Premier League watchability, Week 5: Manchester United vs. Liverpool headlines loaded Saturday

Our long international nightmare is over. The FIFA break is done, and we get to watch good soccer for the next month. The Premier League returns with a great slate of games, though they didn’t manage to spread them out at all. The good stuff is on Saturday, back-to-back-to-back, while Sunday and Monday don’t look like anything special.

Still, Saturday though. It’s a really good Saturday.

All games can be seen on NBC Sports Live Extra and Deportes Telemundo En Vivo Extra in the United States. For listings from more countries, check out Live Soccer TV.

A very easy choice in any week where it occurs, but it’s fallen on a week with a lot of very good games this time around. Still, the atmosphere of a Northwest Derby can’t be beat, even when both teams are bad.

It wouldn’t be fair to call either of these teams “bad,” though they’ve both been disappointing so far this year. But now that the transfer window is done, the season starts in earnest, and they’re both boosted by the fact that they didn’t lose any major stars to injury during the international break -- unless you count the injury to Daley Blind’s pride.

Each team has a big name under fire and will be looking for that person to up his performance. For Liverpool, it’s the man on the sidelines. Brendan Rodgers isn’t exactly inspiring confidence in the wake of last season’s defeat at the hands of Stoke that saw his bosses consider his position, and he’s looking like a great candidate to be out by Christmas. For United, Wayne Rooney needs to translate his England and Champions League form into a big performance in the Premier League.

This was a toss-up -- Arsenal vs. Stoke is certainly watchable -- but Alan Pardew’s got Palace playing some fantastic soccer at the moment, and the Selhurst Park crowd is one of the best in the league. Plus, City is missing David Silva, arguably the best player in the league so far this season.

The attacking midfield foursome of Wilfried Zaha, Yohan Cabaye, Yannick Bolasie and Jason Puncheon looks capable of creating chances against anyone, while central defender Scott Dann is eying a place in the England squad for Euro 2016. If Palace sneak a draw, it won’t be that big of an upset.

You can skip the Sunday games if you really want to, because all of the good stuff is on Saturday. And while it might only be the third- or fourth-best game of the day, it’s definitely worth waking up early to watch Everton take on Chelsea. The Toffees will probably be better in a post-deadline world, with John Stones no longer dreaming of making a transfer, and there’s no way Chelsea aren’t better than their early performances.

Unfortunately, there’s a good chance this is the lowest-scoring of the marquee TV games this week, even if it is the best played. But if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t need goals to enjoy a game, roll out of bed when the sun comes up, put on a pot of coffee and flip this on.