Man City vs Spurs and Newcastle vs Liverpool: The Narrative.

West Ham vs Chelsea and Arsenal Leeds also previewed.

GW2 is dripping with Narrative in the Premier League, and this week we’ll be analysing:

•⁠ ⁠West Ham vs Chelsea

•⁠ ⁠Man City vs Spurs

•⁠ ⁠Arsenal vs Leeds

•⁠ ⁠Crystal Palace vs Nottingham Forest

• Newcastle vs Liverpool

This week’s Fan Voice-Note is from Kendall Rowan who is excited about the Champions going to St James' Park on Monday. 🗣️📱

West Ham vs Chelsea

The opening game of the weekend will see Graham Potter take on his old side Chelsea, with the Blues facing their 2nd consecutive back five side in the last two weeks.

Against Palace, Chelsea struggled to progress the ball through the Eagles defensive block, who set up in a 5-2-3 in order to limit space centrally.

Several issues prevented Maresca’s side from effectively playing through the lines, as Levi Colwill and Tosin Adarabioyo were unavailable, whilst Trevoh Chalobah had to play on the left side of defence, which isn’t optimal for his passing angles due to his right foot bias.

Chelsea averaged the longest sequence time of any Premier League team last weekend (14.55 seconds), playing the highest percentage of sideways passes (67.8%) and the lowest percentage of forward passes (22.7%).

With West Ham setting up in a back five too, Maresca could be inclined to switch the dynamics of this team in order to have optimal passing angles across his backline with a left-footed left centre-back and a right-footed right centre-back.

The return of Tosin to the lineup will be a huge bonus for the Chelsea boss, as the defender averaged 3.23 progressive passes per 90 last campaign, making 4.14 passes into the final third per 90 and being a key progressor from the central centre-back role.

West Ham set up in a 5-2-1-2 defensive shape against Sunderland, splitting their front two and having Lucas Paqueta apply pressure to the lone pivot (Granit Xhaka). With this narrow front five in the press, it will be even more important for Chelsea to access those wide pockets of space between the wide centre-back and winger, in order to manipulate West Ham’s defensive block.

With the Chelsea wingers pinning the West Ham wingbacks deep, it will open the space for the number eights to drop and receive OR the wide centre-backs to carry forwards, allowing Maresca’s side to efficiently progress the ball to the final third and control proceedings. However, if the Blues are to get their first win of the new season, they will have to be more clinical, having failed to score against Crystal Palace last weekend despite generating 1.60 xG.

Manchester City vs Tottenham

Our second game of the weekend should be a very fun one, Manchester City taking on Tottenham, a fixture that produced eight goals in three matches last campaign and has proven to be a tricky one to navigate in the past for Pep Guardiola’s men, with Spurs being something of a bogey team for them.

In Tottenham’s two competitive fixtures under Thomas Frank so far, we have seen two different systems designed for two different gameplans. First, we saw Spurs take a two goal lead against PSG in the Super Cup, adopting a five at the back formation and looking to be much more direct in transition.

Against Burnley, Frank’s side set up in a 4-3-3, holding 67% possession and scoring three goals, playing much more on the front foot, taking 16 shots and putting 27 crosses into the box, the 2nd highest in the Premier League on the opening weekend, only behind Chelsea with 29.

So the big question against Manchester City is how will Frank set up?

The likelihood of Frank opting for a back five against Manchester City, adopting a similar gameplan as they did to good effect against PSG is high, playing away from home against one of the best sides in the league.

With the expectation of City dominating possession in this game, Tottenham will be looking to maximise their efforts in transition, being well drilled off the ball and looking to take advantage when the opportunities present themselves.

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An area of focus for exploiting this Manchester City team will be down their left side, as Rayan Ait-Nouri’s dynamic fullback role offers a chance for teams to benefit from their new principles being coached.

The addition of Pep Lijnders as Guardiola’s assistant this summer has already seen dramatic changes to their pressing habits and defensive scheme, with an emphasis on effective counter pressing to nullify the opposition's transitional threat.

With Ait-Nouri being aggressive to jump up in the counter press, Mohammed Kudus will have the opportunity to exploit the space behind the fullback, which will likely be Tottenham’s best route for generating chances in this game.

Arsenal vs Leeds

Arsenal vs Leeds, two sides built for physical purposes in the Premier League, importance on winning duels to establish control in a game. The Gunners were out duelled by Manchester United last weekend, winning 43% of the duels in the match, which allowed Ruben Amorim’s side to take control of the game, holding 61% possession, getting 22 shots off but failing to find the net despite their 1.52 xG.

Leeds, on the other hand, went toe to toe with Everton, another side built for the physicality of the Premier League, as Daniel Farke’s side won 49% of their duels, holding 54% possession and taking 21 shots in the game (generating 2.13 xG).

Ethan Ampadu suffered a knee injury vs Everton so could be replaced by Sean Longstaff or Ilia Gruev.

Winning those duels in the middle of the park will be key for both sides, as Leeds look to generate chances via third man combinations in their wide triangles, whilst Arsenal are currently looking to generate chances with more direct attacks, averaging the second highest direct attack speed last weekend (2.41 m/s), only Crystal Palace having higher (2.44 m/s).

The midfield three of both teams will decide this game, as whichever trio can come out on top in regards to duels will allow their side to implement their gameplan best.

If Leeds are able to win the battle, Arsenal will struggle to deal with the combinations and movement in wide areas, whilst if Arsenal win the battle, the likelihood of catching the Leeds fullbacks out of position as they go to join the attack will be high, leaving space for the Gunners to hurt them in transition at pace.