Welcome back to the second week of the brand new Premier League Ones to Watch column, a weekly piece that highlights the most notable performance of the matchday as well as predict a top performer for the weekend ahead. This column is made for West Coast fans in particular, as I help you decide which games are worth waking up for by identifying players who are worth the price of admission, so to speak.
This past weekend of Premier League action saw several players have great weeks. Most notably, Nottingham Forest redeemed itself with a 7-0 win over Brighton after an embarrassing 5-0 loss to Bournemouth the week prior. Along with this massive result, Arsenal destroyed Manchester City at home 5-1. With such great performances, it was challenging to pick a standout performance of the week. However, with such a monstrous performance in one of his team’s biggest games of the season, Declan Rice stood out among the rest.
Rice had two assists against the reigning champions Manchester City, but also shined with his defensive actions, ball carrying and passing, causing problems for City all over midfield. He was a level above everyone else on the field this week and would have been in the conversation for best of the week even without his assists. But the direct goal contributions certainly put him over the edge and earned him player of the week honors.
Beyond Rice, I have to mention some other names. In Nottingham Forest’s win, Chris Wood secured a hat trick of goals at striker while his fellow teammate Anthony Elanga secured a hat trick of assists on the wing. This performance was instrumental for their Champions League hopes and a massive, morale-boosting win. Both were in with a shout, but Rice gets the benefit of playing superior opposition.
Another player of note was Jean-Philipe Mateta, who scored twice in a 2-0 win over Manchester United and was a constant threat going forward, continuing his current successful league form.
Looking ahead, the Premier League will be on hold with a batch of FA Cup games taking over the weekend. Many of these games are likely to be easier for the Premier League sides playing lower-league clubs, but there are a handful of top flight teams playing one another that could feature some big performances.
While there are likely to be more dominant performances in games such as Manchester City versus Leyton Orient — the reigning champions of England against a third-tier side — those filling the stat sheet against much weaker teams don’t necessarily deserve the plaudits of this column. So let’s focus on what should be the more competitive games.
There seems to be an obvious pick for the one to watch for next week’s fixtures. That is none other than Aston Villa’s massive new signing Marcus Rashford. In a shocking move that saw him leave his boyhood club, Manchester United, Rashford will look to reignite his career and return to the highest level of football.
He has had historical success in his debuts, with two goals in his Manchester United debut against FC Midtjylland in the Europa League and two goals against Arsenal in his Premier League debut. Don’t be shocked if we witness another big debut performance.
With Villa set to face Tottenham Hotspur, Rashford is expected to start for manager Unai Emery’s side and will hope to continue his trend of successful debuts. Given Spurs’ current struggles in the league, currently sitting a lowly 14th in the table, Villa will hope to capitalize on Tottenham’s poor form.
A few other players to keep an eye on this week will be Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes against Leicester City and Justin Kluivert of Bournemouth, who will play Everton.
With Fernandes and Manchester United enduring such a terrible season so far, it has become obvious in recent games that the team’s priorities now lie in the cup competitions. Fernandes has continuously come up as a savior for United and will likely put in a better performance than he did against Palace this past weekend.
After a tough 2-0 loss to Liverpool over the weekend, Kluivert will aim to have a comeback game against the other Merseyside team in Everton and help the Cherries advance in the FA Cup.
In this column, it’s important to be accountable. Reviewing last week’s picks, Alexander Isak was ultimately a miss. He did not put in a good performance as Newcastle lost 2-1 to Fulham. However, the other three players I suggested you keep an eye on did put up numbers.
While Manchester City got demolished, Erling Haaland still managed to put one in the back of the net. Iliman Ndiaye also got on the score sheet for Everton in an impressive 4-0 win over Leicester City. Lastly, while not scoring, it was Cole Palmer’s effort that led to an own goal that won Chelsea the game against West Ham. He was among Chelsea’s best performers in their 2-1 win on Monday.
For the first week of predictions, three of the four picks were successful and with big games in the FA Cup fixtures this weekend, hopefully the success continues.