By BBN SPORTS: ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE PREVIEW (Week 2)
SWANSEA CITY VS MANCHESTER UNITED
Manchester United delivered the performance of the weekend in trouncing West Ham United 4-0 at Old Trafford.
It was a display to strike fear into opponents as new £75million striker Romelu Lukaku bagged a brace on his league debut, with Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial also getting on the scoresheet.
In Jose Mourinho’s second season, they now boast a strong spine thanks to the additions of Lukaku and Nemanja Matic.
How can Swansea stop this? Well it will be difficult as their natural No.10 who could apply some pressure on Matic, Gylfi Sigurdsson , is likely to be unavailable — or may even have left the club by Saturday.
But in Wayne Routledge Paul Clement has a more industrious player who will fill the void in a different way to Sigurdsson, tracking Matic to make sure the Serbian cannot dictate the play like he did against United. Swansea must pack the midfield area around Matic and perhaps play more direct balls into Fernando Llorente or Tammy Abraham to bypass the Serb.
STOKE CITY VS ARSENAL
Having started the season in a thrilling fashion against Leicester at the emirate stadium. The gunners travel to Stoke city to battle the potteries at the bet360 stadium.
Arsenal have more often than not struggled whenever they’ve set foot in the Potteries in the Premier League, not least because Stoke have been able to exploit that physical weakness of theirs at the back.
It would help if Stoke had a striker in form, of course, but sadly Saido Berahino is going through one of those patches that can afflict any striker. Having failed to find the back of the net since joining the club.
Other games on Saturday will see Watford travel to Dean Court to battle Bournemouth. Champions beaters Burnley will play host to West Brom at Turf Moor. EPL new boys Brighton will be hoping to exploit the defence of Leicester when they travel to the Kings power stadium. The quest for the elusive EPL title continues for Liverpool as they host crystal palace at Anfield. West Ham will make the trip from West London to Saint Mary’s for their week two clash against Southampton.
On Sunday, Tottenham and Chelsea will battle for bragging right in a crunchy London derby. while the north London side opened thier premier league account with an impressive 2 – 0 away win at Saint James. However, their rival from the west lost at Stamford bridge to Burnley side that had only picked up four away wins in their EPL history.
Chelsea will miss the duo of captain Gary Cahill and influential midfielder Cesc Fabregas who will begin their respective suspensions having been red carded against Burnley to add to the long list of first team players that will seat out of the game against their arch rival.
Then we will have the battle of two new comers with contrasting fortunes. while Newcastle united lost at home to spurs, Huddlesfield thrashed old dogs Crystal Palace on their home turf.
