Category: Live Matches

This weekend’s Premier League clash of the titans will be held at Old Trafford with the red arch rivals Manchester United and

Liverpool set to face each other on Sunday.

The gastronome encounter also presents a reunion of ten Hag and Slot for the second time in a managerial capacity after the Red Gods subiected the Dutch side to a 3-0 home defeat in the pre-season.

Having only joined the Red Devils eight days prior and coming through the ranks at Bayern Munich, the young striker was the hero during a highly unconvincing victory over Fulham only to become the villain the following week at the AMEX stadium last weekend as the Ten Hag miracles came tumbling down.

Cup nightmares of ex-Man United man

Danny Welbeck and Joao Pedro before

Amad Diallo shot a goal for AC Milan and an offside of a Zirkzee saw an Alejandro Garnacho goal disallowed Brighton & Hove

Albion ran out winners in the lunchtime

duel, 2-1. 

After the second consecutive loss in the three competitive games in the current season; a rather embarrassing loss through penalty-shootout to Manchester City in the Community Shield match, Manchester United has not indicated any serious improvement since the managing director of the club spared Ten Hag the sack.

It has also not been a beautiful September for Man United either as they have lost in 13 of the 35 top-flight encounters since Sir Alex Ferguson moved out of the dugout; in fact, only in May (14) have they lost more top-flight clashes since the start of the 2013-14 season.

However, the Red Devils are just 90 minutes away from beating three consecutive Premier League games at home for the first time since August 2023 after defeating Newcastle in the final of the last season that has not distinguished Slot and Ten Hag in the Eredivisie.

Four goals have been scored and none conceded by the Reds in that time, as Sunday’s visitors followed up their 2-0 beating of Ipswich Town with an identical win over Brentford last weekend, as Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah devenomised the Bees’ sting.

As was the case at Portman Road, though, Liverpool’s first-half display at Anfield left something to be desired, but their expected goals tally of 5.3 is still the highest of all 20

Premier League sides so far this season; an unsightly statistic for a Man United side famed for conceding shot after shot.

The Red Devils made it through Jurgen

Klopp’s farewell season without suffering a single loss to his Liverpool side, though, with two Premier League draws coming either side of an absorbing 4-3 FA Cup victory, but Slot oversaw a 3-0 trouncing during both sides” United States pre-season tour.

Although the Red Devils were able to complete a deal for the former midfield player of Paris Saint-Germain, Manuel Ugarte will not be able to make his club debut on Sunday since he failed to register by 12 p.m. on deadline day.

Moving on to new recruits who might make their debuts this weekend, Liverpool may have struck the best deal of the summer when they paid under £10 million to acquire Federico Chiesa, an attacker who won the Euro 2024 championship with Juventus.

However, Slot has acknowledged that Chiesa is unlikely to make his Old Trafford debut unless any last-minute injuries force him to. This is due to his lack of playing time in recent weeks and his well-documented fitness issues.

As of this writing, however, the only player uncertain for the visitors-whose captain, Virgil van Dijk, will make his 200th Premier League appearance for the team- is Curtis Jones, who had a groin injury on Friday and did not practice.

Read Also: Manuel Urgate Biography 

On Sunday, Bayern Munich will face Freiburg at Allianz Arena in his first Bundesliga home game as manager. He will be hoping that it goes better than his team’s victory over Wolfsburg last week.

With three points after their 3-2 victory against Wolfsburg on August 25, the home team is presently ranked sixth in the standings, while the visitors, who defeated Stuttgart 3-1 on August 24, are in second place.

Following their turbulent season of 2023-24 under Thomas Tuchel, when they finished third in the Bundesliga and missed out on the league title for the first time in 12 years, supporters had high hopes that Kompany’s summer makeover would address the team’s obvious defensive shortcomings.

Even though Bayern dominated possession against Wolfsburg, they nevertheless let up two goals and faced four good opportunities while only managing to generate three of their own.

The home side was down 2-1 after

Wolfsburg’s Lovro Majer controlled his second of the night in the 55th minute however Wolfsburg’s Jakub Kaminski put the ball into his own net bringing the score level.

Harry Kane provided an assist in the match by passing the ball to a thrusting Serge Gnabry and the latter’s smart finish hit the post before going into the goal in the 82 nd minute.

The result also means that Kompany has won his first two competitive matches in charge of Bayern, the first of which was a 4-O win against Ulm on August 16 in the first round of the DFB-Pokal.

It also means that Bayern have scored only nine goals in their last four league games and have notched up only two shut outs in the last 17 Bundesliga encounters.

Freiburg’s opponents come into the clash having won their league season opener 3-1 against last season’s Druhget based on efforts and truly deserved win.

Breisgau-Brasilianer won the match because, despite Stuttgart taking the lead with Ermedin Demirovic bicycle kick in the second minute, two goals from Lukas Kubler and one from Ritsu Doan.

Freiburg let their opponents control the match, and, at some point, had 67% of the possession; however, they did not allow the opponent any big opportunity from their nine shots and generated four big chances from 16 attempts.

This was the first time that they had won in the past six matches in Bundesliga and though they had the opportunity to play on Sunday it was going to be their third time looking for a victory on the road in the league after the last six attempts.

If Freiburg supporters are searching for motivation before kickoff on Sunday, they should refrain from examining their recent record against Bayern Munich. They have never prevailed in an away league game against the Bavarians and have not managed to win a league game against them in nine years.

They might find solace in the fact that they prevailed in the German Cup quarterfinals held at the Allianz Arena in April 2023.

While the summer transfer window for Bayern Munich wasn’t very busy, it wasn’t quite as busy as the previous summer, when they shattered their transfer record to sign Harry Kane.

With the purchase of Michael Olise, however, their largest transaction entailed shopping in the Premier League once more.

Although the Frenchman has been a standout player for Crystal Palace in England for a number of seasons, it is clear that Bayern has higher expectations and superior players.

Read also: Rodrygo Silva De Goes Biography

When Chelsea plays Crystal Palace at

Stamford Bridge on Sunday, they will finally be able to concentrate just on things on the pitch following a hectic summer of transfer activity.

Despite losing in Switzerland, the Blues secured their spot in the Conference League competition throughout the week and will want to improve on their crushing of Wolverhampton Wanderers the previous week.

As of this writing, Chelsea had spent £200 million on new players and over 20 players have left the team. Under Todd Boehly’s leadership, Chelsea has seen frequent turmoil over the summer.

A 2-0 loss to Manchester City on the first day of play demonstrated how far from the top they are, even after spending hundreds of millions of dollars, given the club’s unwelcome headlines off the field and criticism of their management style.

But on Sunday, when Chelsea defeated Wolves 6-1 at Molineux, new boss Enzo Maresca quieted some of the naysayers.

Noni Madueke and Cole Palmer’s performances earned them spots in the forthcoming England team.

Eberechi Eze’s rejected free kick against Brentford was a major discussion point during a crucial period of the game, and the England international was cursing the crossbar against West Ham United in another setback last week. Poor defending has also contributed to recent losses.

Since the Frank de Boer era, when Palace lost their first seven games but still managed to finish 11th, this is the first time that Palace has lost their first two games.

But despite the excellent impression that Glasner left on the Eagles preseason after his arrival in February, a relegation scrap was not what was anticipated.

Perhaps hoping to boost morale following those two bad losses, the Austrian manager went all out for Palace’s midweek EFL Cup match against Norwich City, and it worked like a charm as Palace triumphed 4-0.

Jean-Philippe Mateta scored a brace, including a stunning acrobatic volley, while Daichi Kamada also opened his Palace account. Eze was in fine form, scoring his first goal of the season.

On the injury front, Romeo Lavia is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury, and Reece James is still on the comeback trail with a thigh issue while also currently serving a suspension from last season.

After going with a very strong lineup in midweek against Norwich, Palace may stay largely unchanged, with Eze, Mateta and Adam Wharton all featuring from the start.

Matheus Franca remains out injured, and he is now joined on the sidelines by Chadi Riad, after the new signing was forced off after just 10 minutes in midweek.

Regarding injuries, Reece James is still recovering from a thigh problem and is serving a ban from the previous season, while Romeo Lavia is out with a hamstring ailment.

Palace may stick with a starting lineup that included Adam Wharton, Eze, and Mateta after playing a very powerful lineup against Norwich in the middle of the week.

Chadi Riad has also been forced to sit out since midweek due to injury, joining Matheus Franca, who is still out with an injury.

Read Also: Levi Colwill Biography

Newcastle United managed by Eddie Howe will be hosting Tottenham Hotspur at the St James’ Park in third match week of the 2024/25 Premier League season on

Sunday.

Home side is positioned seventh with four points after the first two matches against Southampton and Bournemouth while the away side have four points too but occupies the fifth place with enhanced goal-difference.

After a comparatively subdued 2023-24 season where Newcastle United ended up seventh, failed to make European football rounds, and saw their big ticket signing Sandro Tonali get banned for majority of the season, one would think that Howe might have expected a more sorted out 2024-25 season.

Nonetheless, in the first match in the English top division against newly promoted Southampton on August 17, Fabian Schar was dismissed through a red card after only half an hour of the match and thus the Toon was left with no option than to allow the Saints to dominate in both the physical and the tactical aspects of the game.

Joelinton, the midfield of Newcastle, scored the only goal of the match in the 45th minute by which he fall through a wrong pass from Alex McCarthy of Southampton when the ball was played to Alexander Isak in the Saints penalty area.

Newcastle were dragged into the controversy of match-fixing in the recent match against Bournemouth on August 25, 2018, when the Cherries ‘ Dango Ouattara brought what could have been the winning goal of the match in the 92nd minute hitting the ball with his arm.

Joelinton somehow found the spotlight again but this time escaping a red card when he clotheslined Neto in second-half stoppage time, though Howe acknowledged, the Brazilian should have been lucky to escape with a yellow.

Toon tied 1-1 on August 28 in the 2nd round of EFL cup match against Nottingham Forest but progress to the 3rd round on penalties 4-3, the will play against

AFC Wimbledon on September 17.

In a match where Tottenham was the overwhelming favorite with 70% ball possesion and 15 attempts at goal, they started their season with a draw 1-1 against Leicester City on August 19.

The current team of Ange Postecoglou also had their fair share of the moments of creatively attacking football, as evidenced by the goal scored by Pedro Porro in the 29th minute, however, the team also is not immune to youth foolishness during the counter-attacks.

Spurs’ second league match of the new season against Everton on August 24th was much easier with a Yves Bissouma goal and one each from Cristian Romero and Son

Heung-Min sealing the 4-0 triumph.

Tottenham were helped by a strange blunder by Jordan Pickford in the 25th minute when he failed to control James

Tarkowski’s pass when the ball was placed right in front of him, and the break led to Son making it 2-0 for Tottenham.

In more details, Postecoglou’s side averages the second most shots on target per match, has the second most big chances created, and has recorded the most touches in the opposition’s box of any side in the Premier League.

The visitors enter the clash with three consecutive league games’ results without a loss and having scored eight goals in those games. Newcastle and Tottenham have created a total of 40 goals in the last nine league encounters, even though Tottenham was defeated twice in the last season’s league matches at St James’ Park with 4-0 and 1-6.

Newcastle is without a number of players, notably center backs Jamaal Lascelles and Sven Botman because of cruciate ligament injuries, while center back Fabian Schar is still banned.

As starting center backs against

Bournemouth, Emil Krafth and Dan Burn may start from the beginning on Sunday.

Goalkeeper Martin Dubravka is doubtful, and Callum Wilson, Lewis Miley, and Joe Willock are all anticipated to miss out.

In Newcastle’s match against Nottingham

Forest, Tonali made a comeback to the field.

He may be in the running for a starting position this weekend.

Richarlison had an injury during training, so he will be out for a few weeks for Tottenham, while Dominic Solanke is still not eligible for selection.

Read Also: Federico Chiesa Biography 

 

With an aim of clinching the three points out of the three in the beginning of the new Premier League season, the Manchester City will be in the London Stadium to play against West Ham United on the Saturday afternoon.

The Citizens are 2 wins up on the Hammers in the last two seasons and they triumphed

3-1 the last time they faced each other in

London roughly 365 days ago.

Julen Lopetegui’s West Ham United team only managed a 2-1 Premier League lost to Aston Villa in his first game since joining the club but got their first win last weekend with a 2-0 pleasant away at Crystal Palace.

After the initial 45 minutes that elapsed without any goals, Tomas Soucek put West Ham on the lead in the 67th minute, only for captain Jarrod Bowen to double the advantage in the 72nd minute, and the Hammers also recorded their first top-flight clean sheet since January – a personal best 19-match streak without a shutout.

West Ham have since qualified for the third round of the EFL Cup after narrowly defeating fellow top-flight sideBournemouth with a 1-0 scoreline at the London Stadium on Wednesday night in what could almost have been renamed the pre- VAR era after Bowen scored ‘ fortune’s goal in the 88th minute as West Ham substitute Mohammed Kudus’ shot hit Bowen’s arm before trickling into the

Bournemouth net.

Lopetegui’s side have been handed a difficult Third-round tie at holders

Liverpool in the next month but that is still far away as for now the team will be back into Premier League action with a difficult home match against Manchester city than an away fixture at Fulham.

Victories against Man City have remained elusive for the Hammers, more so in Premier league where they have not managed to beat the Citizens in the last seventeen encounters since the 2-1 reverse away victory in September, 2015 when manager Slaven Bilic was still in charge of the team.

Between two goals from Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne scored, and in the last moments, the Norwegian completed his hat-trick to ensure that City continued their remarkable record run of winning Premier League games by two goals or more to eleven games. They have also not lost any of their last 46 home games across all competitions.

In addition to having a great record versus

West Ham on the road, Man City has only lost once in their previous 14 league visits to the Hammers, and they have gone nine games without a loss since a 2-1 loss at Upton Park in October 2014.

Leading scorer Erling Haaland, the Golden Boot winner the previous two seasons, has scored four of those top-flight goals. Last weekend, he followed up his goal in a 2-0 opening win at Chelsea with his 10th Man City hat-trick in a 4-1 home victory against newly promoted Ipswich Town.

The Tractor Boys got off to a fantastic start at the Etihad Stadium when Sammie

Szmodics scored on his debut within the first seven minutes. However, that goal got the visitors ahead, and the reigning champions responded with three goals in the next four minutes, severely punishing the visitors.

Under Pep Guardiola, Man City has been comparatively sluggish to start, but they have already won the Community Shield and secured maximum points from their first two Premier League games this season, with six goals scored and only one conceded.

Experienced left-back Aaron Cresswell is recovering from a hamstring injury, and West Ham manager Lopetegui has said that he will get scanned to find out the extent of his condition.

Alvarez, who made his debut for the Hammers in midweek after spraining his hamstring during a Mexico international match in June, is a strong contender to stay in the starting lineup; Soucek, Guido Rodriguez, and James Ward-Prowse will also be competing for a midfield starting spot.

Regarding Man City, Rodri has returned to training this week, raising the possibility that he may play at the London Stadium despite Bobb’s probable several-month absence following surgery for a fractured

leg.

Read Also: SAVINHO Biography