Premier League preview: Arsenal rolling, desperation at Liverpool and Bournemouth ready for next step

The calendar flips over to November this weekend, and with it another round of matches in the Premier League.

Another exciting set of games is on the docket, headlined by a London derby between Tottenham and Chelsea along with a meeting of two teams heading in opposite directions as Liverpool host Aston Villa.

Ahead of Saturday's fixtures, DAZN News’ Rudi Schuller picks out the key storylines in this latest round of Premier League fixtures.

When will Arsenal concede another goal?

The Gunners have just completed a perfect month of October, with six wins from six matches in all competitions.

As if that wasn't already impressive enough, Arsenal managed to win all six matches without giving up a single goal — an incredible feat spread across three different competitions as Mikel Arteta's side earned clean sheet victories in the Premier League (3), Champions League (2) and the Carabao Cup (1) over the course of the month.

The North London side have, unsurprisingly, taken control of the Premier League lead in the midst of this defensive masterclass, and their improved squad depth has allowed Arteta to not sweat when key figures such as Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz have to miss extended periods of time.

Now the Gunners take their blazing hot form into a new month, with the same goal of winning everything in front of them while staying true to their principles.

First up in November for Arsenal are Burnley, who are decided underdogs in Saturday's contest but head into the match after back-to-back victories. The Clarets will be feeling confident that they can make Turf Moor a hostile environment for the high-flying league leaders, having lost just once in the league at home this far.

"We've made Turf Moor a really tough place for teams to come and play – and the fans have played a massive part in that. We need to make it exactly like that again this weekend," Burnley manager Scott Parker said.

"While we're up against a top team in Arsenal, we need to make it tough for them, and do the polar opposite of what they want."

While defending against the Gunners will be a top priority for Parker and Co., it remains to be seen whether they'll have enough going forward to end Arsenal's extended clean sheet run.

Burnley are 16th in the standings and give up goals at a rate that's expected of a newly promoted side, but they've also managed to score more than the clubs around them — only two teams in the bottom half of the table have scored more.

Wouldn't it be something if Burnley are able to do something that Brighton, Crystal Palace, Atletico Madrid, Fulham, West Ham and Olympiakos have been unable to do over the past few weeks? 

Liverpool in crisis

Patience is running thin at Anfield.

Memories of Liverpool's incredible start to the campaign have faded fast as the Reds are now mired in a deep slump. Arne Slot has led the defending champions to four straight losses in the Premier League, with Liverpool losing six of their last seven matches in all competitions.

The lone victory, a 5-1 hammering of Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League, looked like it could beckon a return to brighter days for Slot's side, but instead it was just an anomaly.

Liverpool's latest loss came in the Carabao Cup when a heavily rotated side was pummeled 3-0 by bogey team Crystal Palace, making the calls for Slot's dismissal as manager — an unthinkable proposition just a few weeks ago — just a little bit louder.

Glyn KIRK / AFP

To Slot's credit, he knows the heat is on him and the team amid this awful stretch of games.

"If you are on a run of results like this, if you play for Liverpool, if you manage Liverpool, the pressure is there," Slot said following Wednesday's defeat to Palace. "I don't think it has changed much after this loss.

"There are multiple reasons we have lost so many games, but with all the reasons there are still no excuses to lose so many. But it hasn't been helpful that all the games we lost there were only two days in between the games we had to play away from home."

Slot won't have the excuse of playing away from home when his side host a surging Aston Villa at Anfield on Saturday. The visitors seemed to have found the form that was lost by Liverpool as they have rung off four straight league victories and are winners of six of their last seven across all competitions.

Villa's recent form is almost the exact opposite of Liverpool's, and now Unai Emery's rising side have the opportunity to pile more misery on Slot and Co. in a season that already feels like it's hanging in the balance.

Are Bournemouth for real?

If Liverpool's rapid downfall is a surprise, the same could be said for Bournemouth's rise to second place in the standings ahead of this weekend's action.

The Cherries trail only Arsenal after nine matches, and like the Gunners they have only lost a single match in the league thus far.

No one could have seen this coming, but Andoni Iraola has his side playing an exciting brand of football that has resulted in plenty of goals at either end of the pitch in Bournemouth matches, with the Cherries scoring just as many goals as Arsenal (16) but giving up far more than the other teams in the top five.

That has led to some crazy scorelines involving Iraola's side, including the season-opening 4-2 loss to Liverpool and a wild 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace two weeks ago. The Cherries have also kept four clean sheets in league play though, so it's not like every one of their games has been a shooting gallery.

Getty Images

Regardless, Bournemouth have attained lofty status in the early part of the season, but things get a bit more serious over the next two weeks. The Cherries have only faced one top five side so far in the campaign and two in the top ten, so it's been a lighter touch to start the season.

To their credit, they've made the most of the softer fixture list, but Sunday's trip to the Etihad to face Manchester City followed by an away match at Aston Villa a week later could give Bournemouth a truer sense of where they stand in the pecking order of the Premier League.

Win one of those two (or draw both) and we can definitively say Bournemouth are for real.

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