Premier League statistical preview, featuring West Ham vs Manchester City, Sunderland vs Arsenal and Manchester United vs Chelsea

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West Ham vs Manchester City

Saturday's early kick-off sees Manchester City make the trip to West Ham off the back of another European disappointment. The Hammers, meanwhile, will be in buoyant mood having risen to 4th in the Premier League with three wins from four. While it's been a team effort to get to that position the form of summer signing Diafra Sakho has been a real highlight.

The striker has netted in 6 back-to-back games and, in fact, once in each game that he has started for the club. With that in mind this weekend's hosts will be confident of netting for the eighth successive league match against a City side that have kept just 2 clean sheets in 11 matches across the league and Champions League.

That the visitors can rely on Sergio Aguero to bail them out at the other end will be less assuring to the home fans. The Argentine's scoring streak may be one short of Sakho's (5) but he has netted 8 times in that span and took his Premier League tally to 9 - level with Diego Costa - after hitting Tottenham for four last weekend.

Sunderland vs Arsenal

It would be easy to write off Sunderland as cannon fodder for Arsenal, as the Gunners make the trip to the Stadium of Light this weekend, after crossing the Black Cats proved far from unlucky for Southampton last time out. There's more to this game then meets the eye though, with only four sides having won fewer games then Arsene Wenger's men in the league this season (2).

It's true that one of those sides is Sunderland but the Wearsiders are one of just 5 teams with an unbeaten home record and they'll want to prove a point this Saturday. It's certainly not the worst time to be facing Arsenal who, despite winning in midweek, made a meal of things in Anderlecht and are still missing numerous players through injury.

The Londoners have won just 3 of their last 7 matches in Sunderland in all competitions, though Aaron Ramsey has struck 3 times on his last 3 visits to the Stadium of Light. Arsenal's 3-1 win in this fixture last season was their first by more than a one-goal margin in Sunderland in 7 matches so another whitewash for Gus Poyet's side is unlikely.

Manchester United vs Chelsea

The biggest game of the weekend is undoubtedly the late kick-off on Sunday, as Manchester United host Chelsea. This game will be the first in Premier League history in which the Blues are strong favourites to pick up three points at Old Trafford, but Jose Mourinho will be guarding against complacency as they face an unpredictable United side.

While this match will be unlike the corresponding fixture from last season, with Chelsea content with settling for a point last August, there may be one common theme. Mourinho opted to field Andre Schurrle as a centre-forward in that game through choice and may do so once again, though it's more through necessity this time around, with Costa and Remy looking likely to be sidelined.

If there's somewhat of a mini-crisis up front for the Blues the fact that they will face one of the league's most accommodating defences will offer the visitors some relief. The Red Devils' 2 clean sheets this season came against newly promoted QPR and Burnley, who occupy the bottom two positions in the league, while Chelsea have won 6 of a 7-game unbeaten streak away from home in the top-flight.

All statistics courtesy of WhoScored.com, where you can find yet more stats, including live in-game data and unique player and team ratings.