Eight talking points ahead of the Premier League weekend | OneFootball

Eight talking points ahead of the Premier League weekend, featuring Arsenal’s over-reliance on Bukayo Saka, self-sabotaging Spurs, and a new manager at Southampton.

Villa Park unlikely to offer City solace

Pep Guardiola admitted Manchester City’s struggles are getting ‘worse and worse’ after a dramatic derby defeat last weekend. Their late loss to Manchester United at the Etihad extended their run to one win in 11 games across all competitions and five defeats in their last seven league games.

The fixture list has not been kind to Guardiola as he looks to turn around the struggling champions. Aston Villa are their hosts in Saturday’s tricky lunchtime slot. City have not won on their last two visits to the venue and arrive as a shadow of the side of past campaigns. Issues in midfield may need additions to address and Unai Emery will want to capitalise on City’s current concerns. Amadou Onana’s space-eating running and the energy of John McGinn and Boubacar Kamara could see Villa overrun a City side that look aged.

Ipswich’s hunt for a home win continues

Last weekend’s win at Wolves has breathed new life into Ipswich’s survival fight, but The Tractor Boys need more in front of their fans to survive. Kieran McKenna’s team are the only side in the Premier League without a home win as we approach Christmas.

Having excelled at home in their Championship and League One promotion campaigns, Ipswich have failed to get going on home soil in the top tier. Respectable draws against the likes of Fulham, Manchester United and Aston Villa have helped their cause, but McKenna’s men need to start turning stalemates into successes.

Newcastle are the visitors this weekend, a side that have hit form over the past week. However, the Magpies have been inconsistent on the road and have won just one of their last six Premier League away games.

West Ham need Fullkrug to deliver

When West Ham signed Niclas Fullkrug in the summer, there was a wave of excitement. A Champions League finalist last season and excellent at Euro 2024, it was the kind of addition that got supporters talking. Fullkrug, however, has had a slow start. He’s yet to start a Premier League game and only recently returned from an Achilles injury that sidelined him for three months.

Now back to full fitness, he scored off the bench against Leicester earlier this month and Julen Lopetegui needs to hand the German a start. Michail Antonio’s car crash has left the Hammers without presence in the final third and Fullkrug is capable of offering a solution. He might lack mobility and pace, but is certainly a handful inside the penalty area. If West Ham can provide the right service, he can score goals.

Are Arsenal over-reliant on Bukayo Saka?

Bukayo Saka continues to go from strength to strength in an Arsenal shirt but is the winger’s development creating an over-reliance on his service? Saka has 15 goal involvements from 15 games this season, leads the league for assists, and has again underlined his status as one of Europe’s most effective wingers.

However, is Arsenal’s determination to get Saka on the ball making the Gunners predictable? In terms of attacking patterns, no side in the Premier League targets attacks down the right side more than Arsenal (45%). It’s the greatest percentage of positional play in the division, ahead of Nottingham Forest (44% – left) and Bournemouth (42% – left). With neither Gabriel Martinelli nor Leandro Trossard producing output to compete with Saka, is the addition of a left-sided attacker required to add versatility to the club’s attack?

Dyche must show new owners he’s the right man for Everton

Everton’s takeover uncertainty is over after The Friedkin Group’s acquisition of the club was completed this week. New owners offer new hope for the Toffees, even if there was no guarantee of funds being made available for January additions. For Sean Dyche and several of his squad, the upcoming period represents an audition to the new ownership. The Friedkin Group have proven themselves to be trigger-happy in their time at AS Roma, who are already onto their third manager of the 2024/25 campaign. Dyche will be well aware that the new owners are not averse to making bold calls if results are not to standard.

Is Juric the man to fix self-imploding Saints?

Southampton sacked Russell Martin after last weekend’s horror show against Spurs, the final nail in the head coach’s coffin. Ivan Juric is set to take charge, fresh from being sacked at Roma less than two months after taking charge.

So what will the Croatian bring? Juric’s sides have shone in a man-marking system that implements a high press, where he consolidated Hellas Verona and Torino in the top half of Serie A. Under his management, the likes of Alessandro Buongiono, Bremer, Wilfried Singo, and Amir Rrahmani all emerged as sought-after defenders and the development of those names offers hope to a Saints side that has leaked goals badly in 2024/25 to date.

Unal can help end Bournemouth’s wastefulness

Bournemouth have flown under the radar to climb into the Premier League’s top six and extended their unbeaten run to four league games against West Ham last time out. Enes Unal came off the bench to fire in a fantastic free-kick equaliser, a week after scoring another equaliser as a substitute in the late win at Ipswich.

The Turkey international has struggled for opportunity since arriving at Bournemouth but has recorded seven goals and assists in just 535 minutes of action. Averaging a goal involvement every 76 minutes, Unal has proven himself as a dependable option in the final third. With Bournemouth possessing the biggest xG underperformance in the Premier League this season (-11.06) it is perhaps time to increase his minutes.

Self-sabotaging Spurs can not be so careless

Spurs progressed into the Carabao Cup semi-finals on Thursday but what looked like a routine win quickly turned into a nerve-jangling one. Three goals up and cruising against Manchester United, two awful errors from Fraser Forster handed the visitors hope. Ange Postecoglou’s side eventually prevailed in a seven-goal thriller, but this was a clash that was closer than it needed to be.

It followed the squandering of two-goal leads to Brighton and Chelsea earlier in the season, as Spurs played themselves into trouble. Postecoglou’s principles are what makes his side arguably the best watch in the Premier League, but there are times when common sense is needed – particularly in the absence of key personnel. Forster’s footwork has never been his strong suit and demanding too much of the stand-in shot-stopper so nearly cost them a shot at silverware. Arne Slot’s Liverpool are unlikely to let Spurs off the hook so easily this weekend.

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