Premier League Matchday 17 Preview: Five Sack Race contenders and all eyes on Rogers | OneFootball

English Premier League Tips

Get the lowdown on the final Premier League gameweek before Christmas right here

It's the last round of fixtures before Christmas and we have some crackers to watch this weekend including in-form Aston Villa hosting Man United. Mike Norman is here with everything you need to know including a rundown of the Sack Race contenders...

What happened in Matchday 16?

All eyes were on the Liverpool team sheet as Matchday 16 commenced and the name everyone was looking for, Mo Salah, was on it, though he was once again named as a substitute. He didn't have to wait long to come on though, replacing the injured Joe Gomez early in the first half before enjoying a very good game as the Reds got back to winning ways in the Premier League with a 2-0 victory over Brighton.

Chelsea also put a poor run of form behind them with a 2-0 win over Everton before Fulham ran out 3-2 winners in an entertaining affair against relegation-threatened Burnley.

Saturday concluded with the league leaders Arsenal hosting rock bottom Wolves in what was expected to be a convincing win for the Gunners, but that proved to be far from the case. In fact Arsenal were extremely fortunate to take maximum points with all three goalscorers in a 2-1 win being on the Wolves side (two own goals), and the winner coming deep into stoppage time.

The victory moved Arsenal five points clear of Man City but that gap was reduced back to two on Sunday afternoon when the Citizen put in an impressive performance in beating Crystal Palace 3-0 at Selhurst Park.

The game of the day came at the London Stadium where Aston Villa twice came from behind to beat West Ham 3-2, a result that maintained Villa's excellent form and kept them third in the table, three points behind Arsenal.

Like Man City, Nottingham Forest also ran out comfortable 3-0 winners as they beat Tottenham at the City Ground, while the north east bragging rights went to Sunderland who beat arch rivals Newcastle 1-0 thanks to a Nick Woltemade own goal at the start of the second half. The win for the Black Cats keeps the in the top half of the table and they're now four points ahead of the Magpies. The Super Sunday game saw Brentford held to a 1-1 draw at home to Leeds.

Matchday 16 concluded with the game of the weekend and arguably the game of the season so far as Manchester United and Bournemouth played out a highly-entertaining 4-4 draw at Old Trafford. United were in front on three occasions at 1-0, 2-1 and 4-3 but the Cherries showed tremendous fight to come back each time and after equalising at 4-4 the really could have won the game 5-4 in stoppage time but for a great save by Senne Lammens.

Premier League Table after Matchday 16

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Who are the favourites to win the Premier League title?

There's no change at the top of the table and that means very little change in the Premier League Winner market as Arsenal remain odds-on favourites at 7/10 to win the title, marginally ahead of Man City who can be backed at 13/8.

Aston Villa were clipped in to 28/1 from 33/1 after winning their 10th Premier League game from 11 matches, while Liverpool and Chelsea also shortened marginally and are now available to back at 28/1 and 33/1 respectively.

2025/26 Premier League Winner: Betfair Sportsbook odds

- Arsenal 7/10- Manchester City 13/8- Aston Villa 28/1- Liverpool 28/1- Chelsea 33/1- BAR 100/1

Who are the favourites to be relegated to the Championship?

As was the case last week, the Betfair traders are giving Wolves and Burnley little to no chance of avoiding the drop this season, and after losing again in Matchday 16 they remain huge odds-on in the Premier League Relegation market, the Clarets shortening to 1/40 from 1/33 to go down.

The market is suggesting that the final relegation spot will go to one of three teams with West Ham being cut to 8/15 after their home defeat to Aston Villa, while Leeds are out to 11/4 after picking up a point at Fulham and Forest out to 13/2 after thrashing Spurs.

2025/26 Premier League Relegation: Betfair Sportsbook odds

- Wolves 1/500- Burnley 1/40- West Ham 8/15- Leeds 11/4- Nottingham Forest 13/2- BAR 16/1

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What are the Matchday 17 fixtures?

Saturday 20 December

- Newcastle v Chelsea (12:30, live on TNT Sports)- Bournemouth v Burnley (15:00)- Brighton v Sunderland (15:00)- Manchester City v West Ham (15:00)- Wolves v Brentford (15:00)- Tottenham v Liverpool (17:30, live on Sky Sports)- Everton v Arsenal (20:00, live on Sky Sports)- Leeds v Crystal Palace (20:00, live on Sky Sports)

Sunday 21 December

- Aston Villa v Manchester United (16:30, live on Sky Sports)

Monday 22 December

- Fulham v Nottingham Forest (20:00, live on Sky Sports)

What is the game of the weekend?

We have some excellent games on the last weekend before Christmas including Newcastle v Chelsea to commence Matchday 17 before Tottenham host Liverpool and in-form Everton host Arsenal in two of the evening' televised games.

But this week's vote goes to the Super Sunday clash at Villa Park where red hot Aston Villa take on Manchester United, hoping to keep their title dreams alive.

Unai Emery's men are in superb form, winning 10 of their last 11 Premier League games, sitting third in the table just three points behind leaders Arsenal.

It's been an incredible turnaround for Villa who were in the relegation zone during the first few weeks of the season after failing to win any of their first five league games including not scoring a single goal in the first four of those matches. But since then they've been red hot with Morgan Rogers starring and Ollie Watkins appearing to be regaining his form.

Manchester United on the other hand continue to be inconsistent. They're scoring for fun at the moment but they just can't keep a clean sheet, which makes for very entertaining games. They're currently sixth in the table, seven points behind Villa, but it could have been so much better for Ruben Amorim's men but for failing to win any of their last three league games at Old Trafford.

Away from home though United are in fine form, winning three and drawing two of their last five away trips. They scored at least two goals in each of those last five away games and they go to Villa Park on the back of scoring four goals in back-to-back Premier League games.

Villa's last three league games have averaged exactly five goals per game, so we really should be in for a pre-Christmas cracker on Sunday afternoon.

In the Match Odds market on the Sportsbook Aston Villa are the 21/20 favourites with United priced at 12/5 and the Draw at 5/2. Below is a chart showing the percentage chance of each outcome based on the Betfair Exchange Match Odds market. .

Managers to watch in Matchday 17

Take your pick, and according to Betfair's Next Premier League Manager to Leave market, there's five managers under pressure going into this weekend's round of fixtures.

Tottenham manager Thomas Frank heads the market at 2/1 on the back of a poor run of league form including a very disappointing 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest last weekend. Spurs have been very underwhelming in front of their own fans this season and a defeat at home to Liverpool on Saturday could really heap the pressure on Frank. Mark Stinchcombe is predicting plenty of goals in what should be a Saturday evening rollercoaster.

But this is Frank's first season in charge at Tottenham, and after his achievements with Brentford he surely has a lot of credit in the bank. He's gone the whole season without three of his star men - James Maddison, Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski - so perhaps now is not the best time to fully judge him. True, results need to improve, but it would feel like a really harsh decision should Tottenham pull the trigger on Frank anytime soon.

Two newly-promoted managers are next in the market with both Daniel Farke and Scott Parker trading at 10/3 to be the next manager sacked.

Of the two it feels like Scott Parker is the manager in real danger after effectively admitting recently that it will be a very tough task to keep Burnley in the top flight. His side then lost a seventh straight Premier League game and a chorus of boos rang out at full time in the home defeat to Fulham last weekend.

Burnley's next five games are all against teams in and around the top half of the table so it will be extremely hard to oversee a big improvement in results for Parker to save his job, though a heavy defeat at Bournemouth on Saturday and he may be enjoying a lot more family time this Christmas then he'd planned for.

Leeds boss Farke was odds-on in the sack race betting last month but a win over Chelsea and draws with Liverpool and Brentford appear to have turned the corner for him. But it feels like Leeds are just waiting for an excuse to get rid of him so Farke can ill-afford a home defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday night.

That leaves Rob Edwards at 5/1 and Arne Slot at 6/1 as the only other two managers in the market trading at under 16/1, both of who have been features in this section recently.

It feels like Liverpool are starting to turn a corner, which ultimately means Slot should be fine, for now, but as for Edwards, this weekend is massive. Wolves have lost five on the spin under their new boss and at home to a Brentford side that lose regularly on the road, the home faithful really will be expecting Edwards to get his first win at the club.

Should Wolves lose again on Saturday then I don't see how Edwards survives, even if not getting the bullet immediately. Five of their next six league games are against Liverpool, Manchester United, Everton, Man City - all away from home - and Newcastle.

If Edwards does get to oversee those games we could be looking at a manager starting his tenure at a new club with 12 straight league defeats, or at best 11 defeats in 12 games. Whether they're already planning for next season or not, I just can't see the Wolves hierarchy, and the club's fans, standing for that.

Player to watch in Matchday 17

In Matchday 17's game of the weekend my eyes will be on Aston Villa's star man Morgan Rogers. The 23-year-old is getting better game by game and many are suggesting that he should be a guaranteed starter in Thomas Tuchel's England side, ahead of Jude Bellingham. I wouldn't disagree.

Rogers has been pivotal in Aston Villa's excellent run of form and he scored another brace - his second in Villa's last three league away games - at West Ham on Sunday, his second goal being a sublime long-range finish from outside of the box.

Against a Man United team conceding for fun, and who will be without Casemiro (suspended), Bryan Mbuemo, Amad Diallo (both at AFCON), Matthijs De Ligt and Harry Maguire (injured) on Sunday I can see Rogers getting on the scoresheet.

Rogers to score anytime at 12/5.