London, Aug 27 (DPA) After the preliminaries, the Premier League begins in earnest Saturday as champions Manchester United host Arsenal in the first meeting this season of two members of the Big Four.
Arsenal have begun the season superbly, beating Everton 6-0 and Portsmouth 4-1, as well as seeing of Celtic to reach the group stages of the Champions League.
“I am happy to go to Old Trafford because it is the first big, big test,” said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
“You want always to have a high level of confidence when you go to Old Trafford, and we have that at the moment.”
Midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who missed Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Celtic, is an injury doubt for Saturday with a hamstring injury.
United, who were unimpressive in beating Birmingham City 1-0 in their opening game and then lost to Burnley, roared back with a 5-0 win at Wigan Athletic last Saturday, although it took them 58 minutes to break the deadlock.
Wes Brown could return from a thigh injury, a welcome boost for United in the centre of defence, where Jonny Evans is struggling with an ankle problem and Rio Ferdinand is out with a thigh injury of his own.
“I’ve been training really hard the last few days,” Ferdinand said.
“I’m not where I want to be obviously on the pitch, but in a couple of weeks I’ll be back on the pitch playing again.”
Ferdinand also backed Michael Owen to hit a run of goalscoring form after he got off the mark for his new club with the fourth goal at Wigan.
“People have said he was finished and was not worth the risk, yet he scored with probably his hardest chance of the season,” the United captain said.
“But I think that goal on Saturday will catapult him towards scoring a few more.”
Chelsea, joint top of the table after three wins, face Burnley, who beat them in the Carling Cup last season.
“We are starting to play the way the manager wants, even if he is still saying we can improve and we do have to improve,” said striker Didier Drogba.
The other leaders, Tottenham, host Birmingham Sunday, while Liverpool, after two defeats in their opening three games, most recently against Aston Villa Monday, travel to Bolton Wanderers.
“We know we have to improve on Saturday at Bolton,” said forward Yossi Benayoun.
“Against Villa we did not play like we can play, we didn’t move the ball quickly enough as we did to beat Stoke last week.
“Last season we only lost two league games, so of course we are not pleased. But we have to show we are still a strong team with character to recover from this.”
rounak