Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and West Brom’s Gareth Barry could both become record breakers in the latest round of Premier League fixtures.
Here, Press Association Sport details some of the talking points prior to the top flight contests taking place between Saturday and Monday.
Aguero begins this round of fixtures just two goals shy of equalling Eric Brook’s record City haul of 177 so a repeat of last weekend’s hat-trick at Watford will ensure the Argentinian, who moved to England in 2011, makes club history.
The prospect of him doing so this weekend is enhanced by the fact Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace, still without a league point or a goal in their five fixtures so far, are the visitors for free-scoring City.
Aguero needs three goals to become City’s all-time leading scorer.
One record has a chance to be broken on Saturday, another will almost certainly fall on Monday at Arsenal. That is when West Brom midfielder Barry is set to go past Ryan Giggs and make his 633rd Premier League appearance. The 36-year-old made his top-flight debut with Aston Villa in 1998 and will be expected to be a key figure in the team Tony Pulis deploys against the Gunners, who have previously tried to sign Barry.
Gareth Barry will become the Premier League’s all-time appearance maker.
Having scored 23 goals in seven games, United now travel to a Southampton side who have kept three clean sheets in their five league fixtures. And they have done so without including Virgil van Dijk in their line-up following a summer transfer saga which ended with him remaining at the club despite lodging a transfer request.
The Dutchman, brought on as a substitute last weekend against Crystal Palace, has not started a game since January but may be pivotal if Saints are to stop United’s in-form attack.
Van Dijk could make his first start of the season against Manchester United.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is pondering his defensive options at Leicester too. Dejan Lovren is unlikely to feature because of a back injury while Joel Matip is doubtful with a knock so Ragnar Klavan and Joe Gomez, who both started in the Carabao Cup against Leicester in midweek, could continue their centre-back partnership.
Klopp said in midweek he was “sick” at Liverpool’s defending and it is an issue they must resolve if they are to claim a first win in five.
Ragnar Klavan has been part of a leaky Liverpool defence.
The other top-flight manager on Merseyside has been similarly unimpressed with his team’s recent form. Prior to the mid-week cup win over Sunderland, Ronald Koeman had presided over four defeats in which the Toffees had failed to score and had conceded 12 times. Though they currently reside in the relegation zone, a run of league fixtures against Bournemouth, Burnley and Brighton should offer him hope they can propel themselves up the table.
Everton have been on a poor run of form in the Premier League.
