Premier League Saturday Matches Preview: Week One

Tottenham vs Manchester City

Tottenham will be fortunate enough to see Bale fit to play after he was forced to sit out of Wales' mid-week international due to a bruised leg. Last season, City narrowly missed out on fourth place to Spurs, so this opening match could be a perfect opportunity to set up the season so they don’t see a repeat performance.

With the investment that has been made into the Manchester City team, you would expect them to stand head and shoulders above Tottenham in terms of class, although the gulf is not a particularly large one and with Tottenham having the home advantage this match could go either way—especially with opening matches being so hard to predict.

On the other hand, Tottenham did have a big win at the start of last season by trouncing Liverpool and who knows, maybe they’ll give a repeat performance on this outing and show City that you can’t just throw money at a club to make them great.


Aston Villa vs West Ham

The departure of Aston Villa’s manager at the last minute has taken up most of this side’s time in the press in recent weeks, and the pressure is on reserve team manager McDonald to fill the gap until a suitable replacement is found for O’Neill.

It will be intriguing to see what impact the managerial shake up has on the Villains performance and if it suffers enough to see them beaten by fellow Clarets West Ham. The vast majority of fans may suggest that this is unlikely at best; however, opening day of the season has been known to show some interesting and odd results.

Villa will be without Delph and West Ham have injuries in the form of Hines and Colinson to contend with, not that any of these injuries should cause either team too much difficulty. Last time these two sides met here they played out a goalless draw, which wasn’t exactly the world’s most exciting match to say the least.

Despite Villa being the favourites the Hammers will be eager to get a good start to a season even if they don’t manage to finish it that way.


Blackburn vs Everton

Everton make the minuscule trip to Blackburn and most of the Toffees supporters will be praying for some better luck when it comes to injuries this season. Everton just missed out on a Europa League spot last season and their injury misery played more than just a small part in that.

Rovers, on the other hand, finished in a more than respectable tenth place considering the depth of their outfit. Although, it is more than a little bit unlikely that they will repeat the same successes this season. Blackburn have looked abysmal in their preseason campaign unable to beat lower league opponents.

Anechebe is unlikely to play as is Olsson, both due to respective knee injuries. Everton will be likely to start at least one of their new strikers in the opening match, whether it is Beckford or Gueye is another matter entirely. Blackburn may start Diouf, who is only a season-long loan from Manchester United and will be eager to stake a claim to his future at the club.

On paper, this is a match which should go in Everton’s favour, despite Blackburn’s home advantage.


Bolton vs Fulham

When it comes to facts and figures, this game has a Bolton victory written all over it. The fact is that Fulham generally don’t do well at Bolton and have only won one of their last six trips there, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, Fulham’s opening day record is pretty appalling—only one goal in their last four opening games doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

On the other hand, if Fulham do get the opening goal, then odds definitely swing in their favour with Bolton only managing to claw four points back from losing positions all last season, fewer than any other Premiership club. Both of these teams showed themselves to be late starters last season so it will be interesting to see who gets the heads up in this match.

Fulham did prove themselves to be a side worthy of taking notice of last season with their impressive European run. Whether or not they will build from this or not may be indicated by this matchup.


Sunderland vs Birmingham

Both of these sides could be showcasing a lot of fresh blood following their successful outings in the transfer markets this summer. Birmingham did very well last season considering that many pundits tipped them for relegation and they ended with a respectable top half finish; this was of course a shocker to most avid followers of the beautiful game.

Sunderland have enticed a hefty list of players to the club and it is more than likely that Riveros, Bramble, and Angeleri will all make their first competitive appearances for the club. Steve Bruce is likely to have mixed feelings about hosting his old club on the first day of the season, although it isn’t as if anybody expects any sympathy from either party.

Nobody expects either of these teams to set the league alright this season although no doubt Birmingham will be eager to repeat last season’s performances. Last season, both of these sides won their home matches against one another so if history repeats itself Sunderland should be taking the three points, is it a safe bet or not? That’s more difficult to say.


Wigan vs Blackpool

Premier League newbies and relegation favourites Blackpool make the trip to Wigan, and luckily for them they got drawn to play a side that aren’t exactly God's gift to football.

Blackpool will be heavily reliant on their talismanic star striker Charlie Adam; however, whether his Championship successes will translate into Premiership glory could be an entirely different matter.

Blackpool have struggled to bring anybody to the club and as it stands they certainly don’t look like a side that can hack it in the Premiership and a loss to Wigan could be a rude awakening as to what they can expect from this division.

Wigan will be looking to do better than last season and with all the signings at the club, you would hope that something pays off for them. Otherwise, the talent scout deserves to be forcibly retired. The home side will certainly fancy themselves for all three points and if things go their way early we may even see Wigan at the top of the table on goal difference considering the odds of Blackpool putting up enough of a fight.

Wolverhampton vs Stoke

Wolves have impressed many by simply staying up last season considering the fact that they were another one of the teams tipped to make a swift return to the Championship last season.

Stoke's sensational home form saw them finish in 11th place last season with only four wins on their travels last season that was quite an achievement, picking up a first away win of the season here might just give them the confidence that they’ll need to better last season’s achievement although in all fairness, that was somewhat of an over achievement in the first place.

Both of these two sides meetings resulted in draws last season one being significantly more dramatic than other drizzly 0-0 result which was one of the most boring matches of the season. This match is one which could go to either side and neither really seems to outclass the other by any great deal, so who knows it could shape up to be an exciting opening game, although betting on that mightn’t be the smartest choice.


Chelsea vs West Brom

Chelsea kick off their title defence with a nice easy warm-up of a match by their standards. The Londoners have won 10 of their last 11 opening games and it seems pretty likely it is going to become 11 out of 12 after this matchup.

West Brom will not be relishing this as a start to their campaign as a hammering at Chelsea is not going to do any favours for club morale, when they’re one of this year’s relegation favourites.

Chelsea have seen a lot of players leave the club this season and when we’re used to seeing them throw such large amounts of cash around to get what they want you have to at least consider if the money well has run a little bit dry.

Carvalho, Joe Cole, Michael Ballack, Juliano Belletti, and Deco all left the club this window and Chelsea haven’t really brought anybody major in to replace them it would seem that a lot of faith is being placed in last year’s team although it is completely understandable, most coaches would kill to have the Chelsea stars at their disposal.

Joe - livescoredaily - live scores and sports