The Premier League is back this weekend and a congested schedule awaits ahead of the break for the forthcoming World Cup.
Teams will certainly have to cram in a number of games, both domestic and, in some cases, European combat, during a period where those with the bigger squads may well benefit the most.
So, what Premier League highlights can we expect?
Well, let’s begin with the first contest of the weekend.
On Saturday lunchtime the Emirates hosts the North London derby and, with both clubs from the capital high-flying for the first time in a while, it should be compelling.
Only a point separates hosts Arsenal from third placed Spurs and both are showing genuine signs of improvement after some barren times.
These arch-rivals, of course, battled it out at the end of last term for the fourth and final Champions League spot which Spurs secured, helped by an emphatic 3-0 victory in the North London derby in the penultimate week of the season.
Son Heung-Min scored in that game and, after his quite brilliant cameo last time out with a 13-minute hat-trick against Leicester, he will surely be in the starting line-up for a game, the winner of which, will move to the summit.
While Spurs are unbeaten to date, Arsenal have only lost once this term and this will be a good test of where to pitch the credentials of both sides.
Of course, derby day is different, whether you’re challenging at the top or battling at the bottom end of the table, and Arsenal have a superb home league record in this fixture.
In fact, apart from a brilliant Spurs comeback in 2010, when they overturned a 2-0 half-time deficit to win 3-2, you have to go back to the inaugural Premier League season to the last time they lost on home soil in the derby.
On that occasion 12 years ago, Gareth Bale, Rafael van der Vaart (penalty) and Younès Kaboul scored the goals on a day Spurs fans will remember for a long time to come – all this after Samir Nasri and Marouane Chamakh appeared to have put the Gunners in the ascendancy.
Last season, Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka both claimed a goal and an assist as Arsenal took the honours with a 3-1 victory.
This game is the first of two big derbies this weekend with the Manchester derby following just over 24 hours later.
For a full preview of that encounter, come back to this page later on in the week.
The other match which has caught my eye this weekend is another clash in the capital as Chelsea make the trip to Selhurst Park to face Crystal Palace.
It is a repeat of last season’s FA Cup semi-final, which Chelsea won 2-0, but this time a number of the cast from west London have a much different look – both new owners and now, a new manager.
The prolonged break these last few weeks have offered recent incumbent Graham Potter and his staff a chance to familiarise themselves with the squad.
As The Athletic so eloquently put, the first two weeks of his tenure as Chelsea head coach have been every bit as low-key as the man himself.
So far, there has been one official match, a 1-1 draw at home to Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League on September 14, with Chelsea’s scheduled Premier League matches against Fulham and Liverpool postponed due to circumstances surrounding the death and state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
The SBOTOP Premier League betting odds make Chelsea strong favourites and rightly so, but it will be interesting to see if the break, extended further by the latest international set of fixtures, has helped a squad which was in a bit of rut.
Even still, Thomas Tuchel’s dismissal was extremely harsh, just 15 months after he guided them to Champions League glory – followed up by World Championship success – and it seemed the German was sacked, in the wake of a Champions League defeat at Dinamo Zagreb, because his relationship with club owner Todd Boehly had become strained over the summer.
Potter will be afforded a say in the appointment of a sporting director who, it is expected, will be in place before the start of the World Cup on November 20 – in time to oversee the January transfer window. Tuchel had made it clear he had little interest in becoming involved in that process.
For now, though, he will need to work with what he has inherited and that is an impressive squad which seems to have lost its way in recent weeks.
Like Chelsea, Palace are out of practice and also saw their last two league matches postponed.
Let’s just hope these two derbies in London survive the threat of potential rail strikes, scheduled for October 1 & 5, as part of the ongoing dispute over pay. The backlog is already on the heavy side as England’s top flight enters an important period.
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