Steven Gerrard and Brendan Rodgers are already feeling the heat before they face Arsenal and Man Utd respectively. At Liverpool, Newcastle’s £60m striker should make his debut…
Game to watch – Arsenal v Aston Villa
It’s been a wretched start to the season for Steven Gerrard and things aren’t about to get any easier with a trip to Arsenal preceding the visit of Manchester City.
After losing three of their first four games, culminating in the Villans being booed off after a home defeat to West Ham on Sunday, some Villa fans have already had enough. It’s not a knee-jerk reaction to a poor start against teams between 12th and 18th in the early table; Villa’s concerns stretch back into last season. Under Gerrard they have lost nine of their last 15 in the Premier League.
Gerrard is trying to prompt an improvement but few of his attempts to change Villa’s fortunes are having any success. That in itself is being used as a stick with which to beat the manager: he doesn’t seem to know his best XI or system.
Villa’s poor form isn’t for the lack of possession or territory. But despite the playmakers at his disposal and the width offered by Lucas Digne and Matty Cash, Villa just aren’t creating the opportunities. And against Arsenal and City, Digne and Cash are likely to be kept on a far tighter leash.
At the back, Gerrard hasn’t been helped by a long-term injury to Diego Carlos. The manager evidently doesn’t have much faith in a Tyrone Mings-Ezri Konsa partnership but with Carlos crocked and little sign of another centre-back before the deadline, Gerrard is left with no choice but to trust the pair against a buoyant Arsenal side.
Mikel Arteta will have some sympathy for Gerrard since this time last year it was him under huge pressure after a wretched start. Things, though, are very different now for the Gunners.
Arsenal are perfect through their first four games and already have shown different ways to win. The contrast with Villa couldn’t be greater, but Gerrard somehow needs to conjure up something, even just the sketch of a plan, against the top two after struggling badly against fellow bottom-half dwellers.
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Team to watch – Bournemouth
Villa’s wretchedness at least allowed Bournemouth the chance to get some points on the board on the opening day before the new boys faced a daunting run against City, Arsenal and…
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