This weekend provides us, the eager football fan, with another round of tasty football fixtures as the season gets into full swing and we start to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Anyway, instead of pointing you in the direction of three games that might be worth watching, I am going to provide you with three players to keep an eye on in the Premier League this weekend.
1. Serge Gnabry – Arsenal
Arsenal’s annual injury crises is getting under way as their frontline has become even more depleted following Theo Walcott’s abdominal injury which required surgery this past week. He joins Lukas Podolski, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Santi Cazorla on the list of key attackers that are out injured for Arsene Wenger’s squad.
He has little choice, then, but to play Serge Gnarbry, an 18-year-old German, on the wing against Swansea this weekend. Gnabry put in a determined performance when called upon last weekend against Stoke but a trip to the Liberty Stadium is a different kettle of fish and it will be interesting how the promising young winger deals with the pressure.
2. Paulinho – Tottenham Hotspur
Following an outstanding showing in the Confederations Cup for Brazil, Andre Villas-Boas splashed the cash to bring in the highly rated Brazilian midfielder. So far, he has not disappointed and he scored an injury time winner against Cardiff last weekend with a moment of creative brilliance, back-heeling Erik Lamela’s centre into the goal.
The thing is, though, Paulinho has been able to command the middle of the pitch when Spurs have played the following teams; Crystal Palace, Norwich, Cardiff and Swansea (at home). When Spurs travelled to the Emirates to take on Arsenal, Paulinho was nowhere near as influential as he has been the rest of the team and Andre Villas-Boas’s midfield were overrun.
This weekend presents a chance for Paulinho to take control of a game against a ‘big’ team as Chelsea come to visit. Will he step up to the plate or fade into the background?
3. Luis Suarez – Liverpool
Following a scintillating start to the season Brendan Rodgers’ men have gone off the boil a little in recent weeks. This past week Liverpool were knocked out of the Capital One Cup by rivals Manchester United and it completed a trio of poor results after a draw to Swansea and a loss at home to Southampton.
On the plus side, Rodgers now has Luis Suarez at his disposal once more and despite the excellent form of Daniel Sturridge, it will surely worry Liverpool fans that he is the only player to have scored for them in the league.
Look for Suarez to take some of the responsibility, then, as he makes his first league appearance against Sunderland this weekend since the whole biting thing. Time to see if he really is a reformed character.