If the forthcoming Premier League fixtures prove to be anything like as good as they look on paper, an international break over the Easter period could not be coming at a better time. We’ll all need a lie down in a dark room with only our thoughts, a chocolate egg and a smattering of coma-inducing international friendlies for company.
The stars have somehow aligned to create a fixture list with no dead rubbers. At a push Watford’s hosting of Stoke City is the type of game that is more interesting than exciting, but otherwise from top to bottom it’s a smorgasbord of beauties from which even the most challenging of palates will find something to gorge on.
Victories for Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur in the most recent round of matches has led to widespread—if not entirely universal—declarations that the final furlong of the season is effectively a two-horse race in terms of the title.
Sunday’s Manchester and Tyne-Wear derbies could have devastating repercussions for all the sides involved, albeit at opposite ends of the table, while West Ham United travel to Chelsea nine points ahead of their capital cohorts aware that a win would see them supplant Manchester City, for a day at least, in the final UEFA Champions League place.
West Ham boss Slaven Bilic should, and undoubtedly will, fancy his side's chances at Stamford Bridge. The Hammers have won their last three Premier League games and shown they love nothing more than firing a stone toward the temple of Goliath(s). That analogy, at least in my mind, conjures images of David Gold in a loincloth and should therefore be scrubbed from all records.
While Chelsea's 13-match unbeaten run in the league under Guus Hiddink is impressive, it's worth noting they have drawn more than half of those games and won just two at home. Diego Costa's absence through suspension as a result of his recent heavy-petting session with Gareth Barry deprives Chelsea of a striker who has scored eight goals since Hiddink replaced Mourinho in December.
If Dimitri Payet celebrates his call-up to the France squad with a performance anything like those that got him there, all signs point toward a West Ham win.
Liverpool’s renaissance of late peaked with Thursday night’s 1-1 draw at Old Trafford that secured not just a place in the last eight of the UEFA Europa League but north-west bragging rights for the foreseeable future. If they follow it up with a win at Southampton, fourth place may not seem the impossible dream it was just a few weeks back.
At the less salubrious but no less intriguing end of the table, Norwich City travel to West Bromwich Albion in a game that hovers in that awkward space between "must-win" and "must-not-lose."
Meanwhile, Swansea City head coach Francesco Guidolin, per Sky Sports, has described his side’s Saturday teatime clash with Aston Villa as "the most important game of the season for us." No pressure there then, lads.
Can Leicester Keep It Together?
Leicester City’s trip to the capital to face Crystal Palace on Saturday is not dissimilar to their hosting of Newcastle United on Monday night. It’s a different pressure Claudio Ranieri’s summit-dwellers are facing.
For all the Italian’s protestations that anything from here on in represents a bonus for his side, this is a game they are fully expected to win. Anything other than a three-point haul for Leicester will engender acute disappointment in pretty much everyone except Crystal Palace and Spurs supporters. Leicester’s days for free hits are over. They are at the top on merit, and as such they will be judged accordingly.
Palace are the only side in England’s top four divisions yet to have posted a league victory in the calendar year. Without a Premier League win in 12 and with the distraction, albeit a pretty one, of an FA Cup semi-final on the horizon, these are tricky times for the Eagles.
Even Alan Pardew, a man who can’t leave his house without first winking at himself in the mirror and making a two-thumbed salute in the style of the Fonz, looks nervous. Having Scott Dann as your joint-top goalscorer in the league (five) can break even the most indomitable of spirits.
Pardew was at the King Power Stadium to watch Leicester eke out a nervy 1-0 victory over Newcastle. If he takes anything from the game, it should be Rafa Benitez’s positioning of his back four. It was so deep, it effectively meant he played with five goalkeepers. Quite why it has escaped so many Premier League managers that to negate the threat of Jamie Vardy and his counter-attacking chums you need to leave no space in behind is one of life’s great mysteries.
Palace would do well to take on Leicester at their own game and use the pace of Wilfried Zaha and Yannick Bolasie on the counter as the Foxes do with Vardy and Riyad Mahrez.
All Spurs' Focus on Title Tilt
Tottenham host Bournemouth a day later having suffered (if that's the right word for a convenient defeat) Europa League elimination to Borussia Dortmund on Thursday. Spurs can now concentrate solely on the Premier League without the distraction of potentially another 49 European games between now and the season’s close.
The side selected in the first leg against what is a fine Dortmund side nailed Mauricio Pochettino’s colours to a full-on assault for the title.
"We are in a period now, after eight months, where we start to compete," he said, per the Daily Mirror, after Thursday’s 2-1 defeat to Dortmund at White Hart Lane, which saw them go out 5-1 on aggregate.
"We have eight games left in the Premier League, we need to try to win every game."
On the back of a second three-game winning run of the season, Bournemouth travel to White Hart Lane in optimum spirits, content in the knowledge the 38 points they have accrued already, with eight matches left to play, would have been enough to keep them up last season.
It's fair to say at the start of the season Eddie Howe would have taken being level on points with Everton, two off Chelsea and six behind Liverpool at this stage of the campaign.
Bournemouth are unbeaten in five away games and have lost just two of their last nine on the road. A goalless draw at Leicester at the start of January is likely to have given Pochettino food for thought.
After Bournemouth come games against Liverpool and Manchester United. Like with Leicester, anything other than a Spurs win on Sunday would be the bitterest of pills to swallow.
Wenger Feels the Heat Ahead of Trip to Merseyside
"Familiarity breeds contempt, while rarity wins admiration."
It showed some foresight from Roman philosopher, orator, writer and Arsenal supporter Lucius Apuleius to come up with a two-part proverb that boils Arsene Wenger’s essence into one digestible sound bite.
Those who choke on the perpetual dilemma that is Wenger’s tenure at the Emirates Stadium tend to have a foot in both camps. He may be one of football’s great modernists, but Wenger last built something of genuine note back in 2003/04.
On the back of a week that has encompassed eliminations from both the FA Cup and Champions League, when coupled with a disastrous league run that has seen Arsenal win just two of their last eight games, it's safe to say anti-Wenger sentiments are building up to a level that haven't been matched since, well, this time last season. But you get the point.
Apuleius lived between 124 and 170 AD, sometime just before Wenger arrived in England from Japan dressed like a supply teacher who’d be lucky to see out the day.
Just as all right-minded children behave when faced with a new taskmaster, Arsenal’s players tested the boundaries. A collective response to the urbane Frenchman's ban on chocolate was to sing “we want our Mars bars” from the back of the first-team coach en route to his first game in charge at Blackburn Rovers. In 1996, making a concession to diet was only having gravy on weeknights.
"Does he even speak English properly," was captain Tony Adams’ response to the appointment of a man who would revolutionise English football. Paul Merson responded by making a noise that sounded something like "fuzzy duck." The rest is history.
Twenty years on, the qualities that once seemed rare to the point of perhaps being unique are deemed antiquated by his detractors. Even those who haven’t come close to raiding their deposits of goodwill may have balked at Wenger labelling speculation over his future "a farce," per BT Sport.
He’s effectively levelling the same accusation at any supporter who expects more than he has delivered.
To be fair, there are more people in England with an opinion on his future than there are with one on the merits of EU membership. If Wenger’s position at Arsenal went to a referendum, there would be a record turnout.
Wednesday night’s 3-1 defeat in Barcelona, which condemned the Gunners to fall at the first knockout stage of the Champions League for a sixth successive season, effectively flatlined any realistic chance of silverware. At this time of year, nurses don’t even bother calling for a doctor before turning Arsenal’s machine off.
A fight for fourth in May is familiar to the point of being bilious to those who have shuffled from camp trust to rust.
In typical Arsenal fashion, when the pressure was off at the Nou Camp, they hinted at how good they can be. When it got semi-serious at 1-1, Barcelona rolled their eyes at such chutzpah before playfully ruffling the hair of their opponent and pinching a cheek to remind the watching world this was essentially Barca-lite taking on the full-fat version in the latter's backyard.
An homage to Catalonia that left Arsenal coming up for air, George Orwell might have said.
Defeat to the world’s best club, which in the words of Wenger, per BBC Sport, “transform normal life into art” is one thing; losing at home to Watford in the FA Cup and falling 11 points behind Leicester City in the Premier League table another thing altogether.
It’s safe to say this week’s meeting of the north London existentialist society will have been standing room only ahead of Saturday’s trip to Everton.
Roberto Martinez has faced similar criticism to Wenger all season, with many Everton supporters and media pundits alike having questioned whether he is the right candidate to take the club forward under its new ownership.
In Thursday’s pre-match briefing with the media, per the Liverpool Echo, Martinez was staunch in his defence of a manager for whom he has made no secret of his admiration. Just to clarify, in no way was he alluding to his own predicament in the statement below.
It's the modern world we live in; when we're so easily led to criticise. There is a need to have an opinion and criticise the losing team.
The modern game is ruthless and at the back of a defeat you'll get criticised - and everyone has an opinion and everyone knows better than you and that's disappointing.
I know what Wenger has done as a manager. Bringing a completely different approach into the game.
He has changed British football and what he has achieved is a model that many, many football people have been inspired by.
Martinez may not like it, but Everton supporters could look at a squad in possession of some of the most coveted players in the league and ponder whether an 11th-place finish last season and a current position of 12th, squeezed in between such luminaries as West Brom and Bournemouth, is all that.
One thing Everton fans can't complain about is a lack of goals. Only Leicester, Tottenham and Manchester City have outscored them this season. If Romelu Lukaku, on the back of his wonder goal against Chelsea last time out, can bully Arsenal's defenders as he did a couple of years back at Goodison Park—when he knocked through Per Mertesacker and his pals like a bowling ball dropping pins in a 3-0 win—expect tears.
Both on the field and in the dugout.
The Biggest Tyne-Wear Derby of Them All?
If Sam Allardyce steers Sunderland to a remarkable seventh consecutive Tyne-Wear derby win over Newcastle United, it is not unfeasible Rafa Benitez will never be seen again.
Should Sunderland take the lead at St. James’ Park at any point on Sunday, it would be worth the fourth official keeping an eye on whether Benitez is surreptitiously dropping soil from his trouser leg. We’ve all seen The Great Escape.
Benitez would definitely rather face the firing squad than have to endure an Easter week haunted by Allardyce’s crumpled half-moon smile every time he tucks into an egg. If Allardyce can beat Benitez and Newcastle in one afternoon, his life's work will be complete.
To say the pair have history would be to say Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor endured the odd spat. It’s a similar love-hate relationship Benitez and Allardyce share; they really do love to hate one another.
“Rafa has got personal with it for many years now—that’s why I don’t like him and the feeling is probably mutual,” Allardyce once said, per ChronicleLive.
"Do you know how many trophies he has won?” Benitez bristled, when Allardyce claimed the Spaniard had "nowt to do" with Liverpool’s Champions League win in 2005, in his autobiography, Big Sam: Why I 'ate Rafa.
"His opinion does not have a lot of value," the Spaniard concluded.
No one is ruling out a touchline barmy that culminates in a spot of mud wrestling.
In all competitions, the two have gone head-to-head on 12 occasions. Benitez has won seven of these contests, the last being back on May 17, 2013, when his Chelsea side beat Allardyce’s West Ham United 2-0.
The 156th edition of one of football’s most passionate fixtures will be unbearable for supporters of both clubs. For the neutral, it could not be set up more beautifully.
Just a point separates Sunderland in 17th and Newcastle in the penultimate relegation place.
Newcastle’s form going into a game ChronicleLive has billed the “£100 million Tyne-Wear derby” could barely be worse. Benitez’s men have lost six of their last seven Premier League fixtures, with just two wins coming from the previous 12. Sunderland’s own run of results is barely any better, with just one win in their last eight games.
When Sky Sports pronounce a game to be the "biggest," it’s hard to stifle a yawn given the broadcaster struggles to use the bathroom each morning without making similar boasts. For once, though, this genuinely might be the biggest Tyne-Wear derby ever.
Perhaps even bigger than the Good Friday riots of 1901 when 70,000 Newcastle and Sunderland supporters converged at St. James’ Park, which at the time had a capacity of 30,000. Just 25 policemen were on duty, so it was no surprise when the game was abandoned before a ball had been kicked.
Although Benitez’s bow at Leicester City on Monday evening ended in defeat there was tentative cause for optimism. The rousing reception he received from the travelling Toon faithful suggests talk of him being an unpopular appointment was nonsense.
Newcastle certainly looked decidedly more compact at the King Power Stadium than the abomination of a side that had less shape than a pair of supermarket jeans under Steve McClaren.
There was no little passion, either. But Benitez's biggest problem remains a lack of firepower that has seen Newcastle outscored by every other side in the Premier League other than Aston Villa.
Maybe now isn’t the time to remind him that in the previous six fixtures between the two sides, Newcastle have claimed just one of 14 goals scored. Mathieu Debuchy netted in 2013 to the sound of no Toon hands clapping.
Such has been the unmitigated misery of both teams' respective seasons it has been reported Kathy Bates has been drafted in to officiate.
A Fight for 4th: Is This What It Has Come to, Manchester?
The 171st Manchester derby could be a sobering experience for all involved.
It is nigh on 25 years since the last time the fixture was played between two sides outside of the top three. Manchester United travel to the Etihad Stadium having endured Liverpool supporters enjoying their best night out in years on Thursday, at Old Trafford.
In inflicting on Louis van Gaal and his players the club's first elimination to English opponents in their rich history of playing European football, Liverpool set a new low for many.
It's a measure of how far United have fallen that after a game in which they needed to score four goals to progress but managed just three shots shots on target, the common consensus was it was an improved performance.
As aspirations go, trying hard is a fairly depressing one for a club of Manchester United's ilk. Should they lose on Sunday, to fall seven points behind their neighbours in the hunt for fourth place, Van Gaal's position will become even more untenable.
Manuel Pellegrini has been at pains to dispute the idea the Champions League is Manchester City’s sole priority. At some point, he could do with telling his players that forcefully.
The recent date with Norwich City should have provided Pellegrini’s side with an ideal opportunity to chip away at the target he had set, per Sky Sports, of nine victories from their 10 remaining Premier League fixtures.
Make that nine from nine after a goalless draw at Carrow Road in which Manchester City’s players embodied one of their fans' favourite anthems: "We’re Not Really Here." In body perhaps. Certainly not in spirit.
"It leaves nine out of nine, then," declared Vincent Kompany, per the Daily Mirror. "If that’s what the manager said, we are still on track."
The sight of City's captain hobbling out of Tuesday's draw with Dynamo Kiev, which ensured the club made the last eight of the Champions League for the first time, made the achievement the ultimate bittersweet experience. Pellegrini's decision to start Kompany six times in 20 days indicates just how desperate City are.
Nicolas Otamendi also had to be replaced on the night, which could mean deputies Eliaquim Mangala and Martin Demichelis start on Sunday. If this is indeed the case, the club has confirmed it will place brown paper bags under the seats of all home supporters.
To have any chance of usurping Leicester City at the Premier League summit, leapfrogging Tottenham and Arsenal in the process, City will likely have to take a maximum 27 points between now and the campaign’s close. They haven’t managed consecutive league victories since October.
A 3-1 defeat to Leicester at the Etihad Stadium on Feb. 6 set off a run of just two victories from their last nine matches—at Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League and at home to Aston Villa. In terms of a free hit, the latter is the equivalent of attacking a pinata without the blindfold.
While it’s true City have failed to take a point from any side outside of the bottom four since the Feb. 1 announcement Pep Guardiola would take charge in the summer, it would be disingenuous not to recognise the fact the rot had set in much earlier. As excuses for a malaise go, it’s a fairly neat one. But it's also one that doesn’t quite ring true under scrutiny.
City’s record in the league since November reads: seven wins, six losses and five draws. Forty-one of Man City's 51 Premier League points this season (82 per cent) have come against teams in the bottom half of the table, according to Opta.
Go even further back, to a time when Pep was still very much courting nudges and winks from beyond Manchester, and City’s indifferent form stretches all the way to September. An away win at Selhurst Park on Sep. 12 was remarkably not followed by another on the road until they beat Watford on January 2. That’s the best part of four months in which City relied on home comforts more than the love child of Harper Lee and JD Salinger.
Manchester City were so anemic at Carrow Road the club doctor administered shots of iron to all involved on the flight home.
It seems an odd thing to say about the only English side already guaranteed silverware for the season and the only one still standing in the Champions League, yet it is hard to watch them sometimes and not arrive at the conclusion they don’t look that bothered.
Joe Hart tends to call things as he sees them and on occasion wears the look of a man who would rather be anywhere else than in front of whomever is charged with asking awkward questions; otherwise, they tend to be an affable lot. Perhaps to a fault.
We'll see just how friendly they are on Sunday.
All statistics provided by WhoScored.com unless otherwise stated.