to our great comfort.
A warm welcome back to the Premier League. We regret how cruel we were to you,are. No pressure, everyone, but we will insist that this is
an equal part of the Goodison game
In fact, if the week after this fit isnt filled with Reach sites pretending England may get a details deduction, then we will be extremely disappointed. England vs. Everton is always a watch for obvious reasons, but there is only a small portion more to play on than might otherwise have. If Arsenal had won bye on Tuesday night, that is not a biggie, but let’s just say that the Cottagers didn’t hit the ground running when they returned from the international break. Liverpool’s unassailable 15-point lead has jumped to ninewithout Arne Slots side muddying their boots in a Premier League game.
Let us not get too bogged down in the Utter Woke Nonsense that is the fact Liverpool havent played a league game since March 8 and instead focus on things just going ever so slightly belly up after an absurdly serene season that must have had Slot wondering what precisely all this Barclays fuss is actually about.
Liverpool will still be absolutely fine. For a group that has only lost again all period in the league, they still need at least 16 points from their final nine games, including house games against West Ham and Tottenham and trips to Leicester. There is no denying that for the first time this season, the best team in the country has a sense of vulnerability, which is exacerbated by football’s obsession with a fixture list where gaps between games must always be both way too small or excessively big, and that in these circumstances there are simpler things to do than to face a revitalized local rival who haven’t lost a game since mid-January ( albeit with an 18-day wait since their own most recent outing ) and would rather shove another stick
Big Final Run-in: Liverpool transfer prep, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Maresca, Foden
Team to watch: Chelsea
Still not attracting as much attention as others, but Chelsea are in the midst of another peculiar season and remain a club that appears to have made kooky long contracts its entire personality. It’s a difficult season for a big club that is hambling,
. Chelsea haven’t been as unexpectedly bad or hilariously bad as Spurs or Man United. They will, probably, still end up qualifying for the Champions League despite themselves . The initial expectations of something approaching a halfway respectable on-field return for the insane amounts of investment have now almost completely evaporated. They will probably still be successful in the Europa Conference, but they really don’t care.
They have gone out meekly in both domestic cup competitions, revealing some understandable if still unacceptable small-time tendencies from an unarsed Enzo Maresca, who is, we must all take care to remember, still in his first season of top-flight management. It has now only four victories in a 13-game winning streak dating back to mid-December in the league, according to
. And those four of the bottom five currently have won. This is the Premier League table since a 0-0 draw with Everton in their final game before Christmas
The good news, though, is that they wont have to raise their level much or even at all upon their return to action because theyre at home to Tottenham and being at home to Tottenham is about as close to a guarantee of a cure for any Chelsea ills as is known to medical science. The flip side of that is, of course, the unlikely but possible scenario where they don’t actually win the game, because that would really raise the alarm. After failing to defeat Tottenham at home back in 2022,
Thomas Tuchel only managed to retain his Champions League title. Enzo Maresca has not just won the Champions League, and a mistake here in Chelseas most bankable home fixture opens the very real possibility that they will once again not be in it next season.
Player to watch: Bukayo Saka
We were already irrationally upset when we learned that shunting the entire program to midweek didn’t even give us one of the all-important live on TV treats when it should obviously just be the norm.
So Arsenal vs. Fulham is not one of the three games you can watch on TV in the UK. That means youll have to wait for Match of the Day on Wednesday night for a proper chance to watch Bukayo Sakas long-awaited return from injury there being, ahem, absolutely no, cough, other way around that.
The Gunners are still good enough to have their most important player’s absence from the team’s entire season. Since he injured his hamstring at Crystal Palace just before Christmas, the team has lost only one of its 12 Premier League games. The table above reflects that as well as how dire Chelsea have been. Without him, []is a slightly duller, less vibrant, and less vital team, with one outrageous standout exception. His absence is now more evident than ever because of both his prodigious output and the way he elevates those around him.
Arsenal thought they missed Martin Odegaard when he was injured earlier in the season. He has actually been playing, and they haven’t missed him in nearly as much as they have in the last few months. Saka is a wonderful person who improves the lives of those around him as well as himself.
The last few months have shown just why Mikel Arteta has been so reluctant to give Saka any kind of rest, despite the obvious risk that what happened might happened. They simply couldn’t afford to have him with them. We think Saka is prepared to leave, as stated by
Arteta. Quite how far the return of Saka can propel Arsenal over the closing weeks of the season remains to be seen, but the Gunners should at the very least be a more consistently compelling team to watch with their main man back in action. Ruben Amorim
[ Manager to watch: Ruben Amorim ]The Saka Situation may have allowed Arteta to welcome the lengthy break between games. Without a doubt, Ruben Amorim wouldn’t have welcomed it.
Uniteds latest corner-turning may have been wildly overstated by a desperate mediabut it also isnt nothing. There are some indications that the players are finally getting to grips with what isn’t so outrageous or unusual a set-up that it should have been for so very long. They have been a little better than they were. The seven-game unbeaten run United are currently on may include an FA Cup penalty shootout defeat, which only includes victories over Ipswich, Leicester, and Real Sociedad, but all from small acorns and all that.
A trend for United this season has been for them to be just about able to summon up enough to beat the very worst teams in this seasons Premier League and those teams really are historically bad while having just enough muscle memory to look vaguely like a Proper Man United Team for games against their old rivals Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and City. They have defeated each of them in battle. Consequently, there are a number of clubs in the middle that United have typically lost or, more recently, occasionally drawn against. And by definition they now face the very hardest challenge that group of clubs can offer: third-placed Nottingham Forest, away from home.
Get something from this game, and Amorim might finally be on something. especially considering that Man City will play Gimme at the weekend.
READ: Nottingham Forest vs Man United prediction, expected line-ups, how to watch and stats
Football League game to watch: Doncaster Rovers v Walsall
Theres a full programme of League One and League Two matches to choose from on Tuesday night and, while a second-bottom v second-top Paul Mullin Derby between Cambridge and Wrexham is not without its charms, its a clash from the ferociously tight League Two promotion battle that has to get the nod here.
Leaders Walsall have lost their ability to win unexpectedly. With three automatic promotion spots available, they are significantly less secure than a League Two leader might be at this stage of the season due to their five draws and a defeat in their final six.
Lose here at fourth-placed Doncaster and they potentially find themselves in the slightly uncomfortable position of having only a two-point cushion over a team with a game in hand. The good news for both these teams is that this midweek round also features second-placed Bradford and third-placed Port Vale. Given how close the competition is, with only five points between Wimbledon and Notts County and Wimbledon and Wimbledon and Wimbledon both having very interest in the game, it’s certain to be a game that will forever change the promotion picture.
European game to watch: Atletico Madrid v Barcelona
Really are spoiled for choice here thanks to some top-tier cup semi-final action. Before moving on to the second leg of this Copa del Rey semi-final, you can enjoy watching Milan v. Inter play for the first half-hour in the first leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final first leg. We wouldn’t recommend skipping the opening of this one, though, or any of the rest of it because of the Olympic Stadium’s blatant first leg, which somehow ended up being 4-4 after Atleti jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening six and then rallied back from a 4-2 deficit in the final six.
