English Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

 

1) Wenger keen to focus on occasion before Mourinho reunion

Arsenal’s first league game of last November (though they had already played in the Champions League) was a 1-1 home draw with Tottenham, and the month also included a defeat at West Brom and a draw at Norwich, and the collection of two of nine possible points. On the first day of November they were joint top, though behind Manchester City on goal difference; at its end they were fourth. Arsenal’s first league game of this November (though they had already played in the Champions League) was a 1-1 home draw with Tottenham, and games against United and Bournemouth await. At the start of the month they were joint top, though behind Manchester City on goal difference. This is all spectacularly uncanny, and not entirely encouraging.

Inevitably Arsenal will also be reminded of their poor record against United at all venues (six defeats and one win in 10) and especially at Old Trafford (no victories since September 2006), and of the fact that Arsène Wenger has never managed a team to victory over one led by José Mourinho. In the build-up to this match the Frenchman has spoken to Sky about his rivalry with the United manager. “I was in a press conference today when it was more about the controversy between Mourinho and me. That’s not what football is. People do not enjoy that. People enjoy the quality of the game today,” he said. “It’s not a game of managers, it’s a game of two clubs, two big teams who want to do well. What is important to me is we turn up on the day with a strong performance. We have to make sure we focus on football and not on the rest. It’s a game watched all over the world. The most important is quality – intensity, technical quality, drive – and I personally feel we have to focus on that.” Honourable intentions, though his words also sound very much like a pre-emptive dig at a United coach who he fears will be more concerned with retaining his unbeaten record against Wenger than with encouraging his charges to broaden their technical horizons. SB

2) Another entertaining game featuring Liverpool

Following their unexpected setback against Hull, Southampton go toe-to-toe with a Liverpool side whose much discussed inability to keep clean sheets (just one in 11 Premier League excursions so far this season) hasn’t precluded them from reaching the top of the table. Apart from a Merseyside derby the week before Christmas, six of their next seven matches are against teams currently no better than tenth in the table, a state of affairs that could help them open a sizeable gap on their title rivals before Manchester City visit Anfield on New Year’s Eve. Securing maximum points from all seven games is a far from unrealistic target and getting the ball rolling against a team jokingly disparaged in some quarters as their own feeder club is likely to be one of the tougher assignments on that run. Jürgen Klopp was extremely generous in his praise for Southampton’s scouting department during his pre-match press conference, while his opposite number Claude Puel used his to point out that his side are third in a table for “chances against opponents” that is also topped by Liverpool. In a season of often dubious match quality, yet another entertaining game featuring Liverpool seems assured. BG

3) Leaky Palace face toughest of tests against free-scoring City

Deep into November, Opta has revealed that Crystal Palace’s haul of Premier League points per game this year is 0.73, the lowest return of any team in England’s top four tiers. They entertain Manchester City following a run of four consecutive top-flight defeats that began at the end of the October international break, with Alan Pardew under increasing pressure after a crushing last-minute defeat at the hands of Burnley. Despite describing that reverse as “galling” and insisting his was the better side, he can have few complaints. Having shipped two sloppy goals to gift Burnley a two-goal cushion, Palace pegged them back and looked good for what would have been an extremely hard-won point. Pardew wanted more and his gung-ho side promptly gifted Burnley a late winner on the break after abdicating their defensive responsibilities and throwing far too many men forward in search of the goal that might have secured them all three points. Having failed to keep a clean sheet in 16 Premier League matches, Palace will need to have all their wits about them against a Manchester City side that have averaged more than two goals per game this campaign. Whatever small chance Palace have of arresting their slide down the table this weekend will hinge on focus and obduracy in defence and less impulsiveness in the technical area. BG

4) Spurs could use derby against West Ham to return to form

“It is always a big game against Spurs,” said Slaven Bilic this week. “Maybe the biggest derby for West Ham.” For the Hammers, then, this is the biggest derby of the season; for Spurs, it’s the third-biggest they’ll play this month, which started with a 1-1 draw at Arsenal and will conclude with a visit to Chelsea. Mauricio Pochettino’s side are hardly in good form – they have played seven times in all competitions since they last won a match, against Manchester City – but they remain unbeaten in the league; should they avoid defeat here they will have avoided defeat in their first 12 games of a league season for the first time since the double-winning year of 1960-61. West Ham meanwhile have lost five of their last six away games, but are buoyed by the return to fitness of Diafra Sakho, who has made only nine league appearances – plus 26 minutes in the FA Cup – since last November and none at all this season but is finally ready to return from a back injury. SB

5) Williams faces Swansea with no room for sentiment

The visit of second-bottom Swansea has come at a particularly auspicious time for Everton. They have lost three, drawn two and won one of their last six games, and were thrashed by Chelsea in their last, casting an ashen pallor upon a team that had started the season with a ruddy glow of good health. Still, they have the division’s third-best home record, for now at least: this game is also a precursor to a particularly testy run of fixtures at Goodison Park: between Saturday and mid-January they are due to host Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Southampton and Manchester City, in that order. In the circumstances it would seem imperative that Everton get a positive result from this game, but so long as they can cast this pressure from their minds they should probably do so. Inevitably much attention will be focused on Ashley Williams, who plays Swansea for the first time since ending his eight-year association with the club in the summer. “Ash was a very important player for us and is a good friend of mine,” said Neil Taylor this week. “We were sad to see him go in the summer, but he moved on to a new project in his career. We spoke about it on international duty and we said it was going to be very weird.” SB

6) More ruthlessness in front of goal required from Bournemouth?

Stoke City go into this unbeaten in six matches on 13 points, the same number they had accumulated at the same point last season. That campaign began with a six-match winless run that ended with victory over Bournemouth and Stoke are firm favourites to win this one too, despite several injury concerns. Eddie Howe’s side are far from being a poor one but have failed to achieve any kind of consistency this season. In little over a month they smashed six past Hull in between creditable draws with Watford and Tottenham but have since lost consecutive matches against Middlesbrough and 10-man Sunderland. Howe criticised his team’s lack of “killer instinct” following their somewhat unlucky defeat at the hands of the Premier League’s worst team. It seems to be an ongoing problem: despite their six goals against Hull, Bournemouth have scored just seven times in their other 10 games. Callum Wilson, who is being assessed ahead of this game by Bournemouth’s medical team, said recently that his responsibility as a centre-forward goes well beyond scoring goals, but should the striker step up this season’s rate of just under one every three games, his manager is unlikely to complain. BG

7) A rare glimpse of the lesser-spotted Berahino?

West Brom entertain Burnley on Monday night in a match where Saido Berahino could make his first appearance for the Baggies since their defeat at the hands of Bournemouth over two months ago. The striker failed to feature in any of West Brom’s past four match-day squads after being deemed too overweight and unfit to earn even a place among the substitutes. Having been called into the England set-up by Roy Hodgson in 2014, the wayward striker spent the recent international break shedding excess blubber at a French fat camp and has been posting pictures of himself looking chiselled, lean and fit on social media. It will be left to Tony Pulis to decide if the player is mentally tuned in, with Berahino having become better known for his bad attitude than the goalscoring feats that first catapulted him into the public consciousness. Still only 23, the striker’s status has been transformed from that of 20-goal a season man to borderline cautionary tale in less than two years and it is clear his manager feels he is being badly advised by malign forces outside the Hawthorns. “There’s lots of good people who have spoken to him, the most important thing is Saido unravels who has given him good advice and bad advice,” said Pulis. “That’s something that over the years I’ve been here, he’s got a little confused about.” BG

8) Leicester seek to find form on the road

When Leicester won at Sunderland in April it was a third successive away victory, a run that had started at Vicarage Road the previous month. While they were the best team in the division last season both at home (where they won 42 points, one more than Manchester United in second and two more than third-place Arsenal) and away, their superiority on their travels was considerably more emphatic (they won 39 points, five more than Tottenham in second and eight more than third-place Arsenal). This season they have the division’s seventh-best home record, but with one draw from five games giving them an average return of 0.2 points per outing, the very worst away. It should be pointed out that four of those games came against Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United (and that no other side has already travelled to four of the current top six) but they also contrived to lose 2-1 at Hull. The return of Sebastian Prödl should help Watford recover some defensive solidity after a shambolic performance at Liverpool in their last game, but their frailty from crosses this season – they have conceded eight headers, the most in the Premier League – and the absence through suspension of their first-choice left wing-back, José Holebas, should give the champions hope that once again they could start an impressive run of away results in Hertfordshire. SB

 

9) Karanka happy to play Scrooge as Boro aim to extend run

In an interview this week, Aitor Karanka, who joined the club precisely three years ago last Sunday, was asked to pick out his worst moment at Middlesbrough. His mind immediately went back to a moment in 2014 when his players asked if they could stay in London after a league game against Millwall to do a bit of Christmas shopping. “We’ve won one game in four and you are talking about Christmas shopping?” he apparently responded. “I am sorry. You are going to spend money you earn from Middlesbrough Football Club? I think you need to win some games!” From this we learn two things: firstly, nothing genuinely bad has happened to Karanka on Teesside, and secondly, this man is the very embodiment of the Grinch, Dr Seuss’s Christmas-stealing grump. After all, while it is true to say that when he was asked to green-light the shopping spree the side had indeed won one game in four, they had won the one before that as well, had only lost once in 15 matches and were two points off the top of the table, and then they capped that by putting five past the Lions. Still their coach wasn’t happy. This is a man who has adapted to England’s yuletide feast of football with the unabashed relish of someone who doesn’t much like presents, tinsel and goodwill to all men much anyway. “The players will be training on Christmas Day,” he said in 2014. “My decision is clear. It is important to be here and prepare. We don’t have a lot of time to be with our families, but we are professional and we have to train.” In 2015 he added: “We know it’s an important day for everybody but we have chosen our style of life.” If that was how Karanka reacted to a run of one defeat in 15, Boro’s players – having lost four of their last eight – can look forward to a particularly frosty winter this year, at least unless there’s a very significant upturn over the next few weeks. So if they add to the commendable points they have recently earned against Arsenal and Manchester City, they should refrain from asking their manager if he’d like to celebrate with a nice mince pie and a festive movie. It’s a Wonderful Life? Don’t get him started. SB

10) Moyes and Phelan in last chance saloon – already?

Rock bottom host third from bottom in a six-pointer between two teams many observers believe are not good enough to stay in the Premier League whatever the outcome. Despite largely dreadful results this season, both David Moyes and Mike Phelan are seeking unlikely consecutive victories after signing off for the international break with wins over benevolent opposition from the south coast. Hull haven’t won two on the spin since August, while no team managed by Moyes has embarked on anything longer than a one-match winning streak since April 2014. Of course he has not been in gainful employment for all of that time and another spell out of work seems imminent if Sunderland lose this match and remain anchored to the bottom of the table. Speculation had linked him with the Scotland job currently held by Gordon Strachan, who has been given the unanimous backing of the Scottish Football Association despite a bad run of results. He would not be missed on Wearside, while his opposite number at Hull City, another club plagued by boardroom incompetence, also has about him the air of a dead man who will be walking sooner rather than later. BG





 

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