Published 13:56 IST, January 31st 2020
Premier League Matchday 25 preview: Mourinho's Spurs to host Guardiola's Man City
Tottenham will host Manchester City in the Premier League this weekend. Leicester City vs Chelsea is the other headline feature of Premier League Matchday 25.
After the scramble of transfer deadline day, Premier League clubs will resume action in England's top flight this weekend. As it stands, Liverpool are the runaway leaders on the Premier League points table, having already racked up more points than Manchester United did in their treble-winning 1998-99 season. Tottenham vs Man City is the pick of the Premier League fixtures this weekend. Leicester City vs Chelsea will kick off Premier League Matchday 25, while Manchester United fans could, quite possibly, see new signing Bruno Fernandes in action when they host Wolves this weekend.
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Premier League fixtures: Liverpool vs Southampton, Manchester United vs Wolves
'Historic' would be the word to describe Liverpool's 2-0 win at the London Stadium earlier this week. Liverpool are now unbeaten in 41 Premier League games, 8 short of Arsenal's Invincibles record (49). On Saturday, February 1, Liverpool will host a resurgent Southampton side that have picked up 9 points from their last 4 Premier League games. The likes of Fabinho, Naby Keita and Takumi Minamino will be in contention to start against the Saints. For Southampton, manager Ralph Hasenhuttl confirmed that loan signing Kyle Walker-Peters will miss the game against the league leaders.
Across the East Lancs, Manchester United will host Wolves as they look to get over the demons of their 0-2 defeat to Burnley. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be without the services of Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba. However, Fred and Nemanja Matic have fared well in Solskjaer's midfield, while new signing Bruno Fernandes will be another option for the Wolves game. Wolves have also made a signing this month with winger Daniel Podence joining the legion of Portuguese players at the club. Harry Maguire and his defence will be in for a long night against Adama Traore's pace and Raul Jimenez's marksmanship.
Premier League fixtures: Leicester City vs Chelsea
Leicester City are in some trouble with two defeats in their last five Premier League games. Chelsea, on the other hand, have just two wins in their last five games in the league. Both sides have faced some issues with firepower in recent weeks. Jamie Vardy remains a doubt for the game against Chelsea while Tammy Abraham has shown signs of burning out in the last couple of games. Chelsea manager Frank Lampard admitted that his side has lacked 'killer instinct' in the Premier League over the last month. However, the Blues are unlikely to make any signings on deadline day.
Premier League fixtures: Tottenham vs Man City
On the Premier League points table, Manchester City are second, with 51 points, whereas Tottenham are sixth, level on points with fifth-placed Manchester United. The Jose Mourinho vs Pep Guardiola match-up is expected to be the undercurrent of the game. Mourinho and Guardiola have a history going right back to when Pep Guardiola was one of the senior figures in Bobby Robson's Barcelona team, back in 1996, with Mourinho coming to Spain as Robson's assistant.
Tottenham will be buoyed by the arrival of PSV winger Steven Bergwijn, especially with Harry Kane expected to be out for the next couple of months. Apart from Harry Kane, Tottenham do not have too many injury issues, with Tanguy Ndombele also back to full fitness. Pep Guardiola will have his first-choice centre-back Aymeric Laporte available for selection. Leroy Sane is not expected to make the squad, with the German winger likely to feature later in February.
Premier League points table ahead of Matchday 25
It does not comes as a surprise that Liverpool are the runaway leaders on the Premier League points table. Manchester City trail the Reds by a margin of 19 points, with Leicester City settled on third. At the other end of the table, Norwich remain rooted to the bottom while Bournemouth and Watford occupy the 18th and 19th positions.
Updated 13:56 IST, January 31st 2020