Leicester v Brentford

Both teams will expect to be on the scoresheet in this opening fixture at the King Power. Last season BTTS landed in both H2H fixtures and I’m predicting this once again. Leicester scored in 15 of their 19 home league fixtures last season with Aston Villa the only non- ‘top 6’ side to keep a clean sheet on their travels to the Foxes. A fully fit Jamie Vardy is back for the home side, a proven top class Premier League goalscorer. Alongside, Harvey Barnes (66) and James Maddison (72) who combined for a total of 138 shots in their previous campaign, further adding to their attacking options. 

Brentford exceeded all expectations in their debut season in the Premier League and there’s no reason why this won’t continue. The Bees managed to score at least 1 goal in 72% of their away matches, an excellent return for a promoted side. 

With Leicester’s defensive woes from set pieces well documented, this will be a key area Brentford can target from an attacking standpoint. The home side were the second worst defensively in these positions conceding 13 goals in total. Giant centre backs Ethan Pinnock, Kristoffer Ajer and Pontus Jansson all chipped in with goals in the previous campaign and can all pose threats in the air in these situations. Not to forget Ben Mee, another potential starter in defence who signed from Burnley this transfer window and chipped in with 3 goals last campaign.

Thomas Frank is set to adopt a 4-3-3 formation rather than the 3-5-2 used with former player Cristian Eriksen in the team. The away side are likely to start with a front three of Toney, Mbuemo and Wissa, all of whom have goal scoring prowess. The trio netted a combined 23 times last year proving their quality at the very top level. New signing Keane Lewis-Potter is also pushing for a start after joining from Hull. The young winger showed us what he’s all about in the Championship scoring 12 goals over the course of the season. 

Brendan Rodgers is the only manager yet to make a signing across Europe’s top 5 leagues, a quite bizarre statistic. Danish international Kasper Schmeichel moved on to Ligue 1 side Nice during the week, a huge blow for the club. This will hand Danny Ward an unlikely start, having made only a single start for the Foxes in the Premier League. With this in mind, Brentford will be looking to fill their boots in front of goal and fire plenty of shots off at the inexperienced keeper. In turn, this will clearly give the visitors a much higher percentage chance of scoring.

Both defences have their work cut out against strong attacking line ups for this encounter. This gives both teams an excellent opportunity of scoring at least one goal; therefore I’m backing both teams to score in this one.

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Manchester United v Brighton

Since Brighton’s return to the Premier League back in 2017, we have seen them lose on every single occasion when visiting Old Trafford. The Seagulls have lost two of their most important players during this transfer window. Club player of the season Marc Cucurella has joined Chelsea this week and Yves Bissouma has signed for Spurs, two huge losses to the club. This will severely hamper their chances come Sunday due to the importance of their roles they played within the side. I’m expecting United to capitalise here – many believe the Red Devils to be well under par at this moment, however, since December of last year they have only lost on one occasion in thirteen home league matches. 

I believe United have more than enough star quality to get their season off to a winning start. A key factor here will be if Cristiano Ronaldo makes the starting XI. It’s been confirmed in new manager Ten Hag’s press conference today that Anthony Martial misses out through injury. This leads me to believe that Ronaldo will be given the nod to start on Sunday. The Portuguese superstar hit the back of the net 18 times last season, averaging a goal every 0.66 matches. Other attacking threats will come from the likes of Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho who have all shown excellent preseason form for the club. I’m anticipating that the two Englishmen are ready to step up from here as they search for their best form ahead of the World Cup this winter, in order to secure a spot in the England squad. There’s no doubting the ability of the aforementioned players having seen them prove their ability in previous campaigns. 

In terms of other options in attack, new signing Christian Eriksen may feature and we all saw how much of a difference he made at Brentford at the back end of last season. The Dane had 4 assists to his name as well as 1 goal, now playing in a stronger team and given more freedom, we can expect the numbers to improve significantly. Not to forget just how good Eriksen can be from a dead ball situation too.

Brighton look a little short at the back for this game too, with no Cucurella as mentioned and Shane Duffy moving on to Fulham on a temporary basis, they’ll be down to the bare bones in defence. I don’t believe they will be able to live with the numerous attacking options United have here, even with captain Lewis Dunk at the heart of the defensive line. The visitors are also missing Jakub Moder and the dangerous Alexis Mac Allister is a major doubt. 

Having taken all factors into consideration for this match, I’m expecting United to win this. Whether Ronaldo starts or not, they certainly are the better team and have enough depth in the squad to see off Brighton.

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