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Premier League statistical preview; including Tottenham vs Manchester City, Leicester City vs Arsenal, Newcastle vs Chelsea
WhoScored.com return to preview the Premier League's key matches
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Your support makes all the difference.Tottenham vs Manchester City
Both of these sides will be looking to bounce back from disappointment, with a comfortable win over Sunderland in the cup unlikely to have detracted too much from their shock defeat to West Ham last weekend. Spurs, meanwhile, were dumped out of the Capital One Cup courtesy of a 2-1 loss to rivals Arsenal, though this is the last game they would have wanted to overcome in their bid to return to winning ways.
Manchester City have won each of their last 4 league meetings with Tottenham, scoring 16 and conceding just twice, though the last match between the two ended in a narrow 1-0 victory for Pellegrini's men. Of those 16 goals, 8 have been scored by Sergio Aguero - including each of the last 6 - so he will be identified as the danger man. The Argentine has had a slow start to the season by his standards, perhaps not yet fully fit, so will be looking to improve on a modest WhoScored.com rating of 6.76.
Meanwhile summer signing Kevin De Bruyne has mad a great start in sky blue, scoring for the second game running in midweek, so it will be up to the likes of Eric Dier in particular to limit his influence. The young Englishman has impressed out of his favoured centre-back position in midfield, with only Jan Vertonghen earning a higher WhoScored rating for Spurs. A total of 25 tackles is enough to rank 5th in the league to earn the 21-year old a score of 7.32, and he'll certainly need to be on his mettle on Saturday.
Leicester vs Arsenal
Arsenal may have recovered some pride in midweek following their league defeat to Chelsea last time out but they have another tough away game this weekend. The Gunners travel to the King Power Stadium to face Leicester, with Claudio Ranieri's men now the only remaining unbeaten team in the Premier League. The Foxes have, however, drawn 3 of their last 4 in the top-flight and would likely be happy with another point this Saturday.
Riyad Mahrez continues to steal the show for the hosts, taking his league tally to 5 last time out to remain level at the top of the scoring charts with Bournemouth's Callum Wilson. With a further 3 assists to the Algerian's name, only Robert Lewandowski - who scored 5 in midweek - has had a direct hand in more goals than Mahrez in Europe's top 5 leagues, with the winger deservedly garnering the highest WhoScored.com rating in the Premier League thus far (8.64).
Mahrez's form is in somewhat stark contrast to that of Alexis Sanchez, who was Arsenal's go-to guy for much of last season. Perhaps, similarly to Aguero, still feeling the effects of his Copa America exploits, the Chilean has seen his WhoScored rating drop from 7.82 last season to 7.07 this. It's no surprise given that Sanchez is yet to have a hand in a league goal thus far despite firing off more shots than any other player in England's top tier (31).
Newcastle vs Chelsea
While the champions have returned to winning ways after a dismal start to the campaign the same certainly can't be said of Newcastle, who have failed to pick up from the dire straits in which they were left last season. It's been a tough start for Steve McClaren, who having seen his team dumped out of the cup by Sheffield Wednesday in midweek, already looks devoid of confidence in his side.
The Magpies are unsurprisingly the lowest rated team in the Premier League (6.57) having scored the fewest goals in the division (3). The fact that right-back Daryl Janmaat has had the most shots per game (1.4) of any Newcastle player is indicative of their woes going forwards, and their summer signings have certainly failed to catch fire so far.
A meeting with Chelsea may not be the worst possible fixture at this time though, with Newcastle having raised their game against the Blues in recent seasons. Indeed, there will be no expectations on the hosts - other than failure - despite the fact that they have won each of their last 3 home games against Saturday's opponents. With Costa suspended, however, the opportunity is there for Loic Remy to come back to haunt his former club, and that still seems far more likely than a home win at this point.
All statistics courtesy of WhoScored.com, where you can find more stats, including live in-game data and unique player and team ratings. You can follow all the scores, statistics, live player and team ratings with their free app
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