With the title race having already swung back and forth while the top-four and relegation battles are as open as they have been for a few years, the Premier League is becoming increasingly difficult to predict. Sure, the odd match still follows the formbook, but a number of teams are proving tough to pin down and figure out what to expect from them on a game-to-game basis.
As such, knowing what shape the news cycle is going to take is anyone’s guess at the start of a round of fixtures. Refereeing controversies, outrageous managerial quotes and even the reactions of big-name pundits can drive the narrative around the English top-flight, and thus it’s difficult to figure out what will be dominating the newspaper back pages, website homepages and fan reaction shows in the hours and days that follow.
That hasn’t stopped us at First XI from trying, though. Rather than merely predicting the weekend’s results, we have looked into our crystal balls to figure out what headlines you, the fans, will be reading and clicking on as you digest the latest Premier League action.
‘Man Utd emerge as title dark horses after breezing past Brighton’
Manchester United’s first win over Liverpool at Anfield for nine years was the turning point in Ruben Amorim’s reign. Not only did the Portuguese coach handily outfox Arne Slot in the tactical stakes, he also finally ended his wait for back-to-back victories as United manager, and you could feel the confidence surging through the Red Devils’ squad.
It has so often been one step forward, two steps back for Amorim, but Brighton won’t have enough to halt his team’s momentum at Old Trafford on Saturday. With new goalkeeper Senne Lammens bringing a sense of stability to a defence that had been lacking for so long and feeding long balls to the frontline, United finally have a recipe for success.
Whether Mason Mount starts as a false nine again or Benjamin Sesko gets the nod upfront, the Red Devils will have too much firepower from the second balls for Brighton to cope with. A third successive win and a clean sheet are on the cards, which could put United into the top six. With no European football commitments and all the players now fully up to speed with Amorim’s system, they should then be considered dark horses for the title, and ‘The United Strand’ will soon be able to take a hair clipper to his out-of-control afro.
‘Salah blows last chance as Liverpool are stung by the Bees’
Liverpool snapped a four-game losing streak by thrashing Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League on Wednesday as Slot was rewarded for making some bold changes. That included dropping struggling club legend Mohamed Salah to the bench and shifting to a 4-4-2 formation, which made the Reds both more solid at the back and more potent going forward.
But Brentford will bring the reigning champions crashing back down to earth at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday. Despite Salah being on a run of seven Premier League matches without a non-penalty goal, Slot is liable to give the Egyptian one final chance to rediscover his best form, which will mean reverting to a 4-2-3-1 and leaving Liverpool exposed on the right flank again.
The likes of Kevin Schade and Igor Thiago could subsequently have a field day. The Bees have looked very strong at home, beating Aston Villa and Manchester United while drawing with Chelsea, and Liverpool will be their next victims. This game could mark the end of the Reds’ title defence and ensure that Salah is relegated to a place among the substitutes for the foreseeable future.
‘Villa expose Man City’s flaws as Haaland kept on a leash’
“I don’t think they’re a top team at the moment. They’re still in the title race because of [Erling] Haaland,” former Arsenal star Paul Merson said on Sky Sports when assessing Manchester City’s 2-0 victory over Everton last week. “But you take Haaland out of the equation and then I’d struggle to think they would get in the top four.”
Indeed, the Norwegian terminator’s haul of 11 Premier League goals accounts for 65 percent of the 17 City have scored so far in 2025-26. Their second-highest scorer is Maxime Esteve, who gave up two own goals when Burnley went down 5-1 to Pep Guardiola’s side at the Etihad. That is conclusive evidence that City are a one-man team, which makes their current form unsustainable.
The flaws in City’s set-up will be exposed when they travel to the West Midlands to face an Aston Villa side brimming with confidence after back-to-back league wins. If Villa can put a leash on Haaland, as they did to Mathys Tel and Xavi Simons when picking up a 2-1 victory at Tottenham last time, it could even be an easy day’s work for Unai Emery’s men. They should be able to overrun City in midfield, allowing the likes of Ollie Watkins, Donyell Malen and Morgan Rogers to wreak havoc upfront.
Guardiola may have to reassess his aims for the campaign after this one.
‘Arsenal lay down another marker with easy Palace win’
Arsenal continued their ominous run of form by putting four goals past Atletico Madrid without reply in the Champions League on Tuesday, and a seventh consecutive win is inevitable when Crystal Palace arrive at the Emirates. Oliver Glasner’s Eagles are a match for any side at their best, but they’ll only be at 50 per cent again after their Thursday night exertions in the Conference League.
Palace followed up their last European outing with a 2-1 loss at Everton, and Arsenal will be next to exploit their tired legs. Bukayo Saka hasn’t scored from open play since matchday two, but he could boost his numbers significantly here, with a battle against Tyrick Mitchell threatening to be a complete mismatch.
After doing a job on Julian Alvarez, Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba should have no trouble with Jean-Philippe Mateta either. David Raya will be celebrating his ninth shut-out of the season in all competitions come full-time, and Arsenal will be six points clear of the chasing park after laying down another title marker.
‘Nuno finds winning formula for West Ham at Leeds’
There has been no new manager bounce at West Ham in the post-Graham Potter era so far, with Nuno Espirito Santo delivering only one point from his first three games at the helm. The players are low on confidence and fans have turned on the board, but a trip to Elland Road to face toothless Premier League new boys Leeds will be the perfect tonic.
All they have to do is follow the same blueprint that worked so well for Nuno at Nottingham Forest, and for Burnley last Saturday. Scott Parker’s disciplined team gave up the lion’s share of possession and hit Leeds on the counter en route to a 2-0 victory. Leeds are relatively solid at the back, but the Hammers can capitalise on any lapses in concentration just as Burnley did, and if they get their noses in front, with Jarrod Bowen leading the charge, holding the lead should be straightforward.
To win a relegation six-pointer, you need some cutting edge, but Leeds are almost completely devoid of creativity and have no dependable goal-scorers. West Ham will overpower them and kick-start their season.
‘Dyche given tough reality check’
Nottingham Forest have turned to the Premier League’s ultimate firefighter to steady the ship after Ange Postecoglou’s disastrous 39-day tenure: former Everton and Burnley boss Sean Dyche.
In his first press conference at the City Ground, Dyche laid out his plan to lift a team that hasn’t won a game since the opening weekend of the season, telling reporters: “We’ve got to build on the style they found to be successful [last season] and alter it slightly to open up and use some of the skill level of the players slightly differently. It’s going to be a work in progress, you can’t just flick a switch. They’ve got it in them, they’ve already shown it.”
Nuno tried and failed to adapt his pragmatic tactical approach after guiding Forest to a historic seventh-placed finish last season, and it remains to be seen if Dyche can succeed where the Portuguese failed. After all, Forest have only won three of their last 16 Premier League matches dating back to April 1, and haven’t kept a single clean sheet in that time.
The players also spent the last month trying to evolve into an all-out attacking side under Postecoglou, which means Dyche faces a hugely daunting task to bring back any sort of cohesion, let alone consistency. He managed to pick up a victory against Porto in the Europa League on Thursday, but Bournemouth are poised to dish out a harsh lesson.
Andoni Iraola’s Cherries have the swagger of genuine top-four contenders and the most in-form player in the division (after Haaland) in Antoine Semenyo. Things are going to get worse before they get better for Forest, who will do well to keep the scoreline respectable at the Vitality Stadium.