- Liverpool's recovery set to continue
- Foden to make Seagulls suffer
- Defences to win out at the Bridge
Nottingham Forest v Liverpool (12:30) - Tricky Trees will be tricky
With three wins on the bounce across all comps, Liverpool are a picture of health again. The same alas, cannot be said of some of their key personnel.
Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz are both ruled out for the Reds' first trip to the City Ground in the league since 1999. At the back meanwhile, Joel Matip is unavailable and Ibrahima Konate at best will make the bench.
Such losses can be absorbed due to Liverpool's strength in depth. It does mean however they no longer have any strength in depth and Jurgen Klopp must go with what he has.
This naturally is hardly disastrous given that the side that beat West Ham on Wednesday evening racked up a shot every four minutes. Indeed, looking at the season as a whole, Klopp's men have taken on 175 shots, the second highest in the league, while struggling Forest have faced 176 shots, the second worst tally.
In short, we know which way the traffic will mostly be heading and there are clear reasons why our own Mark O'Haire describes the visitors as 'red hot favourites'.
Yet Forest have notably improved in recent weeks, as the first forging of relationships occur between 21 strangers. Two draws and a narrow loss at Wolves is a significant upgrade on their four preceding games that saw them ship in four-per-90.
The Reds should still be backed unsurprisingly, but it may be won the hard way.
If you're looking for the likeliest scorer incidentally, Mo Salah loves playing against promoted sides, involved in 29 goals from his last 30 outings against them.
Everton v Crystal Palace (15:00) - The great unknowns
Three weeks ago, the Toffees boasted the best defensive record in the top-flight and though they barely posed any threat up front the perceived wisdom was that the return of Dominic Calvert-Lewin would put that right. With a solid foundation and finally a recognized centre-forward troubling the opposition, Everton could push on and even challenge for the top six.
The England international came on late into his side's defeat at home to Manchester United and has been involved in Everton's subsequent two games. During which time they have failed to post a single shot on target.
This is not to blame Calvert-Lewin of course, but rather it illustrates the idiosyncrasies of football and while we're at it, here's another one.
Palace this term have typically been bright starters, scoring five goals inside 25 minutes. Yet their three victories to date have all come from losing positions.
When two contradictory sides such as this go head-to-head, we may as well flip a coin so let's concentrate on what we do know. No team has won fewer corners than the Eagles this term, while their combative midfielder Cheik Doucoure has been booked every other game.
Manchester City v Brighton (15:00) - City are still City
When City lost at Anfield in 2018, they responded by going on an eight-game unbeaten run that effectively secured the title. When they lost to the Reds in a FA Cup semi last April, Pep Guardiola's men hosted Brighton four days later and comfortably beat them 3-0.
No stock should be placed in their admittedly newsworthy loss last week. It was in and of itself.
Of much more pertinence is City's season as a whole, namely their record-breaking goal-haul going into their Anfield reverse that amounted to 3.6 goals per league game. At the Etihad it's 4.8 goals per game.
Erling Haaland has had a league high of 25 shots on target and scored 15 of them. Kevin De Bruyne has across all competitions provided 11 assists in 13. Good luck Brighton, and Godspeed.
What makes the visitor's task all the more ominous is a recent regression under Roberto De Zerbi, reverting to the side they used to be, that being a side capable of bossing possession and creating lots of chances but sorely lacking an end product.
In their last three outings, the Seagulls have averaged 67.2% possession and had 54 attempts on goal. From this they have failed to score and accrued just a single point.
Take advantage of our odds boost by plumping for Phil Foden to score first. The 22-year-old will still be sore from having a strike chalked off on Merseyside and has previously been involved in six goals in four against this opposition.
Chelsea v Manchester United (17:30) - Drawn to the drama
Players from both sides appear to be taking it in turns to put in outstanding displays and this is no bad thing for teams under new management. It gets results during a period of adjustment.
Midweek, the Blues Kai Havertz was bright and industrious on an otherwise frustrating evening at Brentford. Three days earlier, Mason Mount ran the show at Villa Park.
For United, Bruno Fernandes put in his best performances for a good while to help topple Spurs, while last weekend it was Anthony who shone.
If this makes it hard to highlight any individuals ahead of this top five clash at least clues can be sourced from the fixture itself.
The last four occasions these sides have met have ended in stalemate, with two of them goalless. In fact, there isn't a top-flight match-up around that has produced more draws.
Factor in too, that between them Chelsea and United have kept eight successive clean sheets and likely Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening will be an engrossing spectacle but hardly high-scoring.