Here's everything you need to know ahead of the weekend.

City hunting eight straight

Life off the pitch at Manchester City may be turbulent at the moment, but on it, their players are serene.

Under Enzo Maresca's new management, they have won seven out of seven Premier League games and visit Aston Villa at 12:30 BST on Saturday, looking to join a rare group that have a 100 per cent record through eight games to start a season.

Only two other sides this century have managed the feat. Chelsea did it in 2005/06, whilst Liverpool achieved it in 2019/20. Both sides went on to win the league.

However, Villa may prove their toughest test to date. Coming off a 3-0 win over Viking in the Champions League, Unai Emery's side have won four of their last six meetings against Saturday's opponents, and will hope to have Johan Manzambi back from a calf injury.

The Swiss international has a goal involvement in his first three Premier League appearances; no player has ever had four in a row to start their Villa career.

Chasing City at the top is last year's winners Arsenal. They haven't hit their stride as of yet, and limped to a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest last weekend before backing it up with a 2-2 draw against Bayern in the Champions League on Wednesday.

They face Everton at 15:00 BST at the Emirates, with Mikel Arteta going up against his former manager David Moyes as well as his former club.

North London has not been a happy hunting ground for Moyes over the years. When travelling to play the Gunners as Everton manager, he has never won there in 13 tries. Maybe it will be the 14th time lucky for the Scot?

High-flying Brighton made light work of Crystal Palace last time out, winning 5-0, thanks in part to Diego Gomez's ludicrous goal from the halfway line, and they find themselves sitting pretty in third, five points behind City.

A trip to Anfield awaits them on Sunday, a real test of their credentials, especially coming off the back of an away trip to Jablonec in the Conference League on Thursday night.

It didn't seem to affect them much last week, but it is still early days in both competitions, so the likely impact will not be felt until later in the campaign.

Alas, Fabian Hurzeler's men have been impressive so far, scoring the most goals of any team in the Premier League this season with 23, and have the best goal difference with +18, showing it's working at both ends for the Seagulls.

The same cannot be said of Liverpool. Three wins in three shows signs that Adoni Iraola's methods are starting to bear fruit, but it has been a haphazard start to the Spaniard's reign on Merseyside - a win against Brighton will go a long way to proving that he has the ability to improve the Reds this season.

London derby and six-pointer?

If any side needed a win more last weekend, it was Tottenham Hotspur. They beat Coventry City 3-1 for a rare home victory, as James Maddison netted against his boyhood club.

They now face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening - a clash that always ignites both fanbases and the players on the pitch.

Spurs got off the bottom of the Premier League with those three points, but the Blues will provide a much bigger test than Coventry.

Under Xabi Alonso, their front three of Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers and Joao Pedro have been potent, and if Palmer can score against Tottenham, it will be his 50th Premier League goal.

If he gets the job done, he will be the third-fastest Chelsea player to reach the milestone, with 104 games played.

Recent history is not on Spurs' side either. They have lost their last six London derbies, and if they do succumb to defeat this weekend, it will be the first time in their league history they have lost seven in a row. 

Staying at the bottom of the table, Coventry will look to bounce back from that defeat to Spurs as they host Fulham.

Both teams find themselves hanging around the wrong end of the table, and both know a win could be huge in their fight for survival, despite it being early days.

Fulham manager Alvaro Arbeloa has been under fire for his tactics since joining the club in the summer, but he was able to pick up his maiden league win last time out as the Craven Cottage outfit saw off Hull City.

This is just the third meeting in the top flight between these two sides, and they haven't met since the 1967/68 season, when the Cottagers won one and drew the other.

Elsewhere, Ipswich Town and Nottingham Forest start proceedings on Friday night, and Manchester United face Bournemouth at home on Sunday, knowing three points would go a long way to helping Carrick keep his job as manager.

The Red Devils were in calamitous form in the Champions League on Wednesday as they were handily beaten 4-1 by Como in a performance that saw the boss apologise to the sprinkling of travelling fans who had decided to stick around to the end.

In the Premier League, United have been poor. They haven't won since the end of August, and have drawn their last three. If Carrick cannot find a solution - and fast - his days are numbered at Old Trafford.

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