Preview: United v City, Tottenham v Arsenal in Premier League derbies
LONDON, Jan. 13– Derbies take pride of place this weekend in the Premier League, with Manchester United at home to Manchester City, while leaders Arsenal travel across north London to take on bitter rivals Tottenham. Villa need to recover from their shock FA Cup exit to fourth-tier Stevenage last weekend, while Leeds have just two points from the last 12..
LONDON, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) — Derbies take pride of place this weekend in the Premier League, with Manchester United at home to Manchester City, while leaders Arsenal travel across north London to take on bitter rivals Tottenham.
The weekend kicks off on Friday night with Aston Villa, fresh from signing Betis left back Alex Moreno, at home to Leeds United.
Villa need to recover from their shock FA Cup exit to fourth-tier Stevenage last weekend, while Leeds have just two points from the last 12.
The Manchester derby gets underway on Saturday, with Man City looking to take their fourth successive win against their local rivals and close the gap to two points on Arsenal.
Man City coach Pep Guardiola will be in the dugout for his 500th game in charge and will no doubt be hoping to see his side run rampant, as they did in their 6-3 win back in October of last year.
However, things have changed at Old Trafford since then, and United go into the game on the back of eight consecutive wins in all competitions and 11 wins in their last 15 league matches.
Marcus Rashford is also in fine form, with the England forward scoring seven goals in his last six games, including two in the League Cup win over Charlton in midweek, and that helps add to the feeling that this derby will be a lot closer than the last one.
The second big derby is on Sunday and sees league leaders Arsenal make the short trip to face Tottenham for the 172nd meeting between the two teams.
Arsenal beat Spurs 3-1 back in October, but despite some shaky form in recent weeks, their rivals will take heart from the fact they are unbeaten in their last eight league meetings against the Gunners and have won the last three.
Arsenal are still without Gabriel Jesus, while Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski are among the absences for Antonio Conte’s men.
Other matches on Saturday see Brighton at home to Liverpool, with Jurgen Klopp’s side continuing to look heavy-footed in midfield.
Another huge game sees Everton at home to Southampton. Slipping into the bottom three and out of the FA Cup, the knives are being sharpened for Everton boss Frank Lampard, who will surely lose his job if Everton fail to win against the team that is bottom of the table.
Southampton beat Manchester City in the League Cup this week, and coach Nathan Jones will hope that gives his side a much-needed moral boost.
Elsewhere, an improving Nottingham Forest play Leicester City in the East Midlands derby, while an improving Wolves entertain West Ham, whose coach David Moyes could also face sacking if his side lose. Brentford will expect to continue their positive start to 2023 at home to Bournemouth, who have lost four of their last five league matches.
There is a south London derby between Crystal Palace and Chelsea, which is Chelsea’s second in just three days after a 2-1 defeat to Fulham further increased the pressure on Chelsea coach Graham Potter.
Potter must have the feeling that anything that can go wrong is going wrong after seeing new signing Joao Felix sent off for a wild challenge in his debut. The player on loan from Atletico Madrid is added to his side’s long list of absentees, which includes Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic among others.
Fulham have a difficult visit to play Newcastle United, who will be keen to recover from their surprise FA Cup exit to Sheffield Wednesday and extend their impressive run of just one league defeat all season. Enditem
