Premier League 2020-21 Season – Match Week 9 Preview with Liberty Shield VPN

As we head into Match-day 9, the Premier League has suffered a new raft of injuries and positive Covid-19 tests on the back of the pointless international break. Premier League matches are shown by pay-TV broadcasters Sky Sports, BT Sport, Amazon Prime and with match highlights available free on BBC Sport with Match of the Day. Need a Premier League VPN?

Did you know that England have played more games since September 1st than Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Burnley have in the Premier League this season? What is the point of it?

The good news is that there are a good slate of games on the schedule this weekend and we’ve picked the three we think are most worthy of your time. Two of them contain four teams who will battle for Champions League qualification as a minimum. The other is a fascinating contrast in terms of the personalities of the managers involved and the styles of play.

Our Premier League VPN articles are brought to you in partnership with EPL Index, and Dave Hendrick – host of the Two Footed Podcast, offering FREE podcasts to football fans.

⚽  Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City
📅  Saturday 21 November 2020
⏰ 1730 UK Kick-Off
🖥️ Sky Sports Live Streaming

First up is second place Tottenham playing host to Manchester City. City have struggled to find their best form this season, with goals hard to come by in their matches. A spanking at the hands of Leicester as well as disappointing draws against Leeds and West Ham United sides they will have expected to beat see them sit firmly in mid-table, though they do have a game in hand. Injuries to Sergio Aguero and Gabi Jesus have definitely hurt City on the goals front, but the bigger problem has been the lack of creativity. When David Silva left in the summer the assumption was that one of Phil Foden or Bernardo Silva would step up and take that starting berth in midfield and help Kevin DeBruyne craft the bullets for the forwards to fire.

City will again be without Aguero, as well as Benjamin Mendy and Fernandinho, this weekend. Nathan Ake looks certain to miss out following an injury picked up on international duty while Raheem Sterling faces a battle to be fit having had to withdraw from the England squad midway through the break.

Tottenham’s only disappointment thus far this season will be that they’re not top of the league and a couple of points clear. Were it not for poor decision making in the last breaths of games against Newcastle and West Ham, games Spurs had clearly been the better team in, they would have 21 points from a possible 24. With Harry Kane, the clear frontrunner for Footballer of the Year, and Son Min Heung leading the way, Spurs have been potent in attack at times, though teams employing deep blocks have caused them some problems. One big boost has been Tanguy Ndombele finally discovering his best form and adding real thrust to the team from an attacking midfield berth.

Matt Doherty, Eric Lamela and Japhet Tanganga remain on the long term wounded list for Spurs, while Steven Bergwijn will likely find this game comes just too soon for him. Ndombele faces a late fitness test.

 

⚽ Leeds United vs Arsenal
📅  Sunday 22 November 2020
⏰ 1630 UK Kick-Off
🖥️ Sky Sports Live Streaming

The most aggressive team in the league in terms of overloading in attack and man-to-man marking in defense take on the most passive team in the league. The most temperamental manager in the league goes head to head with the calmest. This really does promise to be a good game between two sides in need of a win.

Leeds will be disappointed with their current standing in the Premier League, in part because of the money spent in the summer but mostly because Marcelo Bielsa has forged a mentality throughout the club that Leeds United should believe they are the best team on the pitch no matter who they face. They shouldn’t be too disappointed though, big money signings Raphinha and Diego Llorente have yet to play and both should make a massive impact, and club record signing Rodrigo has only featured a handful of times and rarely from the start of games. In the coming months, this Leeds team will look a lot different on paper. They will always look the same on the pitch, high energy, aggressive, ambitious and full of belief. Losing Kalvin Phillips was a massive blow but he may well return for this game, and that will be a huge boost. Phillips is the best player at the club and key to their system, on and off the ball.

Leeds will be without Rodrigo due to Covid. Jamie Shackleton, Adam Forshaw, Gaetano Berardi and Diego Llorente are all out with a variety of injuries, while Phillips faces a late fitness test.

Arsenal will also likely be disappointed, because they’re Arsenal and believe they should always be challenging at the top, but they shouldn’t be. This is year 1 of a rebuild. It’s year 1 of Mikel Arteta implementing his plan with his players. It hasn’t been perfect yet, and likely won’t be for a while. Nobody should expect it to be so, and nobody should be demanding immediate improvement because Arsenal are on the right path. Working on system and shape, developing structure and patterns of play are all integral to any rebuild. Once those things are in place, and perfected then the improvement will come when more new players are added. It’s a long journey to go from where they were under Emery to where they want to be. Just ask Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp. It took Klopp two and half years to get the team to the level he wanted. And that’s Jurgen Klopp, one of the world’s best managers. Arteta needs time, and Arsenal fans need to stop feeling so entitled.

Arsenal go into this game without Pablo Mari, Reiss Nelson, Gabriel Martinelli through injuries and Mohamed Elneny due to Covid. Thomas Partey will have a fitness test but is expected to be ok while Callum Chambers could come back into the reckoning as well.

 

⚽ Liverpool vs Leicester City
📅  Sunday 22 November 2020
⏰ 1915 UK Kick-Off
🖥️ Sky Sports Box Office Live Streaming

Brendan Rodgers returns to the home of his former employers for the second time as Leicester manager, and the third time overall having taken newly promoted Swansea to Anfield in 2011/12. While he’s yet to win as a visiting manager, his teams have given Liverpool problems. Swansea earned a 0-0 draw while last season Leicester came within moments of claiming a 1-1 draw before a late James Milner penalty won it for the Reds.

Liverpool have been devastated by injuries this season and go into this game with a massive injury list. The Champions sit third in the league this season and all things considered, they’ll be happy with that. They’re only 1 point off top, which isn’t something that looked like it would be the case when they were walloped by Aston Villa, and then lost Virgil Van Dijk to a season ending injury the following weekend against Everton. Though they felt robbed in the Merseyside Derby, a draw wasn’t a bad result given the form Everton were in up until that point. Bar a spell in the first half against City where they looked dangerous though created very little, Liverpool have been grinding out results since the Everton game. Sheffield United and West Ham both took the lead at Anfield, before being worn down and eventually beaten. The Reds, bar the second half against Chelsea and the home win over Arsenal, have not looked anything like their usual selves in the Premier League this season. They will want to remind everyone that they are the defending Champions, and that they intend to retain their title.

Liverpool have Van Dijk and Joe Gomez ruled out for the season, and Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are also ruled out due to injury. Mo Salah will miss out because of Covid. Jordan Henderson is expected to miss out because of an injury picked up on international duty, and there are doubts over Fabinho, Thiago Alcantara and Rhys Williams. It never rains but it pours.

Leicester will be very confident going into this one. Sitting top of the league, playing good football and looking at their opponent missing six of their best 11 players. Not that Leicester will be unsympathetic to Liverpool’s injury plight, having had their own injury problems this season. The Foxes have played some of the best football in the league this season, putting West Brom, Manchester City and Leeds United to the sword, but they have also shown an ability to grind out wins as they did against Wolves and Arsenal. They will be disappointed in their defeats this season, especially the nature of the 3-0 reversal against West Ham which resembled games in the second half of last season where they seemed to lack desire and gave up having fallen behind. They have bounced back though, and done so in fairly empathic fashion rolling off six wins in a row between the Premier League and Europa League. They are slightly over-reliant on Jamie Vardy, but with James Maddison fit and Harvey Barnes in good form they do have other matchwinners should their number 9 have an off day.

Caglar Soyuncu, Wilf Ndidi, Ricardo Pereira and Daniel Amartey are all ruled out, while Timothy Castagne and Wesley Fofana will face late fitness tests with the latter expected to be ok and there is optimism about the former.

It should be a good weekend of Premier League football, in this weird and unpredictable season that we’re experiencing. Goals have not been hard to come by as players seem to be playing without any fear with no fans in the stands to give them pelters if they mess something up. The collective failure to defend at anything resembling a professional level by the entire league has helped, as have some strange VAR decisions. I’m setting the over/under for controversial VAR decisions at 2.5 for this weekend. You need not worry about that though, all you need to do is sit back, turn on your Liberty Shield VPN, settle in, and enjoy the games.

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How to watch every Premier League match from anywhere…

How can I watch BT Sport Premier League VPN 20/21 matches live? 

BT Sport has the rights to just over 50 Premier League fixtures during the 2020/21 campaign, and will also carry coverage of the UEFA Champions’ League and Europa League until 2024. Subscribers can watch BT Sport on their computers as well as their various apps on connected devices. They do offer a Monthly Pass with no contract, which will give customers access to the BT Sport mobile app. BT Sport Box Office will no longer show the matches via the now scrapped pay-per-view offering, but is it too late and have customers already moved towards illegal streams and IPTV providers?

Remember that BT Sport also features coverage from the Bundesliga, and holds rights to Moto GP, UFC and WWE coverage as well.  After a long delay the BT Sport app is now available on several models of Smart TV as well as Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices.

How can I watch Amazon Prime Premier League VPN 20/21 matches live? 

Amazon is a relative newcomer to live Premier League VPN coverage. It has 20 matches per season under the current rights agreement, and in 2019/20, it secured all of the showpiece Boxing Day fixtures. Amazon also broadcasts sports including the US Open tennis championships, other ATP World Tour tennis events and NFL games.

Fans will need a Prime membership to watch fixtures on the online streaming service.  You can watch Amazon Prime on your computer or with their connected mobile apps on various devices, including Amazon FireTV.  The Amazon Prime service is priced at £7.99 per month, although if you’ve not subscribed before, you can access its services on a 30-day trial period.

 

How can I watch BBC Sport Premier League VPN 20/21 matches live? 

With Premier League Pay-Per-View now scrapped, there will be once again be a small number of free live matches on the BBC.  However, if you are content with free Premier League VPN 20/21 highlights then the BBC have you covered, with Match of the Day and Match of the Day 2, available live when screened on the BBC Sport website, and also on catchup with BBC iPlayer.