Premier League Week 12 Preview

The Premier League returns from international break with a London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. The Gunners are poised at the top of the table, now closely pursued by Manchester City. Their historic rival, Tottenham Hotspur, has stumbled of late after an encouraging start to the season under new manager Thomas Frank. Spurs still stands fifth in the table despite injured stars James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski remaining sidelined. Arsenal suffered an injury blow of its own when Gabriel Magalhaes sustained a thigh injury on international duty. The center back, who has played every Premier League minute for the club this season, could be missing until January, leaving a hole in the Gunner defense. Mikel Arteta has options on a deep bench but the cohesive partnership between Gabriel and William Saliba will be disrupted for the time being. In addition to defensive solidity, Gabriel’s proficiency in scoring off set pieces will be missed. Arsenal has scored more set piece goals than any other Premier League side this season. Tottenham Hotspur, however, is the club that has conceded the fewest set piece goals and now will not have to deal with Gabriel’s aerial presence in the box.

Arsenal’s season of injuries is officially underway 😭🔴🚑

Gabriel Magalhães is set to miss up to TWO months after picking up an injury while on international duty with Brazil, per @DavidOrnsttein 😟 pic.twitter.com/KaEuCez8EF

— OneFootball (@OneFootball) November 18, 2025

Manchester City has now become Arsenal’s primary title combatant after the startling swoon by early table leaders Liverpool. The Citizens are four points behind the Gunners with Erling Haaland having already shredded Premier League defenses for thirteen goals this season. Manchester City travels to St. James’ Park this weekend to face a struggling Newcastle side which has been unable to overcome the loss of Alexander Isak’s goal production of last season. Newcastle has scored only 11 goals in accumulating just 12 points in its 11 Premier League matches this season. Another title duel between Arsenal and Manchester City seems destined.

The rest of the table, however, is populated with questions. Third place Chelsea, which visits Burnley on Saturday, is just five points removed from 14th place Everton in the Premier League table. The Toffees, who visit Old Trafford to face Manchester United on Monday, are in turn only five points removed from the relegation line.

Wolverhampton provides perhaps the only certainty with respect to how the Premier League season will unfold. Woeful Wolves has accumulated only two points, fired its manager and failed to win a single match. Oddsmakers point to a roughly 90% probability that Wolverhampton, which hosts Crystal Palace on Saturday, will be relegated.

Nottingham Forest still has hope for survival despite its current 19th place position. The Tricky Trees won for the first time under new manager Sean Dyche just before the break. That momentum, however, could be short lived with a visit to Liverpool on the cards for this weekend.

Bournemouth is coming off back-to-back losses as the Cherries prepare to host West Ham this weekend. Perhaps more daunting than the recent losses by the Cherries are the transfer rumors surrounding Antoine Semenyo. A release clause in the forward’s contract leaves the Cherries at risk for their leading scorer to depart in the January window. Liverpool is supposedly one of the suitors for Semenyo despite the Reds’ heavy, and to this point unproductive, investment in Alexander Isak last window.

Sunderland has made the most of modest goal production this season. The Black Cats have scored only 14 goals in their 11 matches but are in the top four with five wins and two draws. One of those draws was with table leader Arsenal in Sunderland’s last match before the break. The Black Cats travel to Craven Cottage this weekend to face Fulham.

Aston Villa will be on the road to face Leeds this weekend in a match between clubs headed in opposite directions. Villa has won four of its last five league matches while Leeds has lost four of five. Aston Villa is in a  gaggle of five clubs all sitting on 18 points this season. Newly promoted Leeds is just a point above the drop line and looks like a candidate for a lower tier return.

Solidly, and perhaps uninterestingly, in the middle of the Premier League table are Brighton and Brentford which will face off at Brighton’s American Express Stadium on Saturday. Brentford does deserve a nod for maintaining its status as a mid-table club despite the departure of its manager, captain and key scoring threats from last season.

Premier League Week 11 Results

Liverpool was exposed once again in a 3-0 loss at Manchester City. Wins over Aston Villa and Real Madrid inside of a week had raised hopes that Liverpool was successfully back from a stretch which saw the club lose six of seven matches. Not so much. A frail defense and a disjointed attack were no match for a dominant Manchester City side. Erling Haaland scored as per usual, the Norwegian notching his 14th goal of the season. The Citizens, however, were able to exploit Liverpool in other ways as well. Midfielder Nico Gonzalez scored in first half stoppage time off a Liverpool deflection. Jeremy Doku scored the final Manchester City goal after terrorizing Liverpool defender Conor Bradley all match long.

The victory moved Manchester City within four points of Arsenal after the Gunners dropped points in a 2-2 draw at Sunderland. Brian Brobbey scored in the 94th minute to steal a point for the surprising Black Cats who remained unbeaten after six league matches at the Stadium of Light. Sunderland shows remarkable fight for a newly promoted side as the Black Cats have now scored more goals in added time than any other Premier League team. Arsenal, meanwhile, saw their ten-match winning run across all competitions come to an end.

BRIAN BROBBEY 90+4'.

What a time to score your first Sunderland goal 🤯 pic.twitter.com/sB8poQCw1n

— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) November 8, 2025

Sunderland is the only club to have defeated Chelsea in the Blues’ last five league matches after Chelsea notched its fourth win over its last five league outings in an easy 3-0 win over Wolverhampton. Former Manchester United player Alejandro Garnacho assisted two of the Chelsea goals in his best outing to date for the Blues as they eased into third place in the table. Wolverhampton was its usual terrible self, failing once again to secure a victory in its 11th try this season. Interim assistants managed Wolves on Saturday in the  vacuum created by the firing of Vitor Pereira and as a deal for expected new manager Rob Edwards is finalized. Edwards will inherit a dire situation. No club in Premier League history has avoided relegation after capturing only two points from its first 11 league matches as Wolves has done this season.

Spurs is officially sputtering after dropping points for the third time in four matches. Manchester United’s Matthijs de Ligt headed in the equalizer at the 96-minute mark after Spurs thought it had the win after Richarlison scored earlier in stoppage time. It is not a good look for Spurs Manager Thomas Frank to have won only one out of his six Premier League matches at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this season, only Wolverhampton having suffered more home futility.

Aston Villa, on the other hand, has been quite comfortable on its home turf. The Villans won a fourth consecutive Premier League match at Villa Park with a 4-0 victory over suddenly flailing Bournemouth. The Cherries have lost their last two matches by an aggregate 7-1 margin to fall into a quagmire of five clubs, all level on 18 points, in the fifth through ninth places in the table. Among those five clubs is Aston Villa, which has won four of its last five matches, including the pitching of clean sheets in its last three league wins. Oddly, the only loss for Aston Villa over that stretch proved to be the only league win for Liverpool over the Reds’ last five matches.

Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium, meanwhile, has suddenly become one of the league’s more formidable home fortresses after Igor Thiago scored his seventh and eighth goals of the season to key a 3-1 win for the Bees over visiting Newcastle. Manchester City is the only club to have won at Brentford this season as Manager Keith Andrews has eased the transition from the popular Thomas Frank for the Bees. Newcastle has yet to win on the road this season, a circumstance it shares only with Fulham, Nottingham Forest and Wolves. The Cottagers were 2-0 losers to Everton on Saturday and are now just a point above the relegation drop line.

Things down toward the bottom of the table, excluding the continuing misadventures of woeful Wolves, have gotten more interesting after relegation zone occupants West Ham and Nottingham Forest both won on the weekend. Former Nottingham Forest Manager Nuno Espirito Santo guided West Ham to a second straight league win when the Hammers were 3-2 winners over another relegation threatened side in Burnley. The Hammers drew level on points with the Clarets who are safe for now only by virtue of a better goal differential than West Ham.

Sean Dyche, once a Burnley manager and now Santo’s successor at Nottingham Forest, got his first Premier League win at his new job when the Tricky Trees defeated Leeds 3-1. Nineteenth place Forest is now within three points of 14th place Newcastle in a suddenly compressed bottom end of the table. Drudgery prevailed in the “M23 derby” mid-table clash between Crystal Palace and Brighton. Fatigue was clearly a factor for Crystal Palace, which won its Europa Conference League match over AZ Alkmaar on Thursday and was playing without injured center back Marc Guehi. The shared points leave Brighton a single point behind 10th place Crystal Palace in the table.

Premier League Week 11 Preview

Liverpool snapped a losing run with its Anfield victory over Aston Villa last weekend. The Reds could be in danger of starting a new run, however, when they visit the Etihad to meet familiar rival Manchester City. In the past eight years only Manchester City and Liverpool have won Premier League titles, Manchester City winning six and Liverpool winning two. The current version of Manchester City is somewhat less daunting overall than some of those league champions. Erling Haaland, however, is on a torrid streak of goal scoring, already finding the net 13 times this season and Gianluigi Donnarumma was the Champions League winning goalkeeper for PSG last season. Phil Foden has also shown signs of returning to his former stellar form in recent weeks. All of which could make it premature to claim that Liverpool is back on a winning track after its defeat of a flat Aston Villa side in front of the Anfield supporters last week. City is one point ahead of Liverpool in the standings with the Citizens still six points behind Arsenal after winning four of five matches, the lone blemish coming at Aston Villa two weeks ago.

Aston Villa is back home this week to take on Bournemouth after the Cherries were summarily beaten by Manchester City last week. Despite that defeat, Bournemouth is level on points  with third place Liverpool in the Premier League table.

There are four clubs just a point behind Liverpool and Bournemouth. Two of those will face off on Saturday when Manchester United visits Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Its north London place home not been overly kind to Spurs this season as Manager Thomas Frank’s side have won but one of five home matches so far this season. Conversely, Spurs are the only Premier League club not to have lost an away match. Manchester United have already lost four of their five away matches to date but have been playing better overall in recent weeks and stole a late point at Nottingham Forest last Saturday.

Forest will be home again this weekend in a key relegation rumble with Leeds. The Whites are still four points clear of the drop but have appeared increasingly vulnerable in losing three of their last four matches, culminating in a meek 3-0 submission to Brighton last Saturday. Sean Dyche, meanwhile, is in his element battling to keep Nottingham Forest up, reminiscent of the challenges he faced in managerial stints at Burnley and Everton.

Brighton recommences its unusual “M23 derby rivalry” with Crystal Palace this weekend. Unlike other derbies, there is no geographic proximity between the clubs, just a deep-felt hostility based on battles fought in the lower divisions and animosity between long ago opposing managers. Supporters take it very seriously and emotions will be high at the Eagles’ Selhurst Park. The ninth place Eagles  are currently a point above their rival in the table.

The bottom of the table features a key match between West Ham at Burnley. A second consecutive win at London Stadium would pull currently relegation bound West Ham even on points with currently barely safe Burnley.

All the way up the table, Arsenal will visit surprising Sunderland. The match is another litmus test for the unexpected success of the Black Cats. Premier League leader Arsenal is on a ten-match winning run across all competitions after their Champions League win on Tuesday.

Other matches this weekend will have Fulham making its first visit to the new Hill Dickinson Stadium to face Everton, Brentford facing Newcastle with each club coming off a loss and Chelsea hosting a Wolves side whose winless form saw their Manager Vitor Pereira sacked last weekend. Chelsea recently defeated Wolverhampton 4-3 in the EFL Cup on October 29th.