Premier League Match Week 1 Predictions Saturday

Arsenal vs Leicester

Arsenal, fresh off their win against reigning PL champions will surely look to make easy work off 2015-16 champions Leicester City. Leicester City put on a lot of encouraging displays towards the end of last season under new boss Craig Shakespeare after the sacking of Claudio Ranieri. Leicester will pose a significant threat on the counter but Arsenal have shored up their defence by switching to the back three even without Laurent Koscielny. With star players Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Özil set to miss the game , Leicester might have a chance but I can't see beyond a narrow Arsenal win.

Predicted Result: Arsenal 2-1 Leicester

Watford vs Liverpool

Liverpool have looked pretty good in their preseason, the standout players being new signings Mo Salah and Dominic Solanke. Jurgen Klopp has a plethora of options upfront and an average midfield but the real problems lie at the back for Liverpool. They do not have a goalkeeper of champions league quality with Loris Karius putting in some shambolic displays and Simon Mignolet being below average. Their only requirement left is a centre-back with Andy Robertson filling up the left-back role which James Milner had to cover last season. Watford's new boss Marco Silva wasted little time, signing Will Hughes, Nathaniel Chalobah and Tom Cleverley on a permanent deal. However, I think Watford will get relegated because they don't have quality and have only quantity. This will probably be the start of a rocky road for them until next May. I'm going with Liverpool absolutely smashing them at Vicarage Road.

Predicted Result: Liverpool 4-1 Watford

Chelsea vs Burnley

Chelsea look a bit vulnerable towards the start of the season with Alvaro Morata putting lacklustre displays, Hazard injured, Costa exiled by Conte, the sale of midfield general Nemanja Matic and the unavailability of new signing Tiemoue Bakayoko. Their rock-solid defence will be retained from last season but Fabregas in midfield will leave them exposed and Hazard and Costa will be dearly missed. Burnley will have a large Micheal Keane shaped hole in their defence and the failure to address this issue will prove to be crucial. Sean Dyche will still have a strong midfield and two forwards who are polar opposites of each other; Andre Gray who is a pacey forward and ready to run with ball and Sam Vokes who is a slow target man. Chelsea can beat Burnley if their forwards Pedro and Willian can deliver and they probably will. I'm going with Chelsea to scrape past Burnley.

Prediction: Chelsea 1-o Burnley

Crystal Palace vs Huddersfield

Newly promoted Huddersfield's boss David Wagner has transformed a below average Huddersfield side to an average Premier League side by signing a lot of players for around 10 million pounds. Crystal Palace have not signed any major player except Jairo Riedwald under Frank de Boer but the contract extension of star man Wilfred Zaha will prove to be the difference.

Prediction: Palace 2-0 Huddersfield

Everton vs Stoke City

Everton have successfully revamped their squad by acquiring Sandro, Rooney, Klaasen, Keane and Pickford and Ronald Koeman also increased squad depth because of Europa League football so now they have strong cover for their defence, midfield and attack. The loss of Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United will not have an impact on their goalscoring because their goals now will be shared between the number of attackers and midfielders. Stoke City are gunning for glory this season and have made their midfield and defence stronger by signing Darren Fletcher and Kurt Zouma respectively. Mark Hughes's side might just have hat it takes to steal a point in Merseyside.

Prediction: Everton 2-2 Stoke City

Southampton vs Swansea

Southampton have not made any significant signings but they did sell Jay Rodriguez to West Bromwich, a deal in which the opposite party benefited. The board has discarded Claude Puel and brought in Mauricio Pellegrino and I think that the change was for the better and Southampton will do better this season. Swansea have looked a lot better under Paul Clement and they too did not sign anybody eye-catching but the arrival of Tammy Abraham who in my opinion is a complete striker will perform a deadly partnership with Llorente upfront. However, Gylfi Sigurdsson will not play because of the speculation of a transfer to Everton. The absence of Sigurdsson will be the only thing stopping the Swans taking home the three points.

Prediction: Southampton 1-1 Swansea

West Bromwich Albion vs Bournemouth

Bournemouth supporters should be pleased with the business in the transfer window with Jermaine Defoe, Nathan Ake and Artur Boruc all coming to the Vitality Stadium.

Bournemouth will be looking to improve on their mid-table finish last season and try to get off to a good start but West Brom will pose to be difficult to breakdown at the Hawthorns. Speaking of West Brom Jay Rodriguez was the only major signing but Tony Pulis will be trying to attract more players. I can only see one outcome in the match and it is a draw.

Prediction: WBA 1-1 Bournemouth

Manchester City vs Brighton and Hove Albion

Pep Guardiola will be pretty happy with the transfer dealings of City who now have shored up their defence and upgraded their attack with the likes of Kyle Walker, Bernard Mendy, Danilo and Bernardo Silva. City look like the team to beat this season and they will surely compete for the title and maybe even the champions league. Ilkay Gundogan has been ruled out after missing the majority of last season with an injury and hopefully we can see him back in action soon. Brighton looked like the best team in the championship last season but the signing of Matt Ryan will not be enough if they want to stay up but with a little bit of luck anything can happen. Manchester City are surely going to thump them with no response.

Prediction: City 5-0 Brighton