welcomes Tottenham Hotspur. Like Coventry and Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur is yet to put a ball past an opposing goalkeeper this season, noteworthy in that Spurs had never before failed to score in the opening two matches of a Premier League season. This weekend Spurs could make more history as the north London club has never before lost the first three matches of a Premier League campaign.

Fulham and Crystal Palace are two other struggling London sides. The good news is that one of them is guaranteed their first point of the season when the two clash on Saturday.

No club, meanwhile, has been involved in matches with more aggregate scoring than the twelve goals recorded during Brighton’s first two matches. Interestingly, the Seagulls now host Leeds on Saturday with the Whites having scored just twice while conceding just once in their two prior outings.

Everton, despite a seemingly thin squad, are unbeaten after two weeks. The collapse of the deal to bring USMNT and Monaco striker Folarin Balogun to Merseyside leaves the Toffees seriously short of attacking quality. Everton was one of only three clubs last season to have a leading goal scorer with fewer than ten goals. That leading scorer for the Toffees, Beto, is now playing for Serie A side Fiorentina while Balogun was supposed to be the medicine for the Toffees’ ailing attack. Everton has failed to score in five of its last eight matches versus Manchester United which visits Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday.

Other Premier League matches this weekend include Newcastle United trying to snap an eight-match winless run in Premier League matches versus Bournemouth while their northeast neighbor Sunderland heads to Brentford where the Black Cats have failed to win in their last four visits to Gtech Community Stadium.

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