EPL Week 12 Predictions: Projecting Top Performers and Biggest Surprises

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Premier League football.

International weeks can always be a boring time for fans. There's less to talk about and many of the matches feature countries you either know nothing about or don't care about at all.

Fear not, as the EPL is making its return this weekend and the scheduling gods have been extra kind, as there are some juicy fixtures on tap.

Time	Home Team	Away Team
Sat., Nov. 23
7:45 a.m. ET; 12:45 p.m. GMT	Everton	Liverpool
10 a.m. ET; 3 p.m. GMT	Arsenal	Southampton
10 a.m. ET; 3 p.m. GMT	Fulham	Swansea City
10 a.m. ET; 3 p.m. GMT	Hull City	Crystal Palace
10 a.m. ET; 3 p.m. GMT	Newcastle	Norwich City
10 a.m. ET; 3 p.m. GMT	Stoke City	Sunderland
12:30 p.m. ET; 5:30 p.m. GMT	West Ham	Chelsea
Sun., Nov. 24
8:30 p.m. ET; 1:30 p.m. GMT	Manchester City	Tottenham Hotspur
11 a.m. ET; 4 p.m. GMT	Cardiff City	Manchester United
Mon., Nov. 25
3 p.m. ET; 8 p.m. GMT	West Brom	Aston Villa

Looking ahead, here are some of the players set to step up in a big way, along with a couple of the bigger surprises you may see.

Top Performers

Wilfried Bony, Swansea City

Fulham's defense is a disaster area. That 4-0 loss to Liverpool was one of the most dismal displays you're going to see all season.

The Cottagers simply lack the talent at the back to have any sort of consistency and they'll likely continue to be ripped apart by talented attacking players.

Wilfried Bony hasn't had the best start to his Swansea City career, but that brace against Stoke City is encouraging.

Perhaps expectations were raised too high when he became the Swans' most expensive signing. Bony is a good player, but he always faced a big transition from the free-scoring Eredivisie to the more physical, fast-paced Premier League.

The more playing time he gets, the better he's going to perform.

Facing such a weak back four, Bony should get plenty of service in front of goal. As long as he can get the ball in attacking areas, the Ivorian will have a big day.

Gareth McAuley and Jonas Olsson, West Brom

Gareth McAuley and Jonas Olsson have formed one of the best centre-back pairings in England. Together they've helped to propel West Brom up to 10th, which is a strong start considering how much the departure of Romelu Lukaku hurt the attack initially.

If the Baggies are going to continue that strong run, they'll need McAuley and Olsson at their best. Christian Benteke picked up a knock on international duty, but as BeNeFoot reported, it was more a precaution than anything serious.

Benteke looks set to play and, even at 80 or 90 percent, he's still a hassle for opposing defenders.

Should West Brom get a result against Aston Villa on Monday, you can bet their centre-backs will be receiving the majority of the praise.

Biggest Surprises

Manchester City Will Win Comfortably Against Tottenham Hotspur

Manchester City are a perfect 5-for-5 at home this season in the Premier League. It's quite the contrast to their road form, with City only accruing four points in six matches.

If this match was at White Hart Lane, Manuel Pellegrini would have cause for concern. Since it's at the Etihad, things are looking much rosier.

One of the narratives of Manchester City this season and really from the Roberto Mancini era is that they show up against the better teams and drop points against the likes of Sunderland, Cardiff and Aston Villa.

Against a club of the caliber of Tottenham Hotspur, don't expect to see the City players have the sort of mental breakdowns that come when playing lesser opposition. The combo of Yaya Toure and Fernandinho should boss this match, even with the quality in the Spurs midfield.

Tottenham aren't without their own problems, either, namely the performance of Roberto Soldado. While some of this problems stem from a lack of service, there have been plenty of times when he received the ball and did nothing with it.

And so much of Spurs' attack hinges on the performance of Soldado. When he struggles, the entire team does.

There's no excuse for scoring nine goals in the first 11 matches when Tottenham spent so much money this summer to improve their attack.

City will be in complete control of this match from the word go. They have a midfield that can match Spurs and the combination of Alvaro Negredo and Sergio Aguero can score goals.

Manchester City 2, Tottenham Hotspur 1

Nobody Will Be Sent off in Merseyside Derby

It's news when somebody doesn't pick up a red card in the Merseyside derby. This match has become one of the most physical in the league.

While tension will be high and a lack of goals present, don't expect the same kind of knock-down, drag-out affair that you've become accustomed to seeing.

A lot of that has to do with David Moyes moving on to Manchester United. When he was at Everton, he always used a more negative, physical style against Liverpool—as he did against most of the top sides. There were some wins sprinkled in there, but for the most part, he was playing for the draw.

That shouldn't be the case under Roberto Martinez.

While he has retained most of that defensive solidarity, Everton have become a little more adventurous, at least when it comes to playing clubs higher up in the table.

Although this game doesn't figure to be all that entertaining, it won't be as drab as some of the derbies of years past. A score draw seems the likeliest outcome.

Everton 1, Liverpool 1

Follow @JosephZucker