Aberdeen will be looking to make it five straight wins in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday, when they host Motherwell at Pittodrie.
The visitors, meanwhile, have also made a strong start to the season, as they sit in fifth place and level on points with Rangers.
Match preview
© Imago
The international break interrupted what had been a stellar start to the season for Aberdeen, and the Dons come into Saturday's game on the back of a 1-0 away win at Ross County, with Kevin Nisbet's last-gasp winner making it eight consecutive top-flight wins for his side.
So far this season in the league, Aberdeen have also won 2-1 away at St Johnstone, and they have 3-1 and 2-0 home victories over St Mirren and Kilmarnock respectively, with manager Jimmy Thelin being named August's Manager of the Month on the back of this impressive start.
Aberdeen's star man on the pitch has undoubtedly been Jamie McGrath though, with his two goals and three assists demonstrating his attacking threat and value to Thelin's system.
Since July, Aberdeen have scored 24 goals and conceded only three times, and in Pape Gueye, they have a striker who has a goal conversion rate of 43%, and one who is averaging a goal every 81 minutes so far in the league this season.
It has been a great start for the Dons, and while it remains to be seen whether they can genuinely challenge Celtic, their impressive form is certainly no fluke as their unbeaten run in the league now stretches back to March; a total of 12 games.
© Imago
Motherwell, meanwhile, will travel to Pittodrie looking to make it unlucky 13 for their hosts, and they do come into Saturday's game on a three-game unbeaten run in all competitions.
Their most recent victory was a 2-1 away win over St Johnstone at the back end of August, when goals from Dan Casey and Moses Ebiye sealed the deal for the Steelmen.
Stuart Kettlewell's side have also progressed to the quarter-finals of the League Cup, having finished top of Group G and then overcoming Kilmarnock 1-0 in the second round.
It was a busy summer in terms of comings and goings for Motherwell, with 16 players joining over the summer and 11 leaving – the most notable outgoing was striker Theo Blair, who joined Auxerre in July.
The Steelmen replaced the outgoing Blair with a host of forwards; including Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, Filip Stuparevic, Zach Robinson, Jack Vale and Tony Watt, as Kettlewell looks to fill the void of Blair's 13 league goals from last season.
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
- D
- L
- W
- W
- L
- D
- L
- W
- W
- W
Team News
![Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell during the Premier Sports Cup Group G match at Fir Park against Partick Thistle on 28/07/2024[on August 1, 2024]](https://sm.imgix.net/24/31/stuart-kettlewell.jpg?w=640&h=480&auto=compress,format&fit=clip "Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell during the Premier Sports Cup Group G match at Fir Park against Partick Thistle on 28/07/2024[on August 1, 2024]")
© Imago
Dante Polvara is the only Aberdeen player who will be unavailable for Saturday's clash with Motherwell, but with Graham Shinnie and new signing Sivert Heltne Nilsen, the Dons have strong cover in the centre of the park.
Thelin may also opt to start Nisbet after his late heroics before the international break, with Peter Ambrose and Ester Sokler also pushing for starts in attack.
Cape Verde's Duk is also back and around the first team again following a period of absence, and he could be a valuable forward option as the season progresses.
Motherwell meanwhile have a number of injury concerns heading into Saturday's game, but Krisztian Hegyi, Lennon Miller and Tawanda Maswanhise did all return unscathed from international duty.
However, Callum Slattery, John Koutroumbis, Stamatelopoulos, Sam Nicholson, Stuparevic and Ross Callachan are all expected to miss out here through injury.
Kettlewell will also need to decide on who will be starting in midfield alongside, with Davor Zdravkovski, Stephen O'Donnell and Andy Halliday competing for the two central midfield slots.
Aberdeen possible starting lineup:
Mitov; Devlin, Rubezic, Molloy, McKenzie; Shinnie, Heltne Nilson; Keskinen, Gueye, McGrath; Nisbet
Motherwell possible starting lineup:
Oxborough; McGinn, Gordon, Casey; O'Donnell, Zdravkovski, Halliday, Seddon; Miller, Maswanhise; Robinson
We say: Aberdeen 2-1 Motherwell
Aberdeen have started the season in superb form, and on home soil it would be a surprise if they were to falter here, but Motherwell themselves have also demonstrated that they are a capable outfit.
A tight game is expected, but we think the Dons will just manage to take all three points over the Steelmen and make it five straight league wins to start the campaign.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
