Premier League matchday 3: Arsenal against Chelsea on Sunday

The third weekend of the Premier League season starts on Friday night at Portman Road and finishes on Sunday afternoon at the Emirates, and the fixture list has produced one genuinely large match and several that matter more than they look.

Arsenal against Chelsea, Sunday

Arsenal are second with six points from two, having beaten Coventry 3-0 and then won 1-0 at Villa Park through a Bukayo Saka goal on 59 minutes. Two matches, two clean sheets, four goals.

Chelsea are fourth, also on six, having won both — 3-2 at Fulham and 4-3 at home to Brighton — while conceding five. One of these sides has kept two clean sheets and the other has been in two five-goal games. Sunday at 16:30 will tell you which approach travels.

Tottenham at Nottingham Forest

Spurs are bottom. No points, no goals, five conceded. They go to a Forest side that led twice at Anfield eight days ago and came away with a point.

It is the fixture of the weekend for anyone interested in a season turning early. Forest have one point but have looked dangerous on the counter in both matches; Tottenham have created chances and converted none of them.

The promoted clubs, three weeks in

Three clubs came up and they could hardly have started more differently. Hull City are third, unbeaten, with six points from two — they beat Manchester United 2-0 at home and then won at Coventry. Sunderland are eleventh with three, having lost at Ipswich and beaten Fulham 1-0 at the Stadium of Light without conceding a shot on target.

Coventry are eighteenth with nothing. They lost 3-0 at Arsenal and then lost at home to Hull having had 68.7% of the ball and eleven shots. On Saturday they go to the Etihad.

That spread — third, eleventh and eighteenth after two matches — is the usual shape of a promoted season compressed into a fortnight, and it will move again this weekend.

The rest of it

Ipswich host Liverpool on Friday night, seven days after conceding five at Old Trafford. Liverpool have two points and have twice led nothing: they have drawn 2-2 twice, at Newcastle and at home to Forest.

Manchester City host Coventry, who have no points and have conceded four. Hull City, third and unbeaten, host an Aston Villa side that is nineteenth and has not scored. Everton play Manchester United, who put five past Ipswich last weekend with a Bruno Fernandes hat-trick.

Newcastle host Bournemouth, Brentford host Sunderland, Brighton host Leeds and Fulham host Crystal Palace — the last of those a meeting of two sides that have taken one point between them in four matches.

The Friday night game

Ipswich against Liverpool opens the round, and both arrive from matches that raised questions. Ipswich led at Old Trafford after twenty-nine minutes through Leif Davis and lost 5-2, undone by a Bruno Fernandes hat-trick and thirty-three shots.

Liverpool have two points from two and have not led in either match. At Newcastle they drew 2-2. At home to Forest they went behind twice and equalised twice, the second on 82 minutes through Victor Munoz after a Florian Wirtz pass. Sixty-nine per cent of the ball at Anfield produced four shots on target.

A Friday night at Portman Road against a side with nothing to lose is not the fixture a team in that condition would have picked for itself.

And at the bottom

Fulham against Crystal Palace is the fixture nobody will pick out and the one that matters most to the two clubs in it. Fulham have no points and did not manage a shot on target at Sunderland. Palace have no points and have conceded six.

Between them they have taken nothing from four matches this season, and their only goal went in off an opposition goalkeeper. Somebody has to win it, and whoever does not is looking at three matches without a point before the season is a month old.

What is at stake at the top

Four clubs share the lead on six points: Manchester City, Arsenal, Hull City and Chelsea. Since Arsenal and Chelsea play each other, at least one of them drops off it by Sunday evening.

The more interesting story is Hull. A promoted side, third in the table, unbeaten, having beaten Manchester United 2-0 on the opening weekend and won at Coventry. They host Villa on Saturday evening in what is, on current form, a match they are favoured to win.

At the bottom, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Tottenham all have nothing from two, and all three have a goal difference of minus five. Between them they have scored one goal in six matches, and that one came off an opposing goalkeeper. Two of the three play each other this weekend, at Craven Cottage, so by Sunday one of them will have moved and the other will be four matches into a season without a single point to show for it.