PSV Eindhoven and Vitesse get matchday 13 of the Eredivisie season underway with their meeting at the Philips Stadion on Saturday.
Both teams have made a positive start to the new campaign and currently find themselves in the higher echelons of the league rankings.
Match preview
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PSV claimed an emphatic 4-1 victory over Fortuna Sittard in their last outing before the international break on November 7.
Goals from Ritsu Doan, Bruma and Ibrahim Sangare secured a well-deserved three points for Roger Schmidt's men in Sittard-Geleen.
With 27 points from their 12 games so far, the Rood-witten are second on the log as things stand, level on points with current leaders Ajax.
Next up for them is a clash in which they have excelled of late, losing just one of the last 16 meetings between the teams since 2014.
Saturday's hosts, who follow up this weekend's game with a crucial Europa League tie versus Sturm Graz on Thursday, will be looking to set the tone with a dominant display in this one.
Vitesse returned to winning ways on home turf with a 2-1 victory over Utrecht at the GelreDome two Sundays ago.
Thomas Letsch's men took a two-goal lead into the break thanks to strikes from Nikolai Frederiksen and Riechedly Bazoer before Arthur Zagre pulled one back for his side in the second half.
Vitas are in fifth place at the moment, five points adrift of the top of the standings and four points clear of nearest challengers FC Twente.
Ahead of a Conference League clash versus Rennes in midweek, Thursday's visitors will be keen to pick up a positive result this weekend which would be a welcome confidence boost.
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Team News
Eran Zahavi picked up a knee injury while on international duty, and he becomes the latest name on a long injury list for PSV.
Cody Gakpo (ankle), Davy Propper (leg), Richard Ledezma (knee) and Noni Madueke (thigh) are all ruled out of this weekend's contest.
Joel Drommel is down with illness, meaning that Yvon Mvogo is in line to make his second starting appearance of the campaign.
Vitesse's Daan Reiziger is set to miss this weekend's game as he is yet to feature this term due to a wrist problem.
The away side will also be without the services of Million Manhoef, who has missed the visitors' last seven matches through a knee problem.
PSV Eindhoven possible starting lineup:
Mvogo; Max, Boscagli, Ramalho, Mwene; Sangare, Van Ginkel, Gutierrez; Vinicius, Doan, Bruma
Vitesse possible starting lineup:
Schubert; Doekhi, Bazoer, Rasmussen; Yapi, Tronstad, Gboho, Bero, Dasa; Openda, Darfalou
We say: PSV Eindhoven 3-1 Vitesse
PSV know that there is little margin for error if they are to contend for the league crown, and games like Saturday's will serve as a good test of their title credentials. We fancy them to get the job done come the end of the 90 minutes.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a PSV Eindhoven win with a probability of 57.48%. A win for Vitesse had a probability of 21.9% and a draw had a probability of 20.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a PSV Eindhoven win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.65%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (7.7%) and 1-0 (7.23%). The likeliest Vitesse win was 1-2 (5.67%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (9.06%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with a 7.7% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that PSV Eindhoven would win this match.
