Magpies to gauge form at Molineux

Joint-leaders, Manchester United and Manchester City, and Aston Villa and Newcastle United are the only unbeaten sides in the Premier League after six games.

City and United have only dropped two points after away draws against Fulham and Stoke City respectively. Newcastle have 12 points from a maximum of 18 while Villa have eight after five draws.

This afternoon, Newcastle travel to Molineux to play Wolves.

The Magpies were delighted to see Demba Ba open his scoring account with a hat-trick against Blackburn last week as this is Newcastle’s best Premier League start in more than a decade.

Wolves are coming from a 1-2 upset to Liverpool away but manager Mick McCarthy was still pleased with his team’s perform-ance against the Reds only to hit out at the match officials over Liver-pool’s opening goal.

McCarthy claimed that the goal should not have been given as defender Roger Johnson had been fouled in the lead-up.

After picking up their third away draw of the season at Queens Park Rangers, Aston Villa return to home comforts to play Wigan.

Villa boss Alex McLeish felt that his side were unlucky not to take the three points at Loftus Road after seeing QPR score a stoppage-time equaliser through a Richard Dunne own goal.

Wigan, who have also won once at home to QPR, have lost their last four matches in league and cup.

English teams experienced mixed fortunes in the midweek Cham-pions League games. Arsenal beat Olympiakos 2-1 while Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw at Valencia.

Manchester United threw away a 2-0 lead in a thrilling 3-3 draw with Basel at Old Trafford while Manchester City crashed to a 2-0 defeat at Bayern Munich.

The Red Devils missed the injured Wayne Rooney in their games against Stoke and Basel but the England forward returns to face Norwich City at Old Trafford this afternoon.

Norwich are on a high having earned their second win of the season after beating Sunderland 2-1 at Carrow Road on Monday.

Manchester City, who trail United on goal difference, travel to Ewood Park to take on struggling Blackburn Rovers. In their last three visits to this venue, the Citizens claimed two wins and a draw.

City manager Roberto Mancini stated on Wednesday that Carlos Tevez will never play for the club again while he is in charge after the Argentine refused to come on as a substitute in the upset at the Allianz Arena.

Blackburn defender Chris Samba has urged his team to show more passion if they want to avoid a struggle against relegation.

The weekend programme kicks off this afternoon with the Mersey-side derby between Everton and Liverpool at Goodison Park.

Liverpool’s victory over Wolves lifted them to fifth in the standings, three points clear of the Toffees.

In the past six seasons, Liverpool won four games at Goodison Park to Everton’s two but in the all-time list, Everton lead 34-31.

London derby

Another derby this weekend will be played in North London tomorrow when Tottenham play hosts to Arsenal at White Hart Lane. Both clubs recorded victories in their last outings to move up the standings.

Spurs midfielder Rafael van der Vaart said Gareth Bale is becoming a tougher prospect for opposing full-backs this season.

Harry Redknapp has been impressed by the form of striker Emmanuel Adebayor and wants to make the transfer of the Togo forward a permanent one.

Arsenal captain Robin van Persie has raised a few eyebrows after revealing that he is not ready to start talks with the club over a new contract.

Meanwhile, Chelsea will be without Fernando Torres for the trip to Bolton after receiving a three-match ban for his red card in the win over Swansea.

At the Stadium of Light, Sunderland take on second-bottom West Brom and Swansea, having crashed to a 4-1 defeat at Chelsea, face Stoke at the Liberty Stadium tomorrow.

Another London derby is the duel between Fulham and QPR tomorrow. This is the first ever meeting between the two teams in the Premier League.

Fixtures and forecast

Premier League

Aston Villa-Wigan - 1
Blackburn-Man. City - 2
Everton-Liverpool (13:45) - 2
Man. United-Norwich - 1
Sunderland-West Brom - 1
Wolves-Newcastle - X

Tomorrow:
Bolton-Chelsea (14:30) - 2
Fulham-QPR (16:00) - X
Swansea-Stoke (16:00) - X
Tottenham-Arsenal (17:00) - X

Standings: Man. United, Man. City 16; Chelsea 13; Newcastle United 12; Liverpool 10; Tottenham, Stoke 9; Aston Villa, Norwich City, QPR 8; Everton, Wolves, Arsenal 7; Sun-derland, Wigan, Swansea City 5; Fulham, Blackburn, West Brom 4; Bolton 3.

The Championship

Barnsley-Coventry - 1
Blackpool-Bristol City - 1
Crystal Palace-West Ham - X
Hull-Cardiff - X
Ipswich-Brighton - X
Leeds-Portsmouth - 1
Leicester-Derby (18:20)- 1
Millwall-Burnley - 1
Peterborough-Doncaster - 1
Reading-Middlesbrough - X
Southampton-Watford - 1

Tomorrow:
N. Forest-Birmingham (16:00) - X

League One

Brentford-Huddersfield - X
Chesterfield-Colchester - 1
Exeter-Oldham - 1
Hartlepool-Sheffield Wed. - X
Leyton Orient-Preston - 2
MK Dons-Notts County - 1
Rochdale-Wycombe - 1
Sheffield United-Charlton - X
Stevenage-Scunthorpe - 1
Tranmere-Bournemouth - 1
Walsall-Carlisle - X
Yeovil-Bury - X

League Two

Acc. Stanley-Aldershot - 1
Wimbledon-Gillingham - 1
Barnet-Northampton - X
Bristol Rovers-Cheltenham - 1
Burton Albion-Bradford - 1
Crawley Town-Plymouth - 1
Dagenham -Crewe - X
Hereford-Oxford United - X
Port Vale-Rotherham - 1
Torquay-Morecambe - 1

Hot Four
Blackpool, Peterborough, MK Dons, Bristol Rovers.