Week 4 : The Preview

Amid ongoing allegations surrounding his private life, Rooney would probably rather be playing anywhere but his old ground but he hasn’t got much choice as Manchester United travel to lock horns with Everton. It surely isn’t expected to be an easy game for him and the Red Devils as the Toffees are unbeaten in their last 13 Premier League matches at Goodison Park, winning 9 out of the last 11.

Manchester United lose Carrick to the treatment room while Rio returns to fitness, but
no guarantees on him featuring but what is guaranteed is that Ferguson will be wary to avoid what happened last year in this fixture where Everton came out victorious with a 3-1 score.

Let’s hope the lunch-time game turns out to be a cracker!

Elsewhere, we have a London derby as Chelsea make the short trip from SW6 to rivals West Ham. Benayoun might finally get his first start for The Blues as Lampard misses out after undergoing a hernia surgery.

West Ham have won none of their last 11 London derbies in the Premier League and Carlo Ancelotti should be hoping to extend that record to 12 games with the Blues scoring a Premier League record of 32 goals without reply in the top flight.

Also in London, Arsenal entertain Bolton at the Emirates hoping their positive start to the season continues. The Trotters took a 2-0 lead on their last visit to the Emirates in January before the Gunners stormed back to win the game 4-2.

For Arsenal, Chamakh is expected to lead the attack with Van Persie ruled out through injury. Arsene Wenger was surely not happy to find out that his attacking options were further narrowed down when  Walcott joined Van Persie on the sidelines, as the young winger was ruled out for up to six weeks.

Squillaci, however, is now set to make his debut with reports of Thomas Vermaelen missing this game with an Achilles injury.

Manchester City will hope they can bounce back from their surprise loss to Sunderland when they play Blackburn Rovers, who were fairly impressive against Arsenal despite their loss. Having struggled in previous times while playing away, Sam Allardyce would be hoping to get his troop together not to return empty-handed from Eastlands.

Tottenham, like Manchester City, will be hoping to put their surprise defeat to Wigan behind them but losing Defoe and Dawson last week doesn’t really help their cause as they head to Hawthorns to face Di Matteo’s West Brom. Redknapp might choose to hand Gallas and Rafael van der Vaart their debuts against West Brom and it surely would be nice to see how the two would fare.

On Sunday, the spotlight will be on Liverpool who will be hoping to win away to Birminghim. Kuyt has been ruled out for up to four weeks and Joe Cole serves the last game of his three-match suspension so this could see Maxi Rodriguez get a start.  A positive result is a must for the Merseysiders them with a trip to Old Trafford next week looming.

There’s a battle between two promoted teams who have both enjoyed a good start to the season as Newcastle host Blackpool. The remaining fixtures are Sunderland @Wigan and Wolves @Fulham. While on Monday, Aston Villa travel to face Stoke City.

Harout

Sick Puppies™