Wayne Rooney (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

AFTER the midweek distractions of the EFL Cup, the Premier League resumes this weekend with some fascinating stories already beginning to develop.

As the season starts to gather pace, Premier League Weekly is ready to delve into some of the key issues….

Player of the Day: Wayne Rooney

THERE is only be one place to start – Old Trafford for the match between Manchester United and Champions Leicester. Most of the focus will be on Wayne Rooney and whether he starts or not for United. Let’s be honest here, it will be a story if he plays and a story if he doesn’t.

In seven appearances so far for United this season, he has just one assist to his name, albeit a crucial intervention for Marcus Rashford’s injury-time winner at Hull. Suddenly, Rooney has become a huge issue for both Jose Mourinho and Sam Allardyce.

Just weeks into their jobs, both the Manchester United and England managers have a big decision to make around their captain. Mourinho has steadfastly kept Rooney in the No.10 role. Allardyce had him playing deeper. But neither position has seemed satisfactory. Both new bosses find themselves with a big decision to make, but they know that it’s not one which will go unnoticed.

Mourinho must do something to get his team firing and get the best out of his current assets, like Rashford and world record signing Paul Pogba. Where does that leave Rooney? That is why tomorrow feels like a pivotal day.

If given the nod in a big game, Rooney must find something special as he has on so many occasions in the past to repel the doubters. Or if he is summoned from the bench, make a match-changing contribution to show the combustible mix of quality and hunger is still burning bright. Will Leicester suffer the backlash of all this Rooney talk?

Can Arsene make the right impression against his new Chelsea rival?

ARSENE WENGER celebrates 20 years in charge of Arsenal next Saturday. And what better way to mark that landmark would there be than to record a notable success over their West London rivals.

This will be the first time that he has encountered a Chelsea team managed by Antonio Conte, but the Italian will be the 12^th different Blues boss for Wenger. Arsenal may be miles ahead on managers but surely the crucial facts are Chelsea’s four Premier League titles and one Champions League in that time compared to Wenger’s three Premier League crowns for Arsenal.

(Alex Livesey & Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Ahead of this game, the two clubs sit level on ten points from five games, but five behind early leaders Manchester City. However, having lost on the opening day at home to Liverpool, Arsenal can ill afford another setback against one of their rivals at the top of the league.

Defeat would only open up the predictable wounds about Wenger being past his sell-by date and the club needing a new direction. On the positive side, winning against Conte’s Chelsea would make the Stamford Bridge outfit ask all the questions about whether the Italian can lead them back to glory. As ever, surrounding the Emirates, the plot is intriguing.

A bad start or time to panic at Stoke?

ONE point and 14 goals conceded from five matches makes sorry reading for Stoke. While losing at home to Hull in the EFL Cup on Wednesday was hardly a morale booster. A quick look at how they ended last season doesn’t offer too much comfort either, as they shipped 18 and won just one of their last seven games then. Does this suggest the rot had set in before August?

For so long, a trip to Stoke was considered the acid test for title credentials, such was the difficulty of coming away with three points. But so far this campaign, Manchester City and Tottenham have waltzed to four-goals victories in the Potteries. You would not like Mark Hughes’ chances if tomorrow’s visitors, the notoriously goal-shy West Brom, helped themselves to four goals as well.

Hughes has guided Stoke to three ninth-place finishes in his time in charge, which is more than respectable. There has certainly been a welcome change in style from the latter days of Tony Pulis’ reign, with real flair added by Marko Arnautovic, Bojan Krkic and Xherdan Shaqiri. But the defensive foundations have been shaken in recent times, and the goals have dried up, which is a horrible combination. If that carries on, Stoke will be in big peril.

However, this time 12 months ago they had just three points from six games, so a win over the Baggies would better that record. The sooner they do get that first win, the sooner the voice of Dad’s Army’s Corporal Jones hovering over them will disappear.