Man City vs Aston Villa and more: betPawa BIG match insights
The latest round of EPL action serves up a pair of London Derbies, a few returning heroes and the pride of Merseyside, among other things. Let’s take a look at the major talking points to prepare you for the action.
Saturday 11th February
No quick fixes in football
Despite Chelsea’s massive spending, it’ll take a while until their new-look side starts to gel. That was apparent in their 0-0 draw with Fulham. West Ham have improved significantly in recent weeks, keeping 2 clean sheets in their last 3 matches across all competitions and claiming a 1-1 draw against high-flying Newcastle in the league last time out.
David Moyes won’t need reminding that he’s lost 26 of 45 career H2Hs with Chelsea, winning only 7. But this Chelsea side have achieved just 1 win in 7 matches across all competitions, and 0-0 draws in each of their last 2.
This should be an intriguing, potentially cagey London Derby to kick off the EPL weekend.
Gunners face the EPL’s most in-form side
Since the turn of the year, Thomas Frank’s Brentford have collected 10 points from a possible 12 in the EPL and they haven’t lost a league game since October 2022.
League leaders Arsenal fell short at Goodison Park against Everton in only their second EPL defeat of the season, but were relieved when North London rivals Spurs did them a favour by beating Man City. Mikel Arteta hasn’t gotten to grips with Goodison Park as a visiting manager just yet.
Arteta’s men responded well to their only other EPL defeat this season (away to Man United in September 2022) by beating none other than Brentford in their next league encounter. They’ll need to summon all of those powers of recovery here against an excellent, well-coached outfit that has picked up 19 points from the last 27 on offer. In addition, they’ve conceded just 1 goal in their last 5 EPL games and none in their last 3.
200-goal Kane visits a former club
Tottenham talisman Harry Kane became just the third player in EPL history to rattle in 200 goals in the competition with his match-winner against Man City last Sunday. He’s scored 18 of those goals against none other than Leicester, making them his favourite opponents in the top-flight. The 29-year-old England skipper made 15 appearances for the Foxes a decade ago on loan, but it’s not as if he needs any extra motivation to score goals. It’s just what he does.
Leicester beat Unai Emery’s Aston Villa 4-2 in their last game (their first EPL win since a 2-0 success at West Ham in November) and they even had 4 different goalscorers on the day. James Maddison was 1 of them, and he’s scored in each of his last 2 meetings with Spurs. The last 4 EPL meetings between these sides, amazingly, have produced a total of 23 goals.
Magpies boss flies south to his old stomping ground
Eddie Howe announced himself on the BIG stage during 2 managerial stints with Bournemouth. He had the Cherries playing swashbuckling football on their rise from League Two to the Premier League, earning them many admirers.
His Newcastle side are right in the thick of the hunt for a Champions League place, although a spate of draws in recent games will worry him. They’ve now drawn 10 games, exactly the same amount as they’ve won, and that includes 4 stalemates in their last 5 EPL games.
Howe will hope that his insider knowledge of Bournemouth leads to 3 points on the road which would keep them above Tottenham and in the top 4. The Cherries are in terrible form, winless in 6 EPL matches and scoring just once in that sequence.
Sunday 12th February
An absolute cracker of a fixture last season
Not many people are talking about it right now, but this corresponding fixture in 2021/22 was a thriller. On the last day of the campaign, City trailed Villa 2-0 at home needing a win to secure the title. They rallied back through an Ilkay Gundogan brace and a rare Rodri goal to dramatically seal another EPL crown with 3 goals inside 5 minutes.
Both City and Villa lost their last matches, but City remain in good form at home with 4 consecutive wins across all competitions at Etihad Stadium. Will Pep Guardiola’s team forget about their current off-pitch worries and produce a scintillating attacking display on Sunday? They followed their 3 previous league defeats with a pair of 3-1 victories and a 4-2 success.
Monday 13th February
Sean Dyche looking to give Liverpool the Monday Blues
Liverpool just aren’t themselves right now. The Reds have lost 3 of their last 4 EPL matches, drawing the other 0-0 with Chelsea. In that sample of 4 games, they’ve scored just 1 goal. Defensive issues are there too; they shipped 3 goals in 3 successive away league games for the first time since 1993.
Newly-appointed Everton boss Sean Dyche guided his side to an impressive win over league leaders Arsenal in his first game at the helm, snapping a 10-game winless streak for the Toffees across all competitions.
This derby has produced more 90th-minute winning goals than any other H2H in the competition, with all of these being scored by Liverpool – Ronny Rosenthal (1993), Gary McAllister (2001), Dirk Kuyt (2007), Sadio Mané (2016) and Divock Origi (2018).