Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil keeping the ball away from James McArthur, of Crystal Palace, at Selhurst Park.

Title contenders Arsenal and Liverpool clash at the Emirates Stadium in London on Monday night.

Last weekend, Arsene Wenger was seen breathing more easily after the Gunners chalked up their first points of the season following a hard-earned 2-1 win at Crystal Palace.

After beating Stoke in the league opener, Liverpool made it two from two but had to struggle to down newcomers Bournemouth at Anfield as Christian Benteke showed that he is not only a scorer but more.

Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil delivered a pin-pointed pass to Olivier Giroud for the striker to fire a superb goal at Selhurst Park.

The German was beset by injuries and warm-benching last season following his arrival at the Emirates in 2013.

In 2014-15, Ozil missed 13 league games in all between October and January. Now, with a full pre-season under his belt, the Germany international will be hoping to prove wrong those who doubted him to perform solidly for an entire campaign.

Liverpool improved on last season when during their sorry demise they failed to deliver on several occasions. This time there is a much greater backbone to the side.

The £80 million spending spree Liverpool embarked upon this summer not only added quality to the team but brought about a welcome injection of steel. It seems that the Reds have recaptured the art of grinding out results with successive clean sheets.

The past ten league matches at Arsenal’s home ground saw the Gunners winning five times to the Merseysiders’ one.

2014-15: Arsenal-Liverpool 4-1
2013-14: Arsenal-Liverpool 2-0
2012-13: Arsenal-Liverpool 2-2
2011-12: Arsenal-Liverpool 0-2
2010-11: Arsenal-Liverpool 1-1
2009-10: Arsenal-Liverpool 1-0
2008-09: Arsenal-Liverpool 1-1
2007-08: Arsenal-Liverpool 1-1
2006-07: Arsenal-Liverpool 2-0
2005-06: Arsenal-Liverpool 2-1

Manchester City, with six points from two outings and six goals for and nil against, have opened in style and tomorrow they will be on their travels to play guests to Everton at Goodison Park.

Aguero’s heroics

Last week, champions Chelsea found it tough to contain the Citizens who ran riot before sealing an emphatic 3-0 victory.

City boss Manuel Pellegrini hailed Sergio Aguero for a great performance against Chelsea and claimed his team should have been four goals up by half-time.

Aguero made his first start since Argentina’s Copa America final defeat to Chile and opened the scoring as City inflicted the joint-heaviest defeat on Jose Mourinho in his career at Chelsea.

Everton striker Romelu Lukaku is fit and raring to go after revealing he was not prepared enough the previous campaign having missed pre-season due to the World Cup.

Lukaku scored two goals in a 3-0 win against Southampton at Saint Mary’s in Everton’s last match. The Belgian looked im-pressive, bullying the Saints’ de-fence on many an occasion.

Chelsea have a mere point after two matches. The most significant outcome of their upset to Manchester City was when Mourinho declared, in public, that captain John Terry was not up to the job of marking Aguero.

Mourinho reasoned that the Argentine sharpshooter was too canny for the veteran Blues defender during a first half in which the South American scored one goal and could have added at least two more.

Manchester United are also on six points from two outings. They play Newcastle at Old Trafford in today’s early kick-off.

The pressure on Wayne Rooney continues to mount after a series of disappointing performances dating back to last season, with more and more pundits believing the England striker is nearing a ‘tipping point’.

Meanwhile, Italian coach Claudio Ranieri sported a wide smile all week after Leicester gained all points at stake for the second time in succession.

Ranieri now hopes the Foxes extend their fine showings to their match against Tottenham today.

He has promised fans that Lei-cester will fight for the cause even when the going gets tough.

Weekend fixtures

Premier League
Crystal Palace-Aston Villa
Leicester-Tottenham
Man. Utd-Newcastle (13:45)
Norwich-Stoke City
Sunderland-Swansea
West Ham-Bournemouth

Tomorrow:
West Brom-Chelsea (14:30)
Everton-Man. City (17:00)
Watford-Southampton (17:00)

Monday:
Arsenal-Liverpool (21:00)

Tricky three
Man. United 1; Norwich-Stoke 2X; West Ham-Bournemouth 1X

The Championship
Bolton-Nottm Forest
Brighton-Blackburn
Burnley-Brentford
Cardiff-Wolves (18:15)
Charlton-Hull
Fulham-Huddersfield
Leeds-Sheff. Wed (13:30)
Middlesbrough-Bristol City
Preston NE-Ipswich
QPR-Rotherham
Reading-MK Dons

League One
Barnsley-Bradford
Burton-Peterborough
Chesterfield-Rochdale
Crewe-Bury
Fleetwood-Colchester
Gillingham-Wigan
Oldham-Shrewsbury
Port Vale-Doncaster
Scunthorpe-Millwall
Sheff. Utd-Blackpool
Southend-Swindon
Walsall-Coventry

League Two
Bristol Rovers-Barnet
Cambridge-Crawley
Carlisle-Wimbledon
Exeter-York City
Mansfield-Oxford United
Newport-Leyton Orient
Northampton-Plymouth
Notts County-Accrington
Portsmouth-Morecambe
Stevenage-Hartlepool
Wycombe-Dagenham
Yeovil-Luton Town