Arsenal and Manchester United, fierce rivals back in the days of Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson, renew hostilities at the Emirates Stadium in the pick of Sunday's triple-header.
Before that Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool welcome in-form Aston Villa and Crystal Palace and Wolverhampton meet at Selhurst Park.
- Arsenal and Over 2.5 goals against Manchester United
- Draw or Aston Villa Double Chance
- Crystal Palace vs Wolverhampton Draw
Arsenal vs Manchester United
The game of the day on Sunday is in North London where Arsenal, last year's Premier League runners-up, take on Manchester United, who finished third.
It's a fixture with bags of history, chiefly because of the rivalries between great managers Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson, who enjoyed so much success during their long reigns at their respective clubs – but the two men never got on.
Since then the animosity has left the fixture somewhat, although it's still a big affair between two of England's big guns.
Arsenal are favourites which is a sign of the times, a measure of the progress that they have been making under Mikel Arteta, and the likelihood is that they will have too much for United at the Emirates.
Certainly Erik ten Hag has issues to address, none more than the indifferent form his side are showing.
Yes, they have six points on the board out of a possible nine, but they were desperately fortunate to beat Wolves 1-0 after being outplayed and then had to roll up their sleeves to come from 2-0 down to beat Nottingham Forest 3-2 last week. In between times they crashed 2-0 at Tottenham.
First-choice defenders Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw are missing for United, as is Shaw's understudy Tyrrell Malacia. Further forward England schemer Mason Mount is sidelined while new frontman Rasmus Hojland is still out.
Arsenal, in contrast, have now got Brazilian international striker Gabriel Jesus fully fit to add options to a mouthwatering frontline featuring the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah and Leandro Trossard, all conducted by the magnificent Martin Odegaard.
It is those sumptuous options in attack for the Gunners against a United defence short of star bodies which lends itself to a bet on Arsenal and over 2.5 goals.
Liverpool vs Aston Villa
Liverpool have won five and drawn one of their last six meetings against Aston Villa, a spell of dominance that it would be easy to presume will be extended at Anfield.
Easy – but quite possibly wrong.
This season's Villa look a far better outfit than some of their recent models and they head to Merseyside on the back of a four-match winning streak.
After a really good end to last season and a really decent pre-season, Unai Emery's men were trapped in the headlights on the opening weekend when they crashed to a 5-1 defeat at Newcastle.
But if how you respond to a shocker is the sign of a good team then Villa are a very good team because they have responded in style.
They thumped Everton 4-0 a week later and sandwiched in between 5-0 and 3-0 drubbings of Hibernian in the Europa Conference League, they also won 3-1 at Burnley.
Emery has a well-balanced team now with goal threats from far beyond the excellent Ollie Watkins, and Liverpool know this will be tough.
The Reds have got a defensive reshuffle to make with Virgil van Dijk suspended, with presumably Joe Gomez coming in.
They are struggling to keep clean sheets, hardly a surprise when they are conceding an average of over 15 shots per game. That's four more than Villa.
Liverpool were always going to be a short price for a home fixture against a team they historically do pretty well against. But the value is to swim against that particular tide and lay the Reds.
DRAW OR ASTON VILLA DOUBLE CHANCE
Crystal Palace vs Wolverhampton
Crystal Palace versus Wolverhampton is not a game that's going to garner too many headlines, but it is a game that needs serious consideration ahead of a bet.
For two sides who, the general consensus goes, will finish up in the bottom half, nearer a fight to avoid relegation than a scrap to qualify for Europe, games like these are important.
In the mini-league at the other end of the Premier League, these are fixtures you daren't lose, even this early in the campaign.
Both sides head for Selhurst Park buoyed by League Cup success in midweek, Palace winning 4-2 at Plymouth, Wolves thrashing Blackpool 5-0, results that confirmed, contrary to popular myth, that they can score goals. Wolves, as is well chronicled, were the lowest scorers in the top flight last season and Palace were barely any more prolific.
Despite that, this is a fixture that has not finished 0-0 since 1999, and despite the obvious lack of a goal threat in either camp, there's no great appetite for presuming this one will be goal-less either.
Palace, who have four points on the board, have not scored more than one goal in any of their three league games and they do look light in attack minus the departed Wilfried Zaha and injured Michael Olise.
Wolves, who have three points, have not scored more than one goal in a game since April, but one was enough at Everton last time out, a 1-0 win secured without star Matheus Nunes who was being linked with Manchester City at the time and has subsequently joined them.
You can't help but feel that there is very little between these sides and that goals, throughout the season, are going to be hard to come by. A low-scorer logically heightens the chances of a draw, which gets the vote.
