English Premier League Fixtures, Previews, Picks: Arsenal Tries to Build On Manchester City’s Chelsea Success

With Champions League distracting us mid-week, we had almost no time to debate whether Chelsea will feel any lasting effects from last weekend's loss. While we were waiting to exhale, Arsenal's visit to Chelsea was upon us, though fortunately for the Blues, the Gunners present few of the problems City's given Chelsea over the last year. In fact, Chelsea matches-up quite well with the Gunners, as evidenced by their four match winning streak over their London rivals.

That match at Stamford Bridge is the weekend's headliner, but in both this column and on the fixture list, the English Premier League has nine other matches that will build toward Sunday's last kick-off. There's another London derby at the Boleyn Ground, Sunderland welcoming another of the league's elite to the Stadium of Light, and Wigan-Wolves.

After a tough opening fixture list, Liverpool is into the portion of their schedule where they should be making-up points. Last week’s visit from Sunderland was a poor start, being drawn at home by a club that has mid-table written all over it. Whereas Sunday’s visit from Blackpool should provide an antidote to what ails the Reds, is Liverpool a better team than (say) Newcastle? Because the Seasiders won at St. James’ Park.

West Ham will look to build on their first victory of the season, a shock win over Tottenham last week. If they can get another early goal, as Frederic Piquionne gave them against Spurs, they could set themselves up for another. If they score first, the Hammers are likely to become as conservative as they were last week against Spurs, whereas injuries to Fulham’s forwards mean Hughes is likely to do the same, should they find their first goal in two weeks.

The club names don’t hint at a match that should be ranked this high, but with these teams combining for four points against Arsenal and Manchester United last week, there is some intrigue around Saturday’s match at the Hawthorns. Combine that with the styles these two teams are employing - both trying to be ambitious with their football - this could be a viewer’s most enjoyable option on this weekend’s slate.

Whereas it’s tempting to look to the backline when evaluating a good defense, Manchester City’s virtues are in midfield, where the Nigel de Jong, Gareth Barry, Yaya Touré trio are doing most of the work before threats can reach what’s been a specious backline (particularly Kolo Touré). Where Newcastle as a chance against City is going around that trio, using the pace of Hatem Ben Afra and Wayne Routledge (left, right wings) to get behind and test the to-now untested defense.

Manchester City lost. Arsenal was drawn. In both matches at the Stadium of Light, big teams dropped points at Sunderland after late Darren Bent goals. Now Manchester United, a team that’s giving-up a lot of late goals through the first part of the season, tries to reverse that trend.

Previously in this space, I’d speculated that Rio Ferdinand may prove to be the key to United’s season. Mid-week, Ferdinand’s return to the United defense coincided with a shutout at the Estadio Mestalla. If he plays this weekend, United can expect a similar result in Sunderland, but coming back from injury, two matches in such a short period of time may be too big a risk. If Ferdinand doesn’t play, United may be looking at another draw.

Gerard Houllier’s debut was a fruitful one, with Villa’s late goal from Emile Heskey giving them the best case scenario to start their new manager’s tenure. Villa may not have been very good through the first month of the season, but the results have been reasonable, and now they’re ready to move forward, finally able to move beyond Martin O’Neill. A win at White Hart Lane would be a great way to cement that transition.

Arsenal has none of the strength through midfield that Manchester City used to control Chelsea's match at Eastlands. The Blues will be able to move through Arsenal, and when they do, a suspect back line will have to deal with Didier Drogba, whether the Ivorian is creating chances or having opportunities created for him. In a formation that often lets him go right, Laurent Koscielny and Gael Clichy will see a lot of the league's best attacker. Unfortunately, those are Arsenal's two biggest weaknesses at the back.

If the Gunners get strong play from Alexander Song and Abu Diaby in midfield, they may be able to limit their backline's exposure, but with Song coming off his worse match of the year, Arsene Wenger may want to consider other options. Rather than adjusting to Chelsea's attack, something Arsenal seems ill-equipped to do, Arsenal may want to embolden theirs; specifically, get more creative passers on the pitch and try to maintain a better control of play while giving your team more chances without needing Bacary Sagna and Clichy's help.

If Cesc Fabregas returns, Samir Nasri starts right, Jack Wilshire or Tomas Rosicky get the start instead of Diaby while Andrei Arshavin is on the left, Arsenal will have a number of highly skilled, quick, passing players who may be able to give Chelsea trouble. These players' ability to work in limited space will allow Arsenal to concentrate on one point of attack, isolate Chelsea's slower defenders, and exploit a relative weakness with short passing and quick movement.

But even if that happens, can Arsenal prevent enough goals to win the game? Whereas City had direct answers for Drogba, Michael Essien and the like, Arsenal may need to rely on an indirect route. Whether they even try is debatable.