Jones Knows thinks Gabriel Jesus will star in a routine Arsenal win and Southampton can shock Leicester.
Tottenham vs Wolves, Saturday 12.30
Wolves fans and Bruno Lage aren’t panicking despite no wins in their last nine Premier League games.
My pre-season take on them was to oppose them at every opportunity but we must trust our eyes in this game and I’m starting to see shoots of hope, much like the fanbase are obviously seeing such is the backing for Lage. They remain a team that are hard to score against and may prove a frustrating animal for Tottenham to break down.
Let’s not forget they beat Antonio Conte’s team 2-0 away from home as recently as February and have a fine overall record against teams that finished in the top nine last season. If you collate all of those nine results, Wolves only lost the aggregate score 10-8 and were only beaten by more than one goal in the 3-1 defeat to Liverpool on the final day.
Wolves will play a similar attacking system to Chelsea in terms of not playing with a centre-forward and that completely bamboozled Eric Dier and Ben Davies last weekend who were being dragged out of their comfortable deep-lying defensive positions. Cristian Romero also being unavailable is a massive loss.
Transfer Centre LIVE! Aubameyang, Ronaldo, Casemiro latest
Smith in world title eliminator ahead of Usyk vs AJ 2 LIVE!
When are Joshua and Usyk in the ring?
Watch Usyk v AJ 2 undercard LIVE!
Usyk vs Joshua 2: Big fight predictions
Ramla Ali wins historic bout on Usyk vs Joshua 2 bill
Sterling left ‘fuming and raging’ by Man City exit
Papers: Chelsea enquire about signing Maguire from Man Utd
Slick Whittaker beats Nosic JONES KNOWS BEST BET: Solly March to score (14/1 with Sky Bet – Bet Here!)
Newcastle vs Manchester City, Sunday 4.30pm, live on Sky Sports – PLAY SUPER 6 HERE!
I’ll be seriously surprised if Newcastle have the attacking capabilities to create enough big moments to put pressure on Manchester City. I was really disappointed with their quality in their 0-0 draw with Brighton last weekend with Eddie Howe’s side creating an expected goals figure of just 0.22 from five shots on goal.
Newcastle may have averaged two points per game this year – the most of any calendar year in the club’s Premier League history – but their attacking numbers are seriously underwhelming when digging into the data – surprisingly so.
Of all the ever-present Premier League teams since Howe’s appointment, no team have created fewer big chances (defined by Opta) than Newcastle (27) and only Wolves and Everton have posted a lower total expected goals than Newcastle’s (35.36). No wonder Howe is hunting for a creative player in this window. A solid defence can only take you so far.
And, not only has Howe lost every single one of his 10 games as a manager against Pep Guardiola (being the only manager to face him 10+ times and lose every game) his record against the elite teams since moving to Tyneside is pretty wretched. Against Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham with Howe in the dugout, Newcastle have lost 19-2 on aggregate in six matches.
A Manchester City win without conceding at 11/8 with Sky Bet looks very generous to me.
SCORE PREDICTION: 0-2
Manchester United vs Liverpool, Monday 8pm, live on Sky Sports – PLAY SUPER 6 HERE!
The current state of Manchester United can be seen through the match odds for this one. United are almost 5/1 with Sky Bet – and were bigger earlier this week – to beat Liverpool. It is the second-biggest price they have ever gone off at in a Premier League game at Old Trafford – only trumped when going off 6/1 against Manchester City in 2019.
Liverpool’s price of 4/7 with Sky Bet is one you would usually see them go off when playing a mid-table team away from home. That is the reality of United’s market expectation. They are now competing and jostling for position with the likes of Aston Villa and Crystal Palace.
How the mighty have fallen. At first it was quite funny. Now their demise is becoming a bit tedious.
Shall I blow the trumpet? Go on then. I tipped a Liverpool 5-1 win in the corresponding fixture which overestimated United as they lost 5-0. I’d happily back the same outcome here but Liverpool aren’t quite finding the same level of shot conversion in front of goal and do have three of their finishers missing in Roberto Firmino, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez.
For those wanting to get Liverpool on-side, backing them to be winning at half-time at Evens with Sky Bet looks a smart way of finding a reasonable price on a home-based bet. Yes, they’ve fallen behind in their last six Premier League matches but they were incredibly unlucky not to have scored early in the eventual draw with Crystal Palace, creating 1.47 expected goals in the first half to no avail.
Jurgen Klopp will be sending his team out to take full advantage of the nervousness within the United ranks and his boys scored within the first five minutes in both meetings vs United last season.