Premier League Preview

This is the last round of fixtures before the dreaded international break and clubs in the Premier League will be hoping to sign off with a bang. The action certainly does on Sunday, when Liverpool travel to Manchester City in a battle between the top two from last season.

You could argue that neither have hit top gear yet, despite Liverpool sitting at the top of the league. Here is a look at three games and the selections we like from each one.

Everton v Manchester United – Saturday 12:30pm

Everton are coming under fire a little after their excellent start, which is probably a little unjust. However, they are not facing anywhere near the levels of criticism that Manchester United are facing right now. United come here having being held in their last two Premier League games, Everton have only scored one in their last two.

We could see a scenario where both teams are simply too poor right now to make much of an impact on this one. With that in mind, it is under 2.5 goals for us to kick off the treble, we fancy a low scoring game here.

West Ham v Fulham – Saturday 8:00pm

Fulham finally got their first win of the season against West Brom last weekend, but they have had to wait a while after some poor performances. West Ham on the other hand have been excellent, even in defeat recently.

They have held both Tottenham and Manchester City, then went down 2-1 away at Liverpool. In the context of their opposition on those days compared to Fulham who they play here, those results were excellent, despite them not seeing a win. Prior to that they won 4-0 and 3-0 against Wolves and Leicester, this is a West Ham team that have hit the ground running this season, even if their points total doesn’t quite show it.

With that in mind, we fancy The Hammers to take this on the handicap line, so it is West Ham -1 for us.

Manchester City v Liverpool – Sunday 4:30pm

Rounding off the weekend we have Manchester City v Liverpool on Sunday. The champions from last season against the team to finish second behind them and their main dangers once again. Slowly Liverpool are coming to the boil, but they aren’t there yet. Manchester City are some way off themselves, dropping points to West Ham, Leeds and Leicester so far from just six games.

Other than their blowout to Aston Villa, what Liverpool have shown us is a desire to do what is needed to win, and pull something out of the bag when they don’t look like they can. Desire may not quite be enough against City though, and with both under par at the moment, we are backing a draw in this one and the teams to take a point each into the international break.

Premier League Weekend Treble

• Everton v Manchester United – Under 2.5 goals @ 11/10
• West Ham v Fulham – West Ham -1 @ 9/4
• Manchester City v Liverpool – draw @ 14/5

Treble pays 25/1 with Ladbrokes