Ten Hag's £50.5m prediction looks foolish and Sterling's debut plan for Spurs would make history

Another international break is over and the Premier League returns with some fine debuts, including one that could make Erik ten Hag look ridiculous.

Eddie Nketiah
Not since Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce had to get used to so many new signings at once at the January transfer deadline, Crystal Palace fans have had to get used to so many new signings at once.

You'd think the calibre of players would have improved and the club, as a more established Premier League buyer, could now tap into a different market. Under Pulis, it was Scott Dann, Wayne Hennessey, Joe Ledley, Jason Puncheon and Tom Ince who came through the door in 2014. Three years later, when Allardyce had the chequebook in hand, the latecomers were Patrick van Aanholt, Luka Milivojevic and Mamadou Sakho.

Nketiah cost more than all eight players combined. Maxence Lacroix, Trevoh Chalobah and, god bless him, Matt Turner are all seemingly excellent business to varying degrees, but the signing of an Arsenal benchwarmer for £30 million is the most interesting.

“I'm really looking forward to my debut at Selhurst and hope I can make it a memorable one,” Nketiah said this week. Jean-Philippe Mateta might have something to say about that, but Nketiah scored a hat-trick three Premier League games ago. That sounds impressive until you realize it was last October..

Federico Chiesa
Chiesa will also not be in the starting line-up, but he is under no illusions that Liverpool will face Nottingham Forest. The striker has not played in a competitive match since Italy's exit from the European Championships and it seems particularly unlikely that Arne Slot will want to disrupt a fully functioning attack.

Liverpool beat Manchester United before the international break and that momentum was only interrupted, not stopped entirely. Mo Salah (Egypt), Luis Diaz (Colombia) and Cody Gakpo (Netherlands) all scored goals while playing for their countries, while Diogo Jota impeccably filled the role of every Portuguese player of the last two decades: that of Cristiano Ronaldo's eternally subservient counterpart.

Darwin Nunez may not have played for Uruguay, but at heart he is still Darwin Nunez.

Chiesa will have to work tirelessly for his chances, but almost two weeks of hard work and focus away from the spotlight should have him up to speed enough for a brief appearance as a substitute, probably replacing a disgruntled Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Manuel Ugarte
“He hasn't played a single minute this season, so he needs to get fit first and then we need to integrate him into the team. And then I'm sure he will contribute to our level and be an important player, but that will take a few weeks, maybe even months.”

Six days later, Ugarte played 79 minutes in a World Cup qualifier against Paraguay. Four days after that, he travelled to Venezuela, where he played a full hour and a half and received the kind of booking that Manchester United fans will have become accustomed to.

Of course, there are more nuances – Ugarte will have to be integrated in various ways by his new club, which is not the case for a 23-time international when it comes to his home country – but one of Erik ten Hag's convenient excuses In order not to accelerate the necessary restructuring of his midfield, he was dropped during the international break.

Ugarte has the 'minutes' and 'fitness level' to be brought straight into the game. And although he only returned from training camp in Uruguay on Thursday afternoon and needs time to understand the tactical approach of a team that either deliberately bypasses the midfield or puts so much undue pressure on it that it collapses, he cannot possibly be a worse option than Casemiro. At this point Davy Klaassen looks like an upgrade.

Raheem Sterling
Nicolas Anelka could contest the point on a technicality, but Sterling will soon become the first player to play for four of the Premier League's big six – a remarkable achievement in this #Barclaysmen week.

If that is to happen against Spurs, the omens are good. Sterling has scored eight goals and provided five assists in 24 games against Spurs; only against Bournemouth (16) and West Ham (15) has he been involved in more goals against a single opponent in his career.

And Arsenal could really use him. Mikel Arteta has options when it comes to replacing Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard, but a version of Sterling fit from an intensive pre-season, fresh after sitting out the first few weeks of the season and motivated to prove Chelsea wrong would be a powerful weapon to deploy against a vulnerable Spurs side.

Jadon Sancho
The other side of the coin is Sancho, who was “exactly what I expected” and a player that Enzo Maresca “is sure will help us”.

Chelsea have resisted the temptation to send the new signing to the reserves and given Sancho the opportunity to train with the non-national professionals under a coach who probably won't spend the entire training session muttering derogatory remarks about him under his breath.

Where he or any of these players actually fit into a coherent Chelsea system is a mystery, but that's for nerds to figure out.

READ MORE: Ten predictions for the international break: Angel Gomes saves Man Utd and Cristiano Ronaldo