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Golden Goals Matchday 2: Manchester City misery in store for Ipswich

It’s the second round of fixtures in the Premier League and there are a couple of tasty games to follow up last week’s opening matchday.

Ipswich continue their daunting start after an encouraging display at home to Liverpool with a trip to face champions Manchester City, who made light work of an ever-changing Chelsea last Sunday.

The Blues head to Molineux to face a Wolves side that did the double over them last season, while Arsenal head to Aston Villa in a mouthwatering clash, and Newcastle make the long trip to Eddie Howe’s old side Bournemouth. Just three of the 10 games last week had over 2.5 goals – are you predicting they start flowing on Matchday 2?

Every week throughout the season we are giving you the chance to win £1 million by nailing six correct score predictions through Golden Goals – our free-to-play game.

Remember: if the jackpot doesn’t go, you could still win a share of our £5,000 prizepool if you top the leaderboard so every prediction matters! Read more about Golden Goals here.

Let’s take a closer look at the Matchday 2 fixtures…

Tottenham vs Everton

Ange Postecoglou will be looking for Spurs’ first three points of the season after being held to a 1-1 draw on Monday by newly promoted Leicester.

Tottenham had seven shots on target and 71% possession against the Foxes but couldn’t make it count as the ageless Jamie Vardy nodded an equaliser to deny them the three points.

Dominic Solanke is the big-money signing of the summer for the men from North London and, while he fired a blank at the King Power Stadium, his three shots on target from inside the box give cause for optimism in Postecoglou’s system, as does the team’s 1.56 xG total from the match.

Keep creating chances for him and he looks likely to follow up last season’s impressive 19-goal campaign. Indeed, 24/5 for Solanke to score first against Everton could represent decent value.

The Toffees, meanwhile, have far less cause for optimism after the opening weekend.

A damaging 3-0 defeat at home to Brighton will worry Sean Dyche, particularly in the manner of the defeat. Just one shot on target, 38% possession and a red card last weekend in their third consecutive opening-day defeat, does not bode well for the Toffees after a challenging few years.

If Spurs are on song, we are predicting more misery for Everton in this one.

Prediction: Tottenham 3-0 Everton

Manchester City vs Ipswich Town

Ipswich Town’s welcome back to the Premier League doesn’t get any easier – an opening weekend meeting with Liverpool is followed by this weekend's trip to champions Manchester City.

After a strong first-half display against Arne Slot’s men, Kieran McKenna’s Tractor Boys went down 2-0 and face an uphill battle to open their Premier League account here.

Pep Guardiola’s City beat Chelsea 2-0 on Sunday to make it 24 Premier League matches without defeat, a run stretching back to 6th December 2023.

Erling Haaland started where he left off, with last season’s top scorer notching on the opening day for the third year running, and the Ipswich backline will not be relishing facing the Norweigan sensation nor will they be pleased to be lining up against a City side with 10 consecutive victories under their belt.

City were clinical at Stamford Bridge; small sample size though one match always is, scoring twice from just 0.77 xG (a total lower than that of Chelsea) underlined that they have the players to convert when it matters most.

At the other end of the spectrum, Ipswich allowed over 2.5 xG against them in the Liverpool game and the fear for them against a Manchester City side who scored 96 Premier League goals last season is that things will be even worse against the Citizens.

Damage limitation could be the name of the game for Ipswich – but even that is a big ask. Given they did it four times in the league last campaign, City to score over 4.5 goals in the game at 14/5 has some temptation to it.

Prediction: Manchester City 6-0 Ipswich

Aston Villa vs Arsenal

Two of last season’s best performers meet early on in the campaign in what is arguably the fixture of the weekend. Both secured three points in their opening games, both scored two goals and both have huge aspirations this term.

The Villans are enjoying some lofty expectations, which have only been increased in the aftermath of their impressive victory over West Ham on Saturday. Ollie Watkins, who was recently voted in last season’s PFA team of the season, struggled on his return from an intense summer of international duty and was replaced by Jhon Duran in the 62nd minute.

Villa’s talisman will want to bounce back so 43/20 for Watkins to score anytime, as he did at the Emirates back in April and in three of the past four seasons, has some sound rationale behind it.

That said, it was Duran who netted the winner against West Ham, a team he has seemingly been courting all summer long. He appeared to apologise to Villa fans in the celebrations, reiterating his commitment to the club and could be a valuable option for Unai Emery.

Indeed, since the start of last season, of players who have scored five or more Premier League goals, only Erling Haaland (85) averages a better minutes to goals ratio than Duran’s 103, who now has six strikes in 616 minutes.

Meanwhile, Arsenal were solid if not spectacular in their routine win over Wolves on the opening weekend.

Goals from Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka fired the Gunners to three points – though it was not without some scares. A wonderful save by David Raya from Wolves debutant Jorgen Strand Larsen kept his team ahead in the first half and another sharp stop in the second half meant this was closer than it should have been for last year’s runners-up.

Last season Aston Villa claimed six points from the North London outfit, winning 1-0 at Villa Park before all but destroying Arsenal’s title hopes with a 2-0 win at the Emirates.

Arsenal have lost on three of their last five visits to this ground in the Premier League and we reckon an early defeat lies in store here for one of the pre-season favourites for the title.

Prediction: Aston Villa 2-1 Arsenal

Bournemouth vs Newcastle

A scrappy late Antoine Semenyo equaliser was enough to earn Bournemouth an opening day point away to Nottingham Forest.

The club record signing of Evanilson was not registered in time for the match and, with last year’s top scorer Solanke now sporting the Spurs colours, it was left to winger Semenyo to plough a lone furrow up front. He answered the call in style but it will be fascinating to see the impact Evanilson has on the side.

These opponents do not carry happy memories for Newcastle fans. Last season the Cherries plucked four points from the Magpies – only a last minute Matt Ritchie equaliser at St James’ Park stopped Bournemouth from completing the double over Eddie Howe’s side.

However, there has been a buzz about Newcastle in pre-season and that positivity was followed by a confidence-boosting, hard-fought win over newly-promoted Southampton.

Howe’s charges played the majority of the game with 10 men after a piece of theatre from Ben Brereton-Diaz sealed a red card for key defender Fabian Schar in the 28th minute. But a goal from Joelinton just before half-time sealed a valuable three points.

Remarkably, ex-Bournemouth boss Howe is yet to register a win over his old club since taking charge in the North East. In four attempts as Newcastle manager, he’s led them to three draws and one defeat.

He will bring an end to that winless run here.

Prediction: Bournemouth 1-3 Newcastle

Wolves vs Chelsea

A new manager, many new players… and the same old problems for Chelsea. The Blues have spent over £1 billion on transfers since Todd Boehly took the reins at the club but they still have not been able to find a clinical goal scorer or a reliable goalkeeper.

Despite working extremely hard, Nicolas Jackson has been unable to find a consistent footing in the Premier League. Chelsea’s Senegalese striker underperformed his xG by 0.5 on the opening weekend – in itself this is a one-off but it does hint at the 23-year-old picking up where he left off last year when he was the fourth-most wasteful frontman in the league with a 4.6 xG underperformance.

Robert Sanchez and his defence may fare better this weekend against Wolves, who generally struggled to conjur clear-cut chances in their curtain-raiser.

Gary O’Neil’s men mustered 13 shot-creating actions, a total which ranked ahead of only newly-promoted Ipswich and 10-man Newcastle.

Wolves will hope they can draw on past fortunes against Chelsea this weekend. The Old Gold have lost once in the last seven outings against the Blues – including a 4-2 victory at Stamford Bridge last season courtesy of a Matheus Cunha hat-trick.

This should not be a repeat of last season, however. Chelsea need a victory to ease the early pressure on Enzo Maresca and they should get it here by ending their three-game winless run against Wolves and taking all three points back to London.

Prediction: Wolves 1-3 Chelsea

Liverpool vs Brentford

The Arne Slot era began with an impressive attacking display in East Anglia on Saturday. The Reds recorded the highest xG (2.65) and the joint-second most shots (18) across the weekend.

Diogo Jota opened the scoring on 60 minutes at Portman Road with his 10th goal contribution in as many matches for Liverpool. However, it was Mohamed Salah who deserved most the plaudits.

After assisting Jota’s goal, the Egyptian forward linked up with Dominik Szoboszlai before slotting the ball into the bottom corner. Saturday’s game marked the 32nd time Salah has scored and assisted in a game, which is bettered in the Premier League era only by Wayne Rooney (36).

Brentford are well aware of Salah’s insatiable appetite for goals – Liverpool’s number 11 has scored five in as many games against the Bees, including a brace in last November’s meeting between the two sides. He is 19/5 to repeat that feat at Anfield on Sunday.

Questions were asked about Brentford without Ivan Toney and Thomas Frank’s side answered with aplomb. Bryan Mbeumo continued to shine in the English strikers absence, scoring the Bees’ opener and averaging a goal contribution every 108 minutes without Toney compared to every 250 minutes when the pair play together.

Yoane Wissa sealed the deal at the Brentford Community Stadium last weekend ensuring that he has now both scored and assisted in all of his last three Premier League appearances. No player has ever scored and assisted in four consecutive games, Will Wissa do it this weekend?

In truth, it seems unlikely. Liverpool have lost to Brentford just once in their six meetings since the Bees gained promotion and they have kept a clean sheet in half of those matches. Slot’s side will roll on with another comfortable three points at Anfield.

Prediction: Liverpool 2-0 Brentford

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