Michael Carrick heads into Sunday’s trip to Fulham with the pressure mounting on him as Manchester United manager, and with a three-week international break waiting on the other side of the result. “For teams who have had a bad start to the season, United being one of them, it could be a horrible few weeks,” said BBC Sport football expert Chris Sutton. “Any negativity is going to just fester, really. There will be speculation about his future, along with all the talk about whether this is a good time to replace your manager.”
Sutton said United are not the only side to have made a bad start, but argued there is “a lot to ponder” for them at the moment, which makes the weekend fixture even more important. He watched United’s Carabao Cup defeat by Brighton on Wednesday and described their performance as very poor, adding that he finds it hard to make a case for them at Craven Cottage. United’s defensive problems are a further concern for Sutton, who expects Fulham to create plenty of chances — noting that United have gone to Craven Cottage and won late three times in the past four seasons, but saying he cannot see it happening again.
At the other end of things, Manchester City have made a 100% start to the Premier League season under new manager Enzo Maresca, a run that includes Sunday’s derby win at Old Trafford. This week’s guest predictor is the guitarist Johnny Marr, a City supporter whose new album, The Age Of Everything, is released on 2 October.
Marr said the derby will be remembered by City fans for a long time, especially given how it unfolded. “We all feared the worst when Phil Foden was sent off so early, because you don’t know what could happen. It should have been a yellow card for him and Bruno Fernandes anyway,” he said. He described the situation as a learning curve for the supporters and the club given the new manager and the number of new players, and praised the way the team dug in to win. On Maresca he added: “No-one expected Maresca to win his first four games… but then again, why not? He’s shown that he’s his own man with his own philosophy. I like him.”
Marr also reflected on Pep Guardiola, who stepped down in the summer, saying that no-one expected him to stay for 10 years and that this made his departure easier to accept, and that City fans loved him because he “totally loved Manchester”. Asked about his favourite City players, he named Dennis Tueart from his childhood, along with Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero and David Silva — with Kevin De Bruyne taking top place as the best player he has seen in a City shirt.
Sutton’s predictions for the weekend include 2-2 draws at Fulham and between Brentford and Chelsea, 1-2 away wins for Aston Villa at Tottenham and for Arsenal at Brighton, a 1-0 Everton win over Ipswich, a 1-1 draw between Newcastle and Hull, a 2-0 Nottingham Forest win over Coventry, a 1-1 draw between Bournemouth and Liverpool, a 2-0 Leeds win over Crystal Palace, and a 2-1 Manchester City win over Sunderland. Marr differs on several — he has Chelsea to win at Brentford, Tottenham to beat Aston Villa and Newcastle to beat Hull 3-0 — while the AI predictions, generated using Microsoft Copilot Chat, include a 1-3 Bournemouth win over Liverpool.
Looking back at the previous round, Sutton and his guest, Dorking Wanderers boss Marc White, each finished with four correct results and no exact scores from the 10 games, giving them 40 points apiece. The AI fared better with 60 points, thanks to an exact score for Brentford’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth along with two other correct results. BBC Sport readers took the weekly win for the first time this season, moving from bottom of the table to level on points with Sutton at the top.
The biggest shock came at Anfield, where Fulham held Liverpool to a 0-0 draw: from more than 33,000 predictions, just under 30,000 (91%) went for a Liverpool win and only 390 picked the correct scoreline. Five games produced no correct result among the predictors — Nottingham Forest’s win at Aston Villa, Hull’s draw at Chelsea, Ipswich’s win at Crystal Palace, Fulham’s draw at Liverpool and Leeds’ win over Newcastle — while Arsenal’s 2-0 win at Sunderland and Brighton’s win at Coventry were the two fixtures everyone called correctly.