The top half of the table is starting to take shape as we enter Matchday 6 of the English Premier League, with the blue and red side of the city of Manchester leading the way and defending champions Chelsea close behind in third. After three straight wins, Newcastle United is a surprise fourth but expect them, like Watford last week, to slip down to mid-table over the coming months. Don’t forget about Tottenham, the model of consistency over the last two season who sit in fifth and have yet to hit top gear so far. Toss in Liverpool and Arsenal and its shaping up to be a wild year as these six sides will battle it out for the league’s top spot and top four over the next eight months! Settle in and enjoy the action with every game available live on the NBC family of networks or online at NBC Live Extra.

Saturday (all times eastern)

7:30am – Tottenham @ West Han United – London Stadium, NBC Sports Network

After looking as if they had finally ended their Wembley Stadium voodoo only days before when they beat Borussia Dortmund in their Champions League opener, old demons surfaced once again when, despite getting off twenty-six shots with eight of those efforts on target, Tottenham were held to a scoreless draw against a rugged Swansea City to remain winless in the league so far this year at their temporary home. They will be on the road but not far away when they kick off the weekend action with an early Saturday morning visit to the capitol stadium for a London Derby with West Ham United.

After three straight defeats to open the campaign, the Hammers followed up their first three points of the season with their second consecutive clean sheet in as many weeks in a sleepy 0-0 draw with West Brom, with the back to back efforts and always important road point helping to ease some of the pressure that was building on manager Slaven Bilic to start getting results. Having taken three of the last four visits from Spurs to their side of the capitol (L1) and five of their last nine overall in the league (L3 D1), they will be confident of making it a third result in a row this weekend.

10am – Crystal Palace @ Manchester City – Etihad Stadium, NBC Sports Network

A new manager may now be roaming the touchline but the end result remained the same for Crystal Palace, with Roy Hodgson's first game in charge ending in a 1-0 home defeat to Southampton and the Eagles still searching for their first points and goal of the season now five games in. They will be hoping to avoid joining Portsmouth as the only team to lose their first six matches of a Premier League season when they travel to the Etihad Stadium to visit Manchester City, most likely the last side Palace wants to see right now after the Citizens rolled to a 6-0 victory over the up and coming Watford.

The win was the fourth straight for City across all competitions as Pep Guardiola clearly has his side purring along, outscoring opponents in those four games by a staggering 17-1 margin. City have won their last four league matches against Palace and nine of the last ten (L1) and it won’t stand to get any easier for Palace after the weekend either, as they return to Manchester next week to face second place United before hosting third place Chelsea in a London Derby the following, a brutal stretch against the top three that could potentially leave the Londoners in the table cellar for the foreseeable future.

10am – Manchester United @ Southampton – St. Mary’s Stadium, NBC Live Extra

Even though they technically conceded the top spot in the table to their noisy neighbors by virtue of alphabetical order of all things, Manchester United had little trouble matching their cross-town rivals result as they cruised past Everton, who officially now have a problem in the final third that rivals Crystal Palace as they lost for the third time in a row and were held scoreless again in the 4-0 defeat. The Red Devils will travel to the St. Mary’s stadium to take on Southampton, who moved back in to the top half of the table when they bounced back from their first loss of the season in the victory over Palace.

Despite what seems like massive roster and managerial turn over year after year, a steady pipeline of fresh talent from one of the top youth academies in Europe has kept Southampton firmly embedded in the top half of the table the last several years. They may however find it difficult to take anything from the matchup at the weekend, with United going unbeaten in their last three across all competitions (D1) and failing to walk away without points in only two of the last twenty-five get togethers between the two (W12 D3), including their last nine trips to the St. Mary’s Stadium (W7 D2).

Leicester City vs. Liverpool - Over 3 (+101)

3 units

turning it over to you, a great morning for the overs
GL

WINNER

4-4-1 (-3.27 units) YTD