Premier League Matchday 22 Preview: Carrick debut, El Sackio at Spurs and Rice to fire shots for Gunners | OneFootball

What happened in Matchday 21?

Matchday 21 - a midweek round of fixtures - commenced with a damaging defeat for West Ham at home to relegation rivals Nottingham Forest. The Hammers went into the game on a run of nine games without a win, 18th in the table and four points behind Forest in 17th.

Nuno Espirito Santo's men made the perfect start, going 1-0 up in the 13th minute thanks to a Murillo own goal, but two second half goals for the visitors - the winner coming in the 89th minute - saw Nottm Forest take all three points and move seven points ahead of West Ham.

Wednesday had a bumper eight fixtures in the Premier League with Manchester City hosting Brighton hoping to cut the gap at the top of the table to three points, but Pep Guardiola's men could manage only a 1-1 draw - their third Premier League draw on the spin - meaning they were still five points behind Arsenal having played a game more.

Third-placed Aston Villa also dropped two vital points when they could only draw 0-0 at Crystal Palace, but it was even worse for top four-chasing Chelsea who went down 2-1 at Fulham with new boss Liam Rosenior watching on from the stands.

And talking of new managers, following the sacking of Ruben Amorim at the start of the week, Darren Fletcher failed to impress in his first game in charge as caretaker boss of Manchester United when his side could only draw 2-2 at second bottom Burnley. Fletcher would go on to lose his second game in charge at home to Brighton in the FA Cup and he has since been replaced by Michael Carrick who has been made interim manager until the end of the season.

Other games of note were Newcastle's dramatic and highly entertaining 4-3 win over Leeds, while Antoine Semenyo gave his beloved Bournemouth fans the perfect goodbye gift before joining Man City when he scored a stoppage time winner against struggling Tottenham.

Matchday 21 concluded with Arsenal hosting Liverpool with a chance to go eight points clear at the top of the table, but like Man City and Aston Villa 24 hours previous they fluffed their lines and could only manage a goalless draw meaning the week ended as it started with the Gunners six points ahead of the Citizens at the top of the table.

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Who are the favourites to win the Premier League title?

If you're to believe the Premier League Winner market, then we're effectively already down to a two-horse race for the title, and even then we have a very hot odds-on favourite. That favourite of course is Arsenal who are now 1/5 to win the title ahead of Man City at 7/2.

Just one other team - Aston Villa - can be backed at less than triple figures and they're still considered relative outsiders at 28/1, so it really does seem that just after the halfway point of the season we're down to a two-horse race, three at most!

2025/26 Premier League Winner: Betfair Sportsbook odds

- Arsenal 1/5- Manchester City 7/2- Aston Villa 28/1- BAR 125/1

Who are the favourites to be relegated to the Championship?

If the betting is suggesting that the title race is a two-horse race then the Premier League Relegation market is basically saying that the three teams to go down is done and dusted. Never before have we got to this stage of the season - just over halfway - with two teams priced at 1/500 to be relegated and one team at 1/5 for the drop.

Wolves are a massive 14 points from safety but at least they have their first league win of the season, and following Saturday's 6-1 win in the FA Cup third round Rob Edwards' men are now on a four-game unbeaten run. As for Burnley, although they are six points better off than Wolves, they're on a dreadful run of league form, currently 12 games without a win.

West Ham are the third and final team trading at odds-on to be relegated, and like the Clarets they are on a poor run of form having gone 10 Premier League games without a win. Their next two away games are at Tottenham and Chelsea so you wouldn't expect them to pick up many points from those two games, and after that they travel to Burnley for what will be a huge six-pointer.

2025/26 Premier League Relegation: Betfair Sportsbook odds

- Wolves 1/500- Burnley 1/500- West Ham 1/5- Leeds 15/2- Nottingham Forest 9/1- BAR 20/1

What are the Matchday 22 fixtures?

Saturday 17 January

- Man United v Man City (12:30, live on TNT Sports)- Chelsea v Brentford (15:00)- Leeds v Fulham (15:00)- Liverpool v Burnley (15:00)- Sunderland v Crystal Palace (15:00)- Tottenham v West Ham (15:00)- Nottm Forest v Arsenal (17:30, live on Sky Sports)

Sunday 18 January

- Wolves v Newcastle (14:00, live on Sky Sports)- Aston Villa v Everton (16:30, live on Sky Sports)

Monday 19 January

- Brighton v Bournemouth (20:00, live on Sky Sports)

What is the game of the weekend?

The Manchester derby commences Matchday 22 so we're getting the game of the weekend first up, and after recent events at Old Trafford this game has an added twist to it.

Ruben Amorim is no longer in charge, and neither is Darren Fletcher who has been in caretaker charge for the last two games. Former United midfielder Michael Carrick has been tasked with guiding the club for the remainder of the season and he has officially been put in interim charge with the club set to make an permanent appointment in the summer.

You can bet on who will be the Manchester United manager for the first game of the 2026/27 season here, and you can follow our regular updates on the managerial situation at Old Trafford here.

Carrick's certainly been given a baptism of fire with a trip to league leaders Arsenal next week, and first up is a home game against fierce rivals Man City on Saturday.

But United haven't got as bad a record as some would think in this fixture in recent seasons. In fact out of the last six meetings between the two Manchester clubs in all competitions, the Red Devils have won two, drawn two and lost two, and of those two wins, one was a FA Cup final at Wembley and one was at the Etihad Stadium, so they can certainly upset the form book when underdogs.

Carrick's men are underdogs on Saturday too, available to back at 13/5 on the Betfair Sportsbook to take all three points. United will also have the added incentive of knowing that a win will take them up to fourth in the table before Liverpool and Brentford kick-off later in the day.

Understandably Man City are the favourites to win the game at 19/20 and they'll be desperate to get back to winning ways in the league and put some pressure on Arsenal who have an away game at Nottingham Forest in Saturday's evening kick-off. The Draw can be backed at 29/10.

Below you can see a chart showing the percentage chance for each outcome using the Betfair Exchange Match Odds market.

Managers to watch in Matchday 22

For obvious reason, all eyes will be on Michael Carrick in Saturday's early kick-off as he takes charge of the club he used to play for, Manchester United, for the first time as interim manager.

It will be fascinating to see how he gets on, and whether he can guide United to a Top 4 Finish this term - for which they can be backed at 6/1 - but we simply can't ignore the clash between Tottenham and West Ham on Saturday afternoon where the two most under pressure managers go head-to-head.

In Betfair's Sack Race market West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo is the 8/13 favourite to be the next Premier League manager to leave his post, while Spurs boss Thomas Frank is second favourite at 5/4. So if ever there was a game we could dub El Sackio, then this is it!

Tottenham are currently 14th in the table, and although thy are well clear of the relegation zone and just six points off the top five, the home faithful have become very frustrated with what thy are seeing this season. Frank had tremendous success at Brentford, but it just hasn't clicked for him yet at Spurs, though you could cut him a bit of slack given he's been without a trio of his best attackers - James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solkanke - for the majority of the season.

And as Sod's Law would have it, just as Solanke returns, Tottenham's big-money summer signing Mohammed Kudus and key midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur has both suffered injuries that wll keep them out for at least three months.

So while Tottenham's form hasn't been great, especially on home soil, there are certainly some mitigating circumstances for Frank. Having said that, there's no way that Spurs fans will settle for anything but a home win over West Ham on Saturday.

The Hammers are in dreadful and Santo has come under huge pressure to save his job. They're on a run of 10 Premier League games without a win, haven't won away from home since August, and on their last away day they lost 3-0 to rock bottom Wolves, a side that had failed to win a league game all season.

Put simply, if there's a loser in this game then it's hard to envisage the manager surviving the sack. It's just a shame that El Sackio is a 3pm kick-off on Saturday and therefore not live on TV, it would have made for a fascinating watch.

Player to watch in Matchday 22

There are quite a few players we can pick this week. Will Tottenham's new £35m midfielder Conor Gallagher help his side become more difficult to beat on his return to the Premier League, can Man City's new signing Antoine Semenyo keep up his hot form, and just when will Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres start scoring league goals regularly?

Gallagher especially is a player of interest this week, at 25-years-old he has plenty of time on his hands and he could become a real bargain buy for Spurs, but it's a north London rival that I can't wait to see in action this week, Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice.

The 27-year-old is arguably one of the best midfielders in the world currently. He has everything; the ability to read and break up play, a brilliant passing range, an superb delivery, top leadership qualities, and something he seems to be getting better at game by game, an excellent eye for goal.

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As the above shooting stats show, in 20 Premier League games this season Rice has registered 28 shots at goal with 11 of those being on target, but in recent month his numbers are very impressive.

From the middle of November - just before the last international break of the year - Rice has played 11 league games and returned 20 shots with nine being on target, that's not far off an average of two shots per game with one shot on target per game.

Against a Nottingham Forest team that has conceded 31 shots (10 on target) in their last two games - those coming against relegation-threatened West Ham and Championship side Wrexham in the FA Cup - it might be profitable to get Rice on side in the shots markets when they are priced up.

I'd be very interested in backing Rice to have two or more shots on target at around 7/2 or bigger.