Premier League matchday 10 preview: Liverpool to put Arsenal title aspirations to the test

The Premier League is back in full flow after a somewhat barren September for the English top flight. Gameweek ten dishes up some huge match-ups at the top of the table, featuring a seismic encounter at the Emirates and a rather unusual Sunday evening contest between two Northwest rivals.

We preview three fixtures below.

Manchester City v Southampton

Premier League champions Manchester City continue to set freakish goalscoring standards in both their domestic and European campaigns, dismantling their Manchester rivals last weekend before putting five past FC Copenhagen in midweek. The Citizens have seen a remarkable 33 goals scored across their six games at the Etihad across all competitions, with over 3.5 goals priced at 8/13 for the visit of Southampton on Saturday.

Despite their phenomenal attacking returns, Pep Guardiola’s side nonetheless find themselves second behind leaders Arsenal in the Premier League, so another win this weekend remains imperative. They are heavily favoured at 1/9 to leapfrog Mikel Arteta’s side ahead of the Gunners’ fixture against Liverpool on Sunday, so finding value in this game requires a more thoughtful approach.

City to ‘win’ the opening 15 minutes is priced at 11/5, which represents good value considering they’ve opened the scoring before the 15th minute in four of their last seven games across all competitions. They come up against a Southampton side that have conceded first in 13 of their last 14 Premier League contests and are yet to record a clean sheet this campaign.

From a player perspective, Erling Haaland is heavily fancied at 2/9 to continue his astounding start to his Manchester City career and score anytime, so identifying alternative options may again be a more profitable strategy. Phil Foden, who netted away at St Mary’s in last season’s FA Cup, is 29/20 to sustain his rich vein of form having scored four goals in his last two league appearances.

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Arsenal v Liverpool

Fans of Arsenal would have been elated with a top four finish this campaign after agonisingly missing out on Champions League qualification last season, but seven wins from their opening eight league fixtures have ignited whispers of a title charge in North London. Indeed, Mikel Arteta’s men have set imperious attacking standards throughout their fixtures thus far and look generously priced at 6/4 to beat a curiously out of form Liverpool side on Sunday.

Whilst their defence has been bolstered by the exciting return of William Saliba at centre-back, Arsenal have flattered to deceive in terms of defensive figures, keeping clean sheets in just three of their eight league fixtures so far. With this in mind, the Gunners to win on Sunday and both teams to score looks an attractive option at 16/5.

Liverpool are winless in all three of their Premier League away games but picked up a confidence-boosting victory against Rangers in midweek. Constructing a meaningful title challenge is however becoming problematic given their recent form and results, with their price of 10/1 to lift the league now higher than their opponents on Sunday (15/2) and Guardiola’s City (1/4).

There was a return to the goals for Mohamed Salah on Tuesday night and the Egyptian is 13/8 to find the net against the Gunners, against whom he’s scored eight times in 11 league appearances. Roberto Firmino also continued his good attacking form with a brace and netted Liverpool’s second in a 2-0 win at the Emirates last season – the Brazilian can be backed at 5/1 to repeat that feat and score the last goal on Sunday.

Everton v Manchester United

Everton picked up an away win for just the third time since the start of last season with a 2-1 comeback victory at Southampton. The Toffees remain the side with the fewest goals conceded in the division and are developing some growing defensive acumen under Frank Lampard. With only two of their eight league fixtures featuring three or more goals, a price of 10/11 for under 2.5 goals on Sunday evening might be worth consideration.

Manchester United ended a run of four straight victories with a humbling 6-3 loss to rivals City last weekend – the most goals they’ve seen in a game since they beat Southampton 9-0 in February 2021. Erik ten Hag will hope that result was just a blip in what has been an otherwise commendable rebuild effort from the Dutchman thus far.

One positive from Sunday’s humiliation was new signing Anthony finding the net again, with the Brazilian winger priced at 11/2 to score the opening goal this weekend. Broadly speaking, United are favoured at 19/20 to pick up victory at Goodison Park, where they’ve won two of their last three visits. In-keeping with Everton’s under 2.5 goals trend, a 1-0 United win can be backed at 15/2.

Everton captain Seamus Coleman, who turns 34 next week, had to deputise for the injured Nathan Patterson at right-back and may have his hands full with the pace and trickery of Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho in wide positions. The Irishman has lost seven of his 17 career games against United and is priced at 7/2 to pick up a booking on Sunday.

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