1) If Spurs don’t find bottle they will get smashed
Since that exhilarating victory over Manchester City, Spurs have gone six games without a win and their performance in Wednesday’s defeat by Bayer Leverkusen at Wembley amounted to a bottle job of England-v-Iceland proportions, with several of the same culprits plus some character masquerading as a £30m midfielder. The north London derby offers a chance for rapid redemption but if Spurs players cannot get their heads sufficiently together to pass to each other and track runners, at least, then Mauricio Pochettino’s embarrassment is about to get an awful lot deeper. PD
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2) Will Pedro continue his improvement?
Chelsea’s recent upturn has been triggered by a change of formation that has allowed individual to flourish, most obviously Eden Hazard and Victor Moses but also Pedro. The Spaniard had started only one league game this season until Antonio Conte switched to a back three, whereupon Pedro became instrumental in the thrashings of Leicester and Manchester United and last week’s authoritative victory at Southampton. Where once it seemed like he would become as redundant as Cesc Fàbregas, Pedro now represents surprising Chelsea depth given that he has started the last three league games instead of Willian. The strength of Chelsea’s defence, meanwhile, could be about to get its toughest test since the formation switch, as Romelu Lukaku and Yannick Bolasie bring their double-act to Stamford Bridge. PD
3) Swansea and United need to make it count
Swansea may have won only one – the first – of their 10 league games, but they can at least cling to their recent record against United: the last four matches have finished 2-1, with the Swans winning three of them. And if their new manager, Bob Bradley, had no direct experience of any of those games, they at least will have a manager: José Mourinho serves a touchline ban as a result of his half-time ranting at Mark Clattenburg during last week’s home draw with Burnley. In the month since his appointment Bradley has had time to analyse his squad, and the assessment he delivered on Thursday appeared worrying: “On the surface, the group does a good job with everything,” he said. “But in games, situations develop quickly and the ability to recognise situations, smell danger, react, make plays in moments that really count, that is, for me, the area missing the most.” It is a fairly crucial area to be deficient in, though one that Mourinho’s United appears equally troubled by. Against Burnley last week they had 72% of possession but drew; against Stoke in their previous Premier League home game they had 67% and drew again; against Fenerbahce on Thursday they had 65% of possession, allowing the Turkish side just two shots on target, and lost. This match will be won by the side that overcomes recent issues to master those pesky “moments that really count”. SB
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4) The Beast is back but Etihad drought likely to continue
When these teams met for the last time before Sheikh Mansour bought Manchester City in 2008, Middlesbrough won 8-1. It was the final day of the 2007-08 season, which City finished in ninth place; their last 10 games also featured defeats to Reading, Fulham and Birmingham and a draw at Bolton. This time City come into the game on top of the league, and on the back of a 3-1 victory over Barcelona. If memories of that visit to the Riverside are unlikely to send City fans into misty-eyed reminiscence, the return of Álvaro Negredo might. The Spaniard formed a thrilling partnership with Sergio Agüero during the first half of his one season in England, scoring 24 goals for his club before the end of January – and then none at all in the remainder of the campaign, which he ended with a league winner’s medal and a one-way ticket to Valencia. Though his return to England was also initially impressive – his first two games featured a goal and two assists – this time his prolific form did not even last until the end of August, though he did set up Stewart Downing’s second against Bournemouth last week. “He was good there and won the league,” said Aitor Karanka on Thursday of the striker’s time at City. “It’s an important game for him but the main thing for me is he’s improving, he’s fighting for the team. As a striker, you’re always thinking about scoring goals but when you’re a good striker and not scoring goals, you have to work for the team. He’s doing that.” He can expect a warm reception but in his new colours the run of nine league games at the Etihad without a goal with which he ended 2013-14 seems likely to stretch to 10. SB
5) Does Dyche stick with two up top against Palace?
Burnley had not won so much as a point away from home this season before their goalless draw at Old Trafford last weekend, but their 10 points from six home games is the ninth-best record in the division. Two of their three wins at Turf Moor – as well as an excellent but unrewarded performance against Arsenal, who won only thanks to an injury-time offside handball – came during Andre Gray’s four-match ban. Sean Dyche switched from a 4-4-2 to a 4-2-3-1, with Sam Vokes leading the attack single-handedly and room for Dean Marney, Steven Defour and Jeff Hendrick to all play in midfield. Last week the 4-4-2 came back. “It was a really big decision because we had done quite well, but away from home we haven’t done so well,” said Dyche of the change. “We thought: ‘Let’s go and take the game on a bit,’ and that’s why we went with the two strikers, in that attempt to be brave.” But his decision-making was made more straightforward last weekend by the combination of Gray’s return and a minor hamstring injury to Defour, which ruled the Belgian out of the game. This weekend, with both Defour and Gray expected to be available, he has a genuine dilemma. Does he leave out Vokes, who has scored in two of his last three games, Gray, last season’s top scorer – though he has only one goal to his name this campaign – or meddle in the middle? Palace arrive with the division’s eighth-best away record, an impressive statistic but not one that will unduly worry their hosts – four of the top seven have already visited Turf Moor this season, and three of them were beaten. SB
6) Zieler could soften blow of losing Schmeichel
Now the wisdom of Leicester’s purchase of Ron-Robert Zieler should become clear, as may the extent of Kasper Schmeichel’s misfortune. The Dane has been excellent this season, the only Leicester player so far to perform even better than last season. But the absence enforced by the hand break he suffered against Copenhagen in mid-week should give Zieler a long run in the team and a chance to establish himself as the club’s No1. The German did not miss a single Bundesliga match in the five seasons at Hannover before joining Leicester last summer but has played only sporadically so far this term. West Bromwich Albion, if they are in one of their rare bold moods, may seek to test his match sharpness and his understanding with his relatively new team-mates. They are unlikely to find Leicester have been ruinously weakened. PD
7) Hornets’ defence depleted against red-hot Liverpool
It took until mid-October for Watford to keep a clean sheet but having managed it for the first time at Middlesbrough three weeks ago they repeated the feat in their next two games, and, excluding stoppage time, Heurelho Gomes is but 120 seconds away from going 300 minutes unbeaten. Away from home, only Arsenal and Tottenham have better defensive records. It is an impressive achievement, particularly given that of the four players who regularly contest the three central defensive positions in Walter Mazzarri’s preferred formation only one – Younès Kaboul, a summer arrival from Sunderland for around £3.5m – was signed for a fee, and Gomes was also a free transfer. But the mountainous Austrian centre-half Sebastian Prödl limped out of last week’s victory over Hull, apparently with a muscle injury, and with Craig Cathcart also injured it is likely only two of the four will be available for this, their sternest test of the season so far. Whether Mazzarri’s response will be to bring in Christian Kabasele, the Belgium international who has played eight first-team minutes since August, or to move to a back four, a defence unchanged throughout their recent solid streak will be fundamentally altered. They face a team who have scored two or more goals in eight of their last nine games and have shown the ability to make even the most secure rearguards become bedraggled. There is, in short, plenty of encouragement for Liverpool, whose only obvious cause of concern would come if Nordin Amrabat, the Moroccan winger who made Hull’s stand-in left-back Sam Clucas appear utterly wretched at Vicarage Road last week, manages to repeat the trick against James Milner, another player unaccustomed to that position, who is expected to return after missing the 4-2 win at Crystal Palace. SB
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8) Cherries will show Sunderland how sweet life can be
The teams have met eight times before, with three of the four games at Sunderland drawn 1-1 and three of the four at Bournemouth won 1-0 by the visitors. Of the latter run, the odd one out came last season, when two goals in the first 10 minutes including an absolute peach by Matt Ritchie and Younès Kaboul’s second-half red card helped the Cherries to a straightforward home victory over then-winless opponents (it was only September). This is Sunderland’s 10th successive season in the top flight and just the second in Bournemouth’s history to be spent among the elite, but there’s no doubt which side’s recent past looks more successful: since Eddie Howe’s return to the south coast in October 2012 his side have won 81 league games, at the rate – including the fallow summer months – of one every 18 days, while in the same period Sunderland have won 34, waiting on average more than six weeks between each one. Sunderland’s fans have on average been given a goal to cheer every nine days, two hours and 39 minutes, while Bournemouth’s have had to wait only five days, four hours and 37 minutes for a good excuse to celebrate. Surely nobody on Wearside is looking at the possibility of relegation with anything but dread, but as they face the apparent certainty of another season spent scrapping desperately for survival, cast envious glances at nearby Newcastle – who after a shaky start to their Championship campaign have won 14 of their last 16 games – and come up against a side who arrived in the Premier League last summer propelled by a slingshot of team spirit and forward momentum, the dreariness of their recent Groundhog season existence seems overwhelming. In other news, this will be the 10th Bournemouth game to be officiated by Mike Dean, but only his second visit to the stadium that – title sponsorship notwithstanding – bears his name. SB
9) Will Hull stop rut before crucial run?
As they bid to avoid a seventh successive league defeat, Hull can take encouragement from last week’s display against Watford, where Mike Phelan’s use of the 3-5-2 system made the most of Michael Dawson’s return to fitness and gave the team such solidity Watford did not muster a shot on target all game (the winner was an own goal). Sam Clucas clearly still needs to get more used to the wing-back role but he has proven since joining Hull from Chesterfield last year that learning quickly is one of his many attributes. So it is not time for Hull to abandon all hope – especially if Robert Snodgrass is available again – an there is a small chance that they could take a point off Southampton and lift morale before a humungous set of fixtures after the international break, when they face fellow relegation contenders Sunderland, WBA, Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace as well as a EFL Cup quarter-final with Newcastle. PD
10) What will Stoke do without Arnautovic?
If we are to include contract extensions, then Stoke made two of the best signings of last summer, as Marko Arnautovic pledged his future to the club two days after the arrival of Joe Allen. The defence remains suspect but Mark Hughes deserves praise for overseeing improvement at Stoke in recent weeks and it will be interesting how he replaces the suspended Arnautovic at West Ham, especially if Xherdan Shaqiri is also out. The adventurous option would be to plump for Ramadan Sobhi, the skilful teenager who did well after being sprung from the bench against Swansea on Monday. Jonathan Walters would probably provide more solidity, it not pace. Bojan Krkic, meanwhile, has allowed himself to slip down the pecking order and should be given a metaphorical boot up the backside before getting another start. PD
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 10 | 15 | 23 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 10 | 13 | 23 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 10 | 11 | 23 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 10 | 12 | 22 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 10 | 9 | 20 |
| 6 | Everton | 10 | 7 | 18 |
| 7 | Watford | 10 | 1 | 15 |
| 8 | Man Utd | 10 | 1 | 15 |
| 9 | Southampton | 10 | 1 | 13 |
| 10 | AFC Bournemouth | 10 | -2 | 12 |
| 11 | Leicester | 10 | -4 | 12 |
| 12 | Stoke | 10 | -5 | 12 |
| 13 | Crystal Palace | 10 | -2 | 11 |
| 14 | Burnley | 10 | -5 | 11 |
| 15 | Middlesbrough | 10 | -2 | 10 |
| 16 | West Brom | 10 | -4 | 10 |
| 17 | West Ham | 10 | -9 | 10 |
| 18 | Hull | 10 | -15 | 7 |
| 19 | Swansea | 10 | -9 | 5 |
| 20 | Sunderland | 10 | -13 | 2 |
