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As always, this weekend throws up a variety of interesting-looking encounters in the top tier of English football. There are a couple of hard to pick matches as well as one standout game on Sunday, with the results being particularly interesting in the chase for the top spot.

The fixture that really jumps out is Manchester City’s visit to Liverpool on Sunday. Top of the table city will be looking to bounce back after their midweek loss to Napoli, following on from their other European loss away this season to Bayern Munich . In the premier league obviously it has been another story altogether, given that they are still undefeated after 12 games. Above and beyond these results, city have really been putting sides to the sword, with a goal difference of +31. The pace of Clichy and Richards has been doing all sorts of damage to the opposition.
Comparing this to sixth-place Liverpool’s +5 and things don’t look that good for the Merseysiders. But looking at their recent form, they have shown their best football against some of the stronger sides in the division, beating both Arsenal and Chelsea away from home. The reds look good value to inflict the first defeat on Man City and at the very least to earn a draw.

Swansea host Aston villa on Sunday in what promises to be a tough, mid-table clash. Swansea went down at home for the first time this season at the hands of Man Utd last weekend, but up till then had proved a tough nut to crack on home turf.. Their away form might have let them down, but not many sides will travel to Wales and come away with three points, with only 2 home goals conceded so far. Although Villa are sitting 5 places higher in 8th, they are in something of a slump and are struggling to play quality football at the moment. Sunday will be a tough time for them to notch up their first away win.

Saturday sees a top of the table clash as 4th place Newcastle visit Manchester United. Manchester haven’t been the most convincing side out there recently, particularly against supposedly weaker opposition, which, when you are Man U, is more or less everybody! Newcastle are solid at the back and this doesn’t look like being a high scoring encounter. Manchester have certainly looked better at home than away (apart from against Manchester City). Berbatov looks like he is starting to hit form and Alex Ferguson doesn’t have any major injury worries for once, apart from Danny Welbeck.
Newcastle have a couple of injury worries, notably Gabriel Obertan, but still have plenty of experience and talent. One goal either way might well be enough to decide the outcome here.

Three potentially interesting match-ups this weekend then. If Manchester City can keep putting goals away like it’s going out of fashion, it will put a lot of pressure on other sides like Newcastle and Manchester, who will be looking to close the gap to the top if at all possible.

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