The FanSided soccer staff make their predictions for the weekend’s Premier League games, including Manchester United vs. Tottenham at Old Trafford.
After a midweek round of League Cup games, the Premier League returns this weekend with another heavyweight clash, as Tottenham travel to Old Trafford hoping to build on the momentum gained during their thrashing of Liverpool last week.
The win, coupled with a shock loss for United away to Huddersfield, saw Spurs climb level on points with the Red Devils in third place in the league, five points back of leaders Manchester City. Another win would be a huge statement for Mauricio Pochettino’s men against a side many expected to be City’s closest challengers in the title race this season.
However, while the stakes are high — indeed, because the stakes are high — don’t expect a thrilling match. Jose Mourinho showed at Anfield two weeks that he’s willing to play spoiler in matches against elite opposition, and with injuries to key players, it’s unlikely he’ll attack Spurs, even at home.
Still, while the Red Devils kept a clean sheet against Liverpool to earn a 0-0 draw, their defense was breached on a number of occasions, and only some poor finishing from the home side prevented Mourinho’s team from losing.
Tottenham, with Harry Kane in the form of his career, will be hopeful they’ll be able to punish any similar lapses in the United defense, which will be missing starting center-back Eric Bailly, although Phil Jones is set to return after picking up an injury last week.
The other standout fixtures of the weekend are Manchester City’s trip to West Brom; Liverpool’s home match against Huddersfield; and Everton’s first league game since the dismissal of Ronald Koeman, away to Leicester, who appointed Claude Puel as their new manager on Wednesday.
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 result. Here are the picks for matchweek 10:
Tottenham are slight favorites against United in the weekend’s big match, while our writers all anticipate a bounce-back performance by Liverpool against Huddersfield. Here’s how the predictions table stands heading into the weekend’s matches:
