Premier League
Bullet point previews of this weekend’s Premier League matches
Match-by-match facts and statistics ahead of the next round of Premier League fixtures from Oct. 29-30 (all times GMT):
Saturday, Oct. 29
Leicester City v Manchester City (1130)
* City have beaten Leicester in six of their last seven league meetings (L1).
* After just one win in their first 10 league games of the season, Leicester have recorded back-to-back wins over Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers to move out of the relegation zone.
* None of the last 13 league meetings between the two clubs has finished level, with Leicester winning four and City nine.
Bournemouth v Tottenham Hotspur (1400)
* Bournemouth have lost their last two Premier League games, after an unbeaten run of six games under caretaker manager Gary O’Neil since he took over from Scott Parker in late August.
* Tottenham have beaten Bournemouth seven times in the Premier League (D2 L1). The teams’ last top flight meeting at the Vitality Stadium in July 2020 ended in a goalless draw.
* Bournemouth’s Dominic Solanke has been directly involved in five goals in 10 league games so far (two goals, three assists), one more than he’d registered in 32 games in his previous top-flight campaign in 2019-20 (three goals, one assist).
Brentford v Wolverhampton Wanderers (1400)
* Wolves have scored the fewest goals (5) in the Premier League season so far.
* Wolves have lost four of their five games against London sides this season (D1).
* Wolves won 2-1 when the teams last played in the league in January.
Brighton & Hove Albion v Chelsea (1400)
* Brighton have not beaten Chelsea in any of their 10 Premier League encounters (L6 D4).
* Four of the last five league matches between the two teams have ended in draws, with Chelsea winning one.
* Manager Graham Potter will take on former club Brighton for the first time since leaving to join Chelsea in September.
Crystal Palace v Southampton (1400)
* Southampton have won 14 of their 27 Premier League games against Palace (L6 D7).
* Southampton have kept the fewest clean sheets (1) in the Premier League season so far.
* The last nine league games between the pair have resulted in three Crystal Palace wins, three Southampton wins and three draws.
Newcastle United v Aston Villa (1400)
* Newcastle have won 23 of their 50 Premier League games against Villa (L11 D16).
* Newcastle are unbeaten in their last seven Premier League games (W4 D3) and have conceded only four times in their unbeaten run.
* Newcastle’s Miguel Almiron has scored five goals in his last five Premier League appearances for Newcastle, as many as he had in his previous 61 games in the competition combined.
Fulham v Everton (1630)
* Fulham have won two of their last three Premier League games against Everton.
* Everton are winless in their last six league games against promoted sides.
* Fulham boss Marco Silva will face Everton in the Premier League for the first time since leaving the club in 2019. He lost his two previous games against them before taking charge – 4-0 in March 2017 with Hull City and 3-2 with Watford in Nov. 2017.
Liverpool v Leeds United (1845)
* Liverpool have lost three of their 11 Premier League games in 2022-23, one more than they had lost in the whole of the 2021-22 campaign.
* Leeds have collected only nine points from their 11 games in the Premier League this season – their fewest at this stage of a league campaign since 2003-04 (8), when they were last relegated from the Premier League.
* Liverpool have won 17 of their 28 Premier League games against Leeds (D5 L6) and crushed the Yorkshire side 6-0 at Anfield last season.
Sunday, Oct. 30
Arsenal v Nottingham Forest (1300)
* Forest have only beaten Arsenal once in the Premier League (D3 L6) but won their most recent meeting in all competitions, knocking the north London side out of the FA Cup in January.
* The teams will play each other in the top flight for the first time since January 1999, when Arsenal won 1-0 at the City Ground.
* Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka has scored four goals in all competitions this season, one more than he’d registered in his previous three seasons combined.
Manchester United v West Ham United (1515)
* Manchester United are unbeaten in 13 of their last 14 home games in the Premier League.
* United have won 32 of their 52 Premier League meetings against West Ham (D13 L7).
* West Ham boss David Moyes has beaten former employers United only five times in 34 (D7 L22) career meetings, with his only away win at Old Trafford coming in September 2021 in the FA Cup third round.
-Reuters
Thomas Partey, who formerly played for English Premier League soccer club Arsenal, has been charged with rape and sexual assault, London’s Metropolitan Police said on Friday.
Partey, a Ghana international, was charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, with the charges relating to three women and the offences reported to have taken place between 2021 and 2022, the statement said.
Partey’s management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He is due to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Aug. 5.
Partey, 32, was signed by Arsenal from Atletico Madrid for 50 million euros ($59 million) in October 2020 and became a key member of Arsenal’s first team.
He was first arrested in July 2022, though he was not named at the time and continued to play for Arsenal while investigations were ongoing.
-Reuters
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Five players including England forward Marcus Rashford and Argentina winger Alejandro Garnacho have informed Manchester United that they wish to explore a future away from the Premier League side, a club source said on Friday.
Brazilian midfielder Antony, Dutch defender Tyrell Malacia and England international Jadon Sancho are also looking to leave the club, the source added.
Rashford, who has made more than 400 senior appearances for United, has fallen out of favour with manager Ruben Amorim, played for Aston Villa on loan while United had their worst-ever Premier League campaign, finishing 15th in the standings.
Amorim had called Rashford’s work rate into question, saying he would rather put a goalkeeper coach on the bench than a player not giving their all.
Rashford said he was feeling fitter and better since joining Villa, where he scored two goals in 10 league appearances.
United also failed to qualify for the Champions League as they lost the Europa League final 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur. Garnacho, who was a late substitute in the final, voiced his displeasure on social media after the loss.
“Up until the final, I played every round helping the team, and today I play 20 minutes, I don’t know,” he wrote in a post . “The final will influence (my decision), but the whole season, the situation of the club.”
Sancho was on loan at Chelsea, where he made 31 league appearances last season. Antony, who joined United from Ajax Amsterdam in 2022 for a reported initial transfer fee of more than $100 million, scored five goals in 17 LaLiga appearances on loan at Real Betis.
Malacia joined Dutch side PSV Eindhoven on loan in February.
-Reuters
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Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes turned down the opportunity to join Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal in order to keep playing “at the highest level”, he said on Tuesday.
The Portuguese midfielder admitted that he had considered the move, which media reports said was worth four times his current salary, after being contacted by Al-Hilal’s president.
“There was that possibility, the president of Al-Hilal called me a month ago to ask me about it,” Fernandes, who is preparing to face Germany with Portugal, told reporters on Tuesday.
“It was a big offer, very ambitious. There was a waiting period for me to think about the future.”
Fernandes ultimately decided to stay at United and said he was motivated by his desire to continue playing at the top level and encouraged by his family and the club’s coach Ruben Amorim.
“I would be willing to do it if Manchester United thought so,” Fernandes added. “I spoke to the coach Ruben Amorim who really tried to talk me out of it. The club said they would not be willing to sell me, only if I wanted to leave.
“I spoke to my wife and family, and she asked me what my personal goals were in my career.
“It would have been easy to move there but I want to keep myself at the highest level, playing in the big competitions and I feel capable of it. I am happy with my decision.”
The 30-year-old Fernandes scored 19 goals and provided 19 assists in 57 appearances across all competitions for United last season, winning the club’s Player of the Year award for the fourth time.
However, it was a season to forget for the team, as they finished 15th in the Premier League, their lowest league finish in half a century, and lost the Europa League final to Tottenham Hotspur.
-Reuters
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