With a quarter of the season now officially in the books,
Matchday 10 of the English Premier League will kick off with a doozy of a
matchup bright and early Saturday morning.
So be sure to set that alarm and catch all of the action live on the NBC
family of networks or online at NBC Live Extra.
Saturday (all times eastern)
7:30am – Tottenham @
Manchester United – Old Trafford, NBC Sports Network
Heading into last weekend, the sides from Manchester were
threatening to turn the title fight in to a two-horse race, but it looks like we
can now add a third team to the mix as Tottenham capitalized on two mistakes
from a Liverpool defense that remains in shambles to cruise to a 4-1 victory. They will travel to Old Trafford to kick off
the weekend against Manchester United, who saw their eight-game unbeaten run to
start the campaign come to an end when they were unable to overturn a two-goal deficit
and fell for the first time in 65 years to Huddersfield Town 2-1.
It was a historic victory for the newly promoted Terriers,
and moved United five points back of Manchester City and level with their
weekend opponent on twenty points. Both
sides will be wary of falling further behind the scintillating City but it
should be United the more confident bunch heading in, with the Red Devils
dropping only four of their last thirty-six meetings across all competitions
with Tottenham (W24 L8 D4), which included an unbeaten run that stretched a
remarkable twenty-six games, and winning twenty of their last twenty-five
against Spurs at Old Trafford (L2 D3).
10am – West Ham
United @ Crystal Palace – Selhurst Park, NBC Live Extra
While the fight at the top of the table is in full swing, a
battle is brewing at the bottom with cellar dwellers Crystal Palace unable to
follow up their victory over Chelsea the week before although having more than
their fair chances before ultimately paying the price four minutes from time in
a 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United. They will
return home to welcome West Ham United to Selhurst Park for a London Derby,
with the pressure increasing by the day on manager Slaven Bilic after his side
slumped to defeat and down to 16th in the table after falling to the
newly promoted Brighton and Hove Albion 3-0.
The visit across town will give the embattled Croatian one
last chance to save his job, although his side took a step in the right
direction in the midweek when they fought back from a two goal halftime deficit
with three goals in a fifteen minute span to book their place in the quarterfinals
of the Carabou Cup at the expense of the mighty Tottenham, and will be confident
of taking another step at the weekend after going unbeaten in their last four
London Derbies with Crystal Palace under Bilic, coming out winners in three of
those affairs and in their last three trips to Selhurst Park.
Sunday (all times eastern)
12pm – Everton @
Leicester City – King Power Stadium, NBC Sports Extra
Ronald Koeman found himself in a similar position to Bilic
just last week however the Dutchmen was unable to avoid the firing line with a
5-2 loss to Arsenal, which was the Toffees seventh in eleven matches and left
the Merseysiders in the bottom three of the table with just eight points from
nine games, his last game in charge after his dismissal on Monday morning. A caretaker manager will be on the touchline
Sunday afternoon when they travel to the King Power Stadium to take on
Leicester City, who won for the first time in their last six league games (L3
D3) with a 2-1 win over Swansea City.
The Foxes were likewise in a similar position to Everton,
with the dismissal of Craig Shakespeare only days before leaving them searching
for their third manager in the span of eight months and a caretaker manager in
charge for the victory over the Swans.
They will hope the appointment this week of former Southampton manager
Claude Puel will be the start of their climb out of the bottom half of the
table, with Leicester dropping only two of their last eight meetings with Everton
across all competitions and just one of the last eight times they have
entertained the Toffees at the King Power Stadium (W2 D5).
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