Manchester City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne Photo: IC

Three weeks into the Premier League season and the action is already coming thick and fast. This weekend four of the five teams with maximum points meet one another in matches that will have an early bearing at the top of this nascent table.

Leicester City, who sit at the summit based on their superior goal difference, can extend their lead over the chasing pack as they face Manchester City, who have one win from one having started the season later than everyone else but Manchester United, who also went deep into last season's European competitions.

With Pep Guardiola's side runners-up last season it is not going to be easy for Brendan Rodgers' table toppers. City kicked off with a win over Wolves, one of the standout teams over the last two seasons since they won promotion to the top flight.

Not that manager Brendan Rodgers is getting carried away.

"It's only two games. After 10 games you start to get an idea of where the league is at," Rodgers said after a 4-2 win over the usually parsimonious Burnley took them top. Leicester were one of the form sides in the Premier League in the first half of last season but then failed to keep up the pace.

"We're not even thinking about that [going further]. We're looking to develop the team and the experiences of last season, both in the league and the cup, will really enrich us. Whatever way it finished last season we still had a fantastic season to finish where we did."

After tailing off - and missing out on a top-four spot by losing to Manchester United on the final day of the season after being around the UEFA Champions League places all season - starting this campaign well was vital for Rodgers and his team.

"It was always going to be important because there can be a hangover, if you don't address it, but we spoke about it in our short preseason period and felt ready to move on," Rodgers said. "The players have good motivation, they've scored seven goals in two games and it shows we're ready to attack the season again."

City are there to attack. Guardiola is missing seven of his first-choice players: Joao Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Sergio Aguero, Aymeric Laporte and Eric Garcia through injury and Ilkay Gundogan is now self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19.

"All we want is the seven players that are out to come back," Guardiola said after the Wolves win. He also said that they were "not coming back soon."

The biggest game of the weekend is arguably the least expected. Crystal Palace go to Everton with both teams coming off the back of great performances.

"I thought that both defensively and offensively we were good," Palace boss Roy Hodgson told BBC's Match of the Day after inflicting Manchester United's worst opening-day defeat in 25 years. "When we had the ball I thought we looked very dangerous and threatening so I don't think it was a big surprise that we scored three.

"When you come here you need to show you are going to play on the front foot and not just defend and let them do what they want on the ball. We started in the right way and finished in the right way. We were concerned about them getting behind our back four which they didn't do."

"We need to be very careful because Everton are in extremely good form and then we go to Chelsea, so the next two games will be equally hard for us to get anything from."

Everton have impressed under Carlo Ancelotti this season, beating West Brom 5-2 at The Hawthorns, with new signing James Rodriguez taking many of the plaudits.

"He scored his first goal in the Premier League, this is the most important part," Ancelotti of the Colombian. "It was the key goal of the game. He scored a fantastic goal and a fantastic assist in the second half.

"He is comfortable with the team and everything is OK. In this moment he is using his quality. This is the quality I saw at Madrid and the same quality I saw at Bayern." Ancelotti coached James at the Munich giants.

"I think we are really dangerous up front because we push with fullbacks, we have [Andre Gomes] and James between the lines, we had [Dominic] Calvert-Lewin in a fantastic moment and Richarlison looked dangerous on the counterattack and in the box." Calvert-Lewin bagged a hat trick for the freescoring Toffees.

Elsewhere, Arsenal face an early test of their title ambitions under Mikel Arteta with a trip to Anfield to face champions Liverpool.

"I think we created enough chances as well to win the game, but we conceded too many chances that were our fault," Arteta said after a late win against West Ham United. "Basically we scored two wonder goals, again I think.

"But what I like is the approach of the boys, and the last twenty five minutes where I could see them coming a little bit down, and then they lifted it up, and probably a few months ago we would have drawn or lost that game, and today we won it."

Liverpool looked rusty in their opening game at home to Leeds United but they beat Chelsea 2-0 last weekend.

Despite having to rebuke his bench for applauding when Andreas Christensen was sent off - "We can't behave like Chelsea," he later said in reference to last season's bust-up between the two sides' benches - Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was happy with the win, describing his team as "super mature."

Former Liverpool boss Rodgers is right of course, that now is not the time to judge these teams and their title tilts but Klopp and Guardiola raised the bar two seasons ago when Liverpool finished runners-up despite only losing one game and missing out by a point.