Golden Goals MD 20

Manchester United will seldom have needed a win over arch-rivals Liverpool more. Recent defeats leave Ruben Amorim’s men languishing in 14th place amid talk of an unfathomable relegation battle. Their trip to Anfield headlines Matchday 20, as the Red Devils desperately try to halt their slide.

Elsewhere, Manchester City host West Ham as Chelsea travel to Crystal Palace on the back of consecutive festive defeats. There’s a cross-midlands clash at Villa Park as Aston Villa face Leicester, while struggling Everton take a trip to the South Coast to take on high-flying Bournemouth. Second-place Arsenal will be hoping to take advantage of any Liverpool slip-up, as with Brighton awaiting Mikel Arteta’s men.

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To help you make your selections, this is how we see it going on Golden Goals Matchday 20…

Manchester City 3-0 West Ham

Manchester City picked up a much-needed win on Sunday as they beat Leicester 2-0 to push the Foxes deeper into relegation trouble. Erling Haaland scored his first goal in four league games, as Pep Guardiola’s side finally brought some festive cheer to the blue side of Manchester.

West Ham meanwhile, endured a miserable weekend. A 1-0 win at Southampton was followed by a 5-0 thrashing at home to league-leaders Liverpool, with the Hammers leaky defence an increasing cause for concern. For all of City’s troubles of late, a trip to the Etihad probably wasn’t the way West Ham would have wanted to start 2025 – they haven’t won there for almost 10 years and their only triumph over City at all in that period was a penalty shootout win in the League Cup.

Haaland will be relieved to break his somewhat barren spell, and he wouldn’t want any other opponent to build on that goal. He already has a hat-trick against West Ham this season, and is X/X to score two or more in this one.

The Hammers had been on a four-game unbeaten run before that Liverpool defeat, but we can’t see anything but a defeat here. City got themselves back on track at Leicester, and a comfortable home win is in store here. Back-to-back wins for the home side.

Crystal Palace 1-2 Chelsea

Crystal Palace are gradually winding their way up the table after a slow start to the season and find themselves just two points behind Manchester United in 15th place heading into the weekend.

They have lost just one of their last eight games and are proving resilient in defence. Palace have conceded just 27 all season – only Manchester United (26) and Everton (24) have conceded fewer in the bottom half, and if it hadn't been for the 5-1 home defeat to Arsenal, the backline record would look even more impressive.

Scoring goals, however, has been a perennial issue. Only Ipswich, Everton and Southampton have scored fewer than Palace's tally of 20 Premier League strikes.

Eberchi Eze ended a run of nearly four months without a goal with his strike against Southampton – he’ll be aiming to return to last season’s form where he registered 11 goals and four assists in 27 appearances.

Chelsea’s title charge lasted until Christmas. After some excellent performances in the first half of the season, they have suffered back-to-back defeats in games against Fulham and Ipswich – teams they should be beating if they were to somehow challenge Liverpool’s superiority.

The Blues have a sensational recent record against the Eagles however, winning 13 of their last 14 games against their London rivals and last losing to them in 2017.

Despite the recent form issues, we think the Blues have enough in the tank to get it done.

Aston Villa 2-1 Leicester

It’s been a funny old season for Aston Villa. Some memorable Champions League performances and some sublime domestic showings have been surrounded by sloppy displays and surprise defeats as the European schedule takes its toll on Unai Emery’s men. They lie in ninth place, following a defeat to Newcastle and a draw against Brighton over the festive period.

Their cross-midlands opponents here, Leicester, are in all sorts of trouble at the bottom of the table. Four consecutive defeats including a mauling at home to Wolves have followed four points from Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s opening two games, as the Foxes slipped back into the bottom three. Sunday’s defeat to Manchester City leaves them two points from safety, and they won’t relish the trip to Villa Park to get them back on track, despite winning two of the last three games there.

The Foxes have just one away win so far, and even that came at basement boys Southampton. Villa have lost only once at home, and have already beaten Leicester this season. They’ll do the double here, and continue their push for European football. The last three meetings have seen both teams score and over 2.5 goals, and we like the look of the 29/20 for the same here, with Villa to win added into the mix.

Bournemouth 2-0 Everton

The Cherries have not lost for seven Premier League matches and with other teams dropping points around them, a push for Europe is on the cards. Make no mistake, that is a remarkable achievement for a club that survived relegation from League Two by the skin of its teeth as little as 15 years ago.

A lot of the credit should go to their manager Andoni Iraola, who has taken the club up several levels since taking charge at the beginning of last season.

When you dig a little deeper into the stats, it’s no surprise to see them as high up the table as they are. Remarkably, they have the third-highest xG ranking of 1.97 per – only Liverpool (2.29) and Chelsea (2.02) outperform them in this metric.

Bournemouth are not shot-shy either, registering 16.2 shots per game on average since the start of the campaign – Manchester City (17.4) are having more efforts on goal this season.

Visitors here Everton have struggled to score regularly, or even create chances, and it is hard to see how they can get anything here. Since the start of 2024, the Toffees have scored just 31 goals and managed just 132 shots on target. The next closest to them is Wolves, who have posted 156 shots on target and scored 50 goals in that same time period.

This one can go to the hosts.

Brighton 1-2 Arsenal

If you’d said to any Arsenal fan that they would top the Premier League table in 2024 they would have bitten your hand off. And while their impressive year didn’t contribute a Premier League title, it’s hard not to argue that Mikel Arteta has done a very good job in bringing the good times back to the Emirates.

Their 26 wins were their most in one year since 2004, their 89 goals were their most since 1963 and their 18 clean sheets their most since 1999. The key metrics make for impressive reading, with the only thing lacking being a trophy to show for their efforts.

They began 2025 with a much-needed 3-1 comeback victory over Brentford keeping them on the coattails of leaders Liverpool and stretching their unbeaten run on the road to five.

In Brighton, they take on a side who aren’t in the best form. They are winless in their last seven and have drawn a league-high nine times so far this season, including all of their last three.

Travelling to the Amex is never easy, but the Gunners showed plenty of fight in a similarly tricky trip to Brentford last time out, and should have enough to see off the hosts here. An Arsenal win with both teams scoring looks decent value at 2/1.

Liverpool 3-0 Manchester United

While many deem this as the biggest game in English football, the current fortunes of both sides couldn’t be more different with Liverpool sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League table, while Manchester United are languishing in 14th.

Recent history isn’t in the visitors’ favour, with Liverpool having lost just one of the last 13 meetings between the two sides. With that in mind, it’s not much of a shock to see the hosts are just 2/9 here.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Liverpool have been virtually foot-perfect at Anfield this season, with their only defeat coming at the hands of Nottingham Forrest – a loss that doesn’t look quite as bad as it did at first glance given Nuno Espirito Santo’s side’s superb campaign so far.

Arne Slot’s side’s recent home record against United isn’t too bad either, having not lost to their arch-rivals since January 2016. Since that defeat, they have hosted the Red Devils eight times in the league and have scored 16 times, five of which have come from Mohamed Salah.

The Egyptian has a fabulous record against United, scoring 15 times against them in all competitions – his highest tally against any side in his career – and he can be backed to score two or more times on Sunday at 14/5 having found the net 13 times in his last 11 matches in what should be another routine victory for the league leaders.

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Odds correct at time of publication but subject to change. Please note: This week's Golden Goals deadline is Saturday 4th January 15:00. Opt-in is required and you can find out more here.

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