The FanSided soccer staff make their predictions for the weekend’s Premier League games, including Tottenham vs. Chelsea at Wembley.
The first week of the 2017-18 Premier League season wasn’t short on excitement, as Arsenal and Leicester played out a seven-goal thriller on opening day, Liverpool conceded late to draw 3-3 with Watford and reigning champions Chelsea had two players sent off on the way to a 3-2 loss at home to Burnley.
The rest of the big six had more predictable weekends. Manchester City struggled to break down newly-promoted Brighton, but eventually ran out comfortable 2-0 winners, while Tottenham made the most of Jonjo Shelvey’s red card, beating 10-man Newcastle 2-0.
The best performance came at Old Trafford on Sunday, when Manchester United thrashed West Ham 4-0. Jose Mourinho selected an attacking starting XI, with Juan Mata, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marcus Rashford all in the team behind new signing Romelu Lukaku, and was rewarded with a dominant display.
Next: Premier League 2017-18 season preview
The standout fixture this weekend sees Chelsea travel to play Tottenham at Wembley on Sunday. The Blues’ starting XI will be missing several big names, as Eden Hazard and Tiemoue Bakayoko continue to recover from injury, and Gary Cahill and Cesc Fabregas serve suspensions.
On Saturday, Manchester United visit Swansea as they try to maintain their place at the top of the table, Liverpool look to get their first win of the season against Crystal Palace and Arsenal travel to Stoke, before Manchester City host Everton on Monday.
FanSided’s soccer staff will be competing in a weekly picks league all season. The rules are simple: three points for a correct score, one for a correct result and none for an incorrect score. Here are the picks for the second week of matches:
Andrew dominated in week one, predicting seven correct results including two correct scores, while Jake collected the fewest points, with only four correct results and no correct stores. Here’s the full table heading into week two:
