Chelsea Shedding Palmer Dependency
Calling Chelsea “Cole Palmer FC” is not much of an insult. Oh no, you have one of the best attackers in the world. Oh no, you got him for a bargain price. Oh no, he won you the Club World Cup last month.
Still, no side ever wants to be completely reliant on one player. Chelsea aim to depend more on the collective than the individual. They have struggled without Palmer in the past but thrived in his absence against West Ham last week. Palmer withdrew with a groin injury during the warm-up and is a doubt to face Fulham in the Saturday lunchtime kick-off.
However, Enzo Maresca has options. Estêvão Willian came in for Palmer against West Ham and was exceptional on the right wing.
João Pedro and Pedro Neto were excellent. Chelsea have enough talent at their disposal to beat Fulham without Palmer.
*Chelsea v Fulham, Saturday.
Will Stubborn Amorim Get Ruthless?
Ruben Amorim has to end Saturday afternoon with only one thing achieved: a first victory of the season that will quieten the noise around him and Manchester United.
Burnley will arrive at Old Trafford with the opposite aim and should closely study how Grimsby took Amorim’s insipid men apart in Wednesday’s 12-11 penalty shootout knockout in the Carabao Cup.
So now is the time for the head coach to be ruthless and select an XI that has Bruno Fernandes as one of his 10s, Kobbie Mainoo in central midfield, Benjamin Sesko at centre-forward for a first Premier League start and, dare this correspondent suggest it, a tweak of formation to 4-3-3 as his beloved 3-4-3 just is not working.
Will the stubborn Amorim do any of this? The last of these, almost certainly not.
*Manchester United v Burnley, Saturday.
Anfield Baptism For Excited Eze
Eberechi Eze’s reaction to being handed the No 10 shirt by Arsenal demonstrated what a return to the Emirates Stadium meant to the boyhood Gunners fan. It was a combination of astonishment and childlike joy, the response of a genuine fan rather than a hardened professional, and prompted Eze to pledge to “give everything I have” to pay back the honour of following in the footsteps of Dennis Bergkamp and other Arsenal favourites.
There could be no better place to start repaying a £67.5m investment than at Anfield, a ground where Arsenal have not won since 2012 and where their title pretensions have withered on several subsequent visits.
With Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard injury doubts, and Kai Havertz a confirmed absentee, Eze is likely to make his Arsenal debut against the Premier League champions.
He may well start as a 10, or in his expected role on the left, depending on the options available to Mikel Arteta.
Either way, Eze will relish wearing that shirt in competitive action for the first time.
*Liverpool v Arsenal, Sunday.
Malen Could Pep Up Flat Villa
Aston Villa host Crystal Palace with the clubs in contrasting moods. Palace will arrive at Villa Park fresh from qualifying for the Conference League proper after progressing against Fredrikstad in Norway, while Villa are stuck in the mud.
Villa’s season is only two games old but an uninspiring stalemate against Newcastle and a defeat at Brentford have doused optimism.
Unai Emery’s side have dropped their intensity and the Villa manager has to find a formula to hurt a stubborn Palace defence.
Emery must be tempted to turn to Donyell Malen, who has been almost exclusively used as a substitute since signing in a £20m deal from Borussia Dortmund in January, having made just two league starts for Villa.
Malen would be a more natural winger than John McGinn, even if the captain is capable of operating off the flanks.
Evann Guessand, who provided a spark off the bench on his debut, is another obvious option.
Another flat performance is unthinkable, even at this early stage.
*Aston Villa v Crystal Palace, Sunday.
Against Man City, Brighton’s Tzimas Could Stake His Claim
Brighton have spent more than £50m on the Greek teenagers Stefanos Tzimas and Charalampos Kostoulas, and got the first return on their investment on Wednesday when the former scored twice in seven minutes during the 6-0 thrashing of Oxford United in the Carabao Cup after coming on as a substitute.
Kostoulas, an 18-year-old striker who cost an initial £30m from Olympiakos, was also handed his debut by Fabian Hürzeler for the last 12 minutes at the Kassam Stadium as his experimental side set up a trip to Barnsley in the next round.
Brighton are keen to shift some of their fringe players before next week’s transfer deadline, meaning there should be more opportunities for both to establish themselves in the coming weeks.
But Hürzeler is clearly in no rush and would not confirm if Tzimas, who cost £20m from Nürnberg in February, could face Manchester City on Sunday.
“For sure he’s closer but I’m not sure if he might be an option for the weekend, we have to see how he reacts,” said the Brighton head coach. “We have to be very patient with him and let’s see what will be the next step.”
*Brighton v Manchester City, Sunday.
Frank Will Work His Spurs Players Hard
A niche statistic, this, but hugely important for the nine individuals destined for a day of extended heel-kicking on the Tottenham bench.
Last weekend, in the Premier League’s second matchday, the average time of the first substitution made by top-flight teams was the 54th minute; ignoring those forced by early injuries bumps that up to the 63rd.
Tottenham made their first substitution in the 78th minute, and in this young season they and Nottingham Forest are already the only teams yet to have made a change before the 70th minute of a Premier League game.
The average Spurs substitute this season spends just 11 minutes on the pitch, joint lowest in the league (level with Forest and also Bournemouth, whose number is skewed by the two 89th-minute changes they made in response to falling behind late in their opening game at Anfield).
Last season the team whose substitutes spent the least time on the field was Thomas Frank’s Brentford. This may be surprising, given the intensity the Dane demands of his players and that particularly characterised Spurs’ win at Manchester City last week, but his starting XI need to get used to hard work and long shifts, and the rest of his squad to splinters.
*Tottenham v Bournemouth, Saturday.
