As is often the case after a round of European matches there are three games in the Barclays Premier League on Sunday with a couple of them very big indeed.
Super Sunday begins with the first Merseyside derby of the season at Goodison Park before moving to the Emirates Stadium for Arsenal’s match with leaders Man Utd. Away from the Sky cameras Tottenham travel to Wales to take on Swansea.
I’m leaving the Swansea vs Spurs game alone. I can’t really get a feel for Spurs but I don’t like taking sides who have been in Europe when they are on the road three days later. I’m not convinced Swansea are firing on all cylinders despite their good start to the season either though.
Liverpool are a side under pressure and I don’t think drawing with Sion on Thursday night will have done anything to remove any of that tension. They head to Everton who will be buoyant after coming from 2-0 down to beat West Brom on Monday night.
For me this match isn’t about form. Everton have Liverpool at a perfect time but now it is all about whether they truly believe they can end this hoodoo Liverpool seem to have over them. If they do believe they can then they look good value but we’ll only truly know the answer to that as the match develops so that is a no bet too.
The big game of the day comes from the Emirates where Arsenal are under similar pressure to Liverpool. It sounds strange that Arsenal and Liverpool are under such pressure when they are only three and five points off top respectively but that is very much the case.
Arsenal’s pressure is self-inflicted and it has reached such a high level because of Arsene Wenger’s strange decision to leave Petr Cech on the bench in the Champions League in midweek only to see David Ospina make a mistake.
I’m not so sure Wenger currently has enough behind him to make such strange moves and get away with it and if Arsenal begin this game poorly, or slowly, like they have on this ground against West Ham and Liverpool previously then the crowd could easily turn.
This looks to be a good spot for Man Utd. They can soak up pressure and hit Arsenal on the break and everyone connected with them will be fine with that. United aren’t free flowing or looking fantastic but they’ve only lost once this season in the Premier League so they are hard to beat.
I think they can be hard to beat here too. I think they have the pace and the quality to undo Arsenal in this match and that can earn them at least a draw if not all three points if Arsenal fail to turn up in another one of these huge matches.
Back Man Utd (+0.5AH) to beat Arsenal for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with BetVictor
Blog football YTD: -29.04pts*
*with Saturday’s results outstanding
