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Premier League

Bullet point previews of this weekend’s Premier League matches

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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.

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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)

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* 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).

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* 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.

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* 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.

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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)

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* 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)

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* 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.

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* 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

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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Premier League

Joe Aribo’s goal not enough to Southampton’s suffering

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Premier League - Southampton v Leicester City - St Mary's Stadium, Southampton, Britain - October 19, 2024 Southampton's Joe Aribo in action with Leicester City's Stephy Mavididi Action Images via Reuters/John Sibley

Joe Aribo scored a goal for Southampton on Saturday,but it was not enough to curb the club’s miserable run as they succumbed to a last-minute defeat by Leicester who snatched victory by 3-2.

Leicester scored three second-half goals to come from behind and stun 10-player Southampton, denying them a first Premier League win of the season.

The result means Saints have set a club record for the longest winless run in their entire top-flight history, having failed to emerge victorious from any of their last 21 Premier League encounters.

Inside five minutes, Joe Aribo had crashed a header onto the crossbar and inside seven minutes, the hosts had taken the lead. Kyle Walker-Peters led the charge after a quick free-kick and dropped the ball off to Ryan Manning, who squared for Cameron Archer to coolly slot in and send a wave of both relief and belief around St Mary’s.

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Premier League

Leicester fight back to clinch 3-2 win and extend Southampton’s suffering

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Jordan Ayew scored in the 98th minute as Leicester staged a second-half comeback to earn a 3-2 win at Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday, with the 10-man hosts setting a club record of 21 matches without victory in the English top-flight.

Leicester moved up to 13th in the standings with nine points from eight matches, while Southampton fell to 20th – level on points with Wolverhampton Wanderers, who face champions Manchester City on Sunday

“It’s just unbelievable, that’s why we play football. We didn’t have a good first half,” Ayew told Sky Sports.

“Second half we got ourselves back together and attacked the game properly. It’s just an unbelievable feeling.

“It’s a good step forward to move up the table. We’re going to continue fighting and it’s not going to be easy so well done the lads and everyone.”

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Having failed to win in their last 13 matches in the 2022-23 season when they were relegated, Southampton are without a win in the Premier League since they beat Leicester in the same fixture in March 2023.

Southampton shot out of the blocks and took the lead in the eighth minute when Ryan Manning squared for Cameron Archer to finish a sweeping counter-attack, before midfielder Joe Aribo added to their tally with a side-footed effort.

Leicester defender Wout Faes nearly scored a spectacular own-goal five minutes into the second half by sending a diving header straight at his own keeper Mads Hermansen, who spared the Belgian’s blushes with a deft save.

The visitors grew into the contest in the second half and created some half-chances before pulling one back in the 64th minute.

Buonanotte turned in a cross after a driving run from substitute Abdul Fatawu and the goal signalled the beginning of Southampton’s unravelling.

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Minutes later, Vardy was denied on the line by an excellent Aaron Ramsdale save, but Leicester were awarded a penalty after a VAR review found that the forward was held back by Ryan Fraser.

Fraser was sent off and Vardy stepped up, blasting his effort past Ramsdale to equalise.

Leicester smelled blood and pushed forward in their quest for a winner, which came deep into stoppage time when Ayew’s low shot went through a sea of bodies and crept into the bottom corner, breaking the hearts of home fans at St Mary’s Stadium.

-Reuters

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Premier League

Manchester United ease pressure on Erik ten Hag with win over Brentford

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Argentinian winger Alejandro Garnacho celebrating after scoring the equaliser in a 2-1 English Premier League home win over Brentford at Old Trafford on Oct 19. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Manchester United eased a bit of the pressure on their embattled manager Erik ten Hag with a 2-1 come-from-behind English Premier League victory over Brentford at Old Trafford on Oct 19.

The Red Devils had come into the match in 14th place on eight points with just two wins from seven games – their worst start to a campaign since 1989-90.

Reports had suggested the United hierarchy, including co-owner Jim Ratcliffe, chief executive officer Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox had a long meeting earlier in the week, with ten Hag’s future on the agenda.

In the pre-match press conference on Oct 19, the Dutch manager accused segments of the media of “creating stories, creating fairy tales, bringing noise, bringing lies” regarding his future.

But things looked iffy for him again when Brentford opened the scoring in the fifth minute of first-half added time, when centre-back Ethan Pinnock lost marker Diogo Dalot and powered in a ferocious header past Andre Onana from a Mikkel Damsgaard corner.

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Ten Hag and Matthijs de Ligt remonstrated with the touchline officials after the defender was made to leave the field before the set piece as blood was pouring out of his head. He had sustained the injury after a coming together with Kevin Schade after 10 minutes.

Ten Hag and his assistant Ruud van Nistelrooy were later booked for their protestations.

But when all was said and done, it marked the seventh time United had failed to score in the first half in eight Premier League matches this season.

The Red Devils’ best chances in the first period had fallen to Alejandro Garnacho.

Once, he forced a near-post save by Mark Flekken, but with his two other opportunities, more could be expected from the Argentinian winger after he was picked out by a lovely cross-field pass from Marcus Rashford and some good hold-up play from Rasmus Hojlund.

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But the 20-year-old Garnacho remained confident and two minutes after the break, he finally found the net to register his second league goal of the campaign.

Rashford produced another excellent delivery for his fellow winger, this time his deep cross found Garnacho at the back post and he responded with a first-time side-foot volley into goal.

It was the marked the start of a second-half resurgence from the Red Devils which kept Flekken very busy.

But he could not deny United their second. United captain Bruno Fernandes played a neat round-the-corner flick to Hojlund, who dinked the ball over Flekken and into goal on 62 minutes.

It was his second goal in three starts this term, after missing the start of the campaign owing to a hamstring injury he picked up in pre-season.

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United could have gone 3-1 up six minutes later, when Onana’s goal kick found an overlapping Dalot bear down on goal, but Flekken managed to foil him.

But in the end, the Red Devils did not need the cushion of another goal as they got their first win in six matches.

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