1) Will City cope with United’s middle managers?
It says much about Manchester City’s malaise that the one area the balance of power looks likely to be decided in the Manchester derby is midfield – often the territory in recent seasons where no other team has been able to touch the combination of power and panache that Yaya Touré and David Silva offered the 2012 and 2014 champions. In recent months this is the area that Louis van Gaal has finally got to grips with while Manuel Pellegrini has floundered over his malfunctioning engine room. Michael Carrick, Ander Herrera and the advanced physical presence of Marouane Fellaini have proven a sturdy and no-nonsense solution to a United problem that has been talked about since Roy Keane’s departure many years ago.
While Fellaini has been rightly lauded for his ability to pluck the ball out of the air with unfathomable regularity in recent matches, his use of the ball when he has got it down on the floor has often been overlooked. He very rarely gave the ball away in a dominant display at Anfield. Herrera and Carrick have proven adept at controlling traffic deeper in midfield too. Indeed, this could prove too much for a City midfield in which Touré appears to have given up the ghost and only the prosaic presence of Fernandinho seems to be functioning. City can be among the league’s most inventive teams when things are going their way but when the chips are down the creative juices of Silva, Jesús Navas, Samir Nasri and Touré often dry up. It’s hard not to see midfield being the key battleground again – and unless City find some extra pep from Touré and co, they may end up nursing another wounding defeat on the road. GB
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• Young calls on Manchester United to end losing run against City
• Manchester City’s malaise: five problem areas to address
2) Hull’s hellish run-in begins
Hull City are two points above the relegation zone but do not have control of their own destiny. Because no one does, that’s what destiny means! Still, Steve Bruce has more to worry about than a contradictory cliché, such as a creative department with no invention and a fixture list that could not look more daunting if it were written in blood. Five of Hull’s remaining matches are against teams in the top seven, starting with the ominous trek to Southampton. Hull have failed to score in 13 of their last 23 matches and it is difficult to imagine them finding the net against a Southampton side who continue to defend superbly, especially if Dame N’Doye performs as he did at Swansea last week, when the usually threatening striker seemed distracted by his own frustration. The most realistic rosy scenario for Bruce is that Graziano Pellè’s woes in front of goal linger, Shane Long continues his dry finishing spell and Allen McGregor recovers from his recent bout of the jitters to keep goal with solidity. PD
• Chelsea target Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin and Nathaniel Clyne
3) Sherwood should resist his desire to go to Spurs all guns blazing
It’s hard not to imagine Tim Sherwood swaggering back into White Hart Lane like a vengeful cowboy returning to the tumbleweed-town in which he was wronged. Everything about his character suggests he’ll want to prove a point by firing his players out of a gun at the opposition on Saturday afternoon. He has a potent weapon in Christian Benteke – and Sherwood is more than capable of damaging his former employer by setting his team up to make the most of the in-form Belgian. But while the Aston Villa manager has finally managed to wring some goals out of his shot-shy squad in recent fixtures, it has come at a cost. Villa are just as likely to let in three goals as they are to score them at present. Villa face Manchester City in the league after their trip to Spurs. Laying off the gung-ho attitude of recent games and allowing a little of the Lambertism that still remains in his squad to resurface, may be more helpful. Gaining a point may be Sherwood’s best way to prove one at White Hart Lane. GB
• Hugo Lloris a serious doubt for Tottenham’s game with Villa
4) QPR’s dynamism gives them hope … even against Chelsea
What refreshing change Chris Ramsey has brought to QPR, who so often seemed stagnant under Harry Redknapp. True, a couple of performances under the new manager have reeked but mostly Rangers have seemed invigorated, with new dynamism and effectiveness on the pitch reflecting the energy and adaptability with which Ramsey has sought solutions to the squad’s many deficiencies. Some of his ploys have backfired – resurrecting Shaun Wright-Phillips in an attempt to help young Darnell Furlong subdue Yannick Bolasie at Crystal Palace certainly did not work – but Ramsey has adapted quickly to misjudgments and continued to try stimulating positive change. That attitude has, mostly, been shared by the players. Rangers’ defence is still rickety and Chelsea, with Loïc Rémy likely to start in his return to Loftus Road in the absence of Diego Costa, should be able to outscore their hosts. But if the league leaders are as below par as they have been quite often in recent months, then they could be in for another chastening time at the home of their local rivals. PD
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• Forget about Ronaldo, it is QPR’s Phillips you need to worry about
• Video: Ramsey on QPR’s defence after 3-3 draw with Aston Villa
5) An ethical dilemma for Dyche?
The new bishop of Burnley, the Right Reverend Philip North, revealed this week that he has been praying for Sean Dyche’s team to stay in the Premier League. Asking a god to intervene to relegate Leicester, QPR and, say, Sunderland, seems gravely unsporting and possibly even evil, so the good bishop presumably made a more nuanced supplication. And perhaps he could even offer some ethical advice to Dyche, who may be, but probably isn’t, grappling with the question of whether to rest his entire first team for the visit of Arsenal this weekend. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that Burnley will derail the Premier League’s most in-form team, but it might be more realistic for Burnley to target their six other remaining league matches, all of which look eminently more winnable. So rather than risk injury to Danny Ings and co, what if Dyche made the pragmatic decision to tone down his club’s pluckiness this weekend in order to be even stronger during the rest of the run-in? The fact that such a move would undoubtedly infuriate José Mourinho might seem satisfying revenge for the Chelsea manager’s attack on Ashley Barnes earlier this season but should probably not come into the reckoning. PD
6) Sunderland aren’t facing Hull – and that’s a good thing
Sunderland’s past three victories over Newcastle have each been followed by a defeat … to Hull. It’s a curious statistic. All that emotional expenditure has come at a cost – and has been expertly exploited by Steve Bruce, the man who believes he probably should still be in charge at Sunderland. Anyway, Dick Advocaat’s objective should be to ensure he doesn’t allow Crystal Palace and Alan Pardew - a man who also knows a thing or two about Tyne-Wear derbies – to take advantage of any slip in intensity levels when his side face Palace at the Stadium of Light on Saturday. Connor Wickham has spoken of the Dutchman’s steeliness in training sessions and doesn’t foresee them making the same mistakes they have made after recent derby wins. “There’s a bit of grit about us … we’re not looking down, we’re looking at who we can catch and suck in – put them in the fight instead of us.” A win against Palace would certainly go some way to sucking their local rivals into the mire with them. GB
• Defoe says derby winner as good as World Cup goal
• Dominic Fifield: Palace feel the benefit of Murray’s Indian summer
7) How will Newcastle fans react at Anfield?
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Newcastle’s league form in 2015 is miserable. It’s fast approaching the depths of 2014 that led to a banner being displayed by miffed supporters at Swansea last October likening last year’s results to a Welsh town. If you go back even further, to November 2014, the run of results is eerily similar – and just plain dreadful. Alan Pardew’s departure goes some way to explaining the staggering downturn but, as has been made clear in recent weeks, the lack of ambition from the board is startling. The decision to wait until the end of the season to find a successor to Pardew could be one of Mike Ashley’s most costly mistakes. It’s an example of the lack of care and attention that could lead to fans being absent at just the time when the team needs them most.
A run of four losses in a row – including the spiritless defeat at Sunderland last Sunday – has tipped some of the most faithful supporters (often lampooned for their unswerving loyalty) over the edge. Plans for a boycott of Newcastle’s home match against Spurs on Sunday 19 April are being made. If three points are surrendered again at Anfield, the team could then be hovering dangerously close to the relegation zone. You can attach no blame to exasperated supporters, who feel as though they are constantly being being milked for every spare penny and receiving so little in return, for choosing to stay at home. But an injury-ravaged paper-thin squad devoid of confidence, character and goals will probably need a bit of vocal encouragement for a testing run-in. How the fans in the away end react at Anfield will go some way to revealing whether John Carver’s struggling team will get it. GB
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8) Will Pearson’s new-found zen help Leicester’s late survival bid?
For a manager who has often seemed on the verge of spontaneous combustion this season, Nigel Pearson has cut a very relaxed figure since watching Andy King give his team’s hopes of survival a shot in the arm with his winning goal against West Ham last weekend. “My job with the players is to try to release them from the pressure that comes from external influences,” he said in the buildup to the match against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday. “We have got to try to go out there and keep free and play games. Results elsewhere will affect other people’s views and perspectives on our run-in and what our prospects are. Whatever happens elsewhere, we have to remain very much in control of what we can do ourselves.” With a game or two in hand over their closest rivals in the muck and the mire at the bottom of the league, the Leicester manager may have found just the right time to infuse a little calm in the dressing room. His squad’s average age is just shy of 29, as well as a lack of optimism from many observers of their plight, may also help keep the pressure off at a crucial time. West Brom isn’t a bad place to be visiting. Tony Pulis’s team have slipped back into danger after suffering two defeats in their past two league games. GB
• Football Weekly Extra: the fight to stay in the Premier League
9) Swansea’s ambition may lead to rare mid-table excitement …
Despite Harry Redknapp’s amusing and apparently heartfelt recent declaration that the scramble to avoid Europa League qualification is now on, Garry Monk insists he would love to lead Swansea City back into into the competition after the club’s involvement last season. “The overview is that we had a taste of Europe last year, everyone enjoyed it and, of course, you’d love to get back to that,” he said at the beginning of last month. Should Arsenal or Liverpool win the FA Cup, qualification for Europe’s second-tier competition could go to the seventh-placed team in the Premier League and with Southampton’s form of late having been patchy, one suspects Monk will fancy his team’s chances of closing the seven-point gap that separates the sides and reeling them in.
Just one point off their previous best Premier League tally, the Swans are pitted against Everton in a Saturday lunchtime fixture. Along with Kenny Jackett and Brendan Rodgers, Roberto Martínez is one of several highly regarded coaches at whose collective knee the Premier League’s youngest manager has learned the skills that have helped ensure his first season in charge has been such a success. Indeed, the copious amount of points his team have dropped from winning positions, often off the back of some truly diabolical officiating, must have Monk pondering what might have been in the precious few idle moments that are afforded to him in his role as a young Premier League manager and father to infant twins.
The familiarity of both clubs and their quietly determined and ambitious managers, Swansea’s push for Europe and the prevailing sense that Martínez knows he has yet to truly convince Everton fans, suggests that a match which, on first glance resembles an exercise in mid-table futility, may be one of the more interesting and competitive this weekend. BG
• Swansea’s Naughton ruled out for season with ankle-ligament injury
10) … excitement that’s probably going to be absent at Upton Park
West Ham v Stoke: a match which on first glance resembles an exercise in mid-table futility and continues to resemble one no matter how intensely you stare at it. With both sides too good to go down, but not good enough to break through the glass ceiling and rub shoulders with the Premier League big boys, it’s difficult to know where either can go from here. Faces nightclub in Essex is hosting an Easter After Party with free admission for members and girls before 11pm on Saturday night, so don’t be surprised if some of those involved in this fixture end up there. BG
