Premier League: Key games to test sides' title credentials

With the Premier League season still in its infancy, we have already had a surprising number of what can be described as season-defining matches, and this weekend looks to be no exception.

The game of the weekend has the champions for six of the last eight seasons, Man City, travelling to Arsenal the side they denied top spot on three of those occasions. While early this afternoon, reigning champions Liverpool will put their 100% record on the line when they host, the not so near neighbours anymore, Everton in the Merseyside derby.

Liverpool have the disadvantage of having to play just two and a half days after their Champions League match against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night at Anfield. While Arsenal will have two extra days to recover from their 2-0 win against Athletic Club (Bilbao), but they did have to travel back from the Basque country. They also have a couple of days recovery advantage on City, who played in Thursday's win at The Etihad against Napoli.

The Merseyside derby starts early for security as much as TV reasons, but Liverpool may be wishing they had the luxury of an evening or Sunday kick-off after their midweek exertions. Once again, the Reds needed to work for a very late goal to achieve victory after going 2-0 up within six minutes of the start. It’s great for Liverpool fans that the side have five wins from five games but it’s also concerning that all five required late goals to claim the win, and three of those matches saw Liverpool go two up only to be dragged back into the contest requiring the aforementioned late winners.

How long can Liverpool maintain these late flurries? Is the question all football fans will be wondering and so far, it seems the answer is: as long as it takes.

The late, late shows

The difference in Wednesday night's comeback, compared to the other late wins, was that Liverpool looked far more comfortable throughout the Champions League match and were fully deserving of the Virgil van Dijk winner on 93 minutes.

Unlike the Premier League results, Atletico reply goals were on the fortunate side while Liverpool should have run in a couple of more goals, even before Van Dijk’s winner.

While late wins are always special, I’d imagine most Liverpool fans wouldn’t mind a few games with it all done and dusted by say 70 minutes if nothing else than to spare them elevated blood pressure.

A derby will do little to help these health concerns and David Moyes, and the Toffees would be more than happy to turn this successful Liverpool dream-start into a crushing nightmare defeat. However, for Everton under Moyes there are few happy endings. On the 20 visits to Anfield under Moyes, Everton have failed to claim a single win, only bagging six draws. But many have been close, and Everton can, with some justification, claim to be rather unlucky for some of those results, as in last season’s farewell to Goodison Park.

Good, but how good?

Arsenal also maintained their fine start to the season in an entertaining game in Bilbao. A point of optimism from the game came especially from the way they claimed victory. Last season, that was a game the Gunners would have drawn or even lost, struggling to take full advantage of their dominant possession and lack of pressure from their opponents. Instead, Mikel Arteta and Arsenal showed a measure of depth in the squad by bringing on Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard to rescue the tie and secure a well-deserved victory.

Defensively, like last season, they were the same steady old Arsenal but for 70 minutes they were also the same old Arsenal seemingly clueless into how to turn possession into a goal. That the double substitution scored the winners is a very good sign that Arteta and Arsenal may have broken the code that has so often been beyond their grasp in the unsuccessful title bids over the past four seasons.

Still, the nagging concern for Arsenal fans will be the timid defeat at Anfield, where they failed to construct any sort of a serious platform to take the game to Liverpool. Will they show up for the next big occasion? is the question. That will be tested again against City tomorrow. Now, Arsenal fans will point to the 5-1 dismantling they had against City last February, but that was a busted flush City, who had already accepted their demise in the league.

This season, with the return of some key players such as Rodri and with results looking more like the City of old, will provide a sterner test to the Gunners. It is the first chance for Arteta and his side since the Anfield match to show that they are the real deal in a key game. That the Liverpool game was a one off and that they are prepared to push on and make that impact against a fellow title challenger.

Should Liverpool see off Everton and Arsenal struggle to best City then we may have already have seen the destination of the title.