Manchester
United recent form has put a new twist on an old cliche. The worldwide break
came at a good time for United but not just for the common reasons. Football
fans can book Premier League Tickets on our website on exclusively
discounted prices.
1)
Revitalized Rashford can become a much-needed talisman
Marcus
Rashford’s acts before he went away with England were terrible he looked unhappy
put-off and in despairing need of a rest. It twisted out all he needed was a
change.
Rashford always seems happy playing for
England, and his attack goal to open the scoring in Bulgaria has outwardly
given him a huge dose of confidence and zeal. He has sparked United’s
mini-revival with a number of moments of coruscating genius.
A planned
change and the return of his on-field kindred spirit Anthony Martial have also
helped with Rashford now playing wide left or as a split striker rather than an
isolated No 9.
Rashford
is an injury doubt for the trip to Bournemouth, and will surely be missed
if unavailable. He is still a long way from the finished article like most
22-year-olds, but he is the most likely of the current team to become what all emergent
teams need a talisman.
2) Villa unrecognizable from 2016
rout by Reds
Liverpool last
league visit to Villa Park three and half a year ago completed in a 6-0 remarkable
for the hosts. Later a happy Jürgen Klopp said his team’s performance was good
for the soul.
Which was a right
turn of phrase not least because Villa back then was a club whose soul seemed
to have been hollowed out. Now though they have it back. Dean Smith has an energetic
team who is growing stronger by the week.
Do not be
fooled by last week’s 3-0 loss at Manchester City where Cabin was better than
the scoreline suggests. Liverpool faces a serious test particularly if Jack
Grealish recovers from a calf injury in time to play and Joël Matip’s knee
trouble rules him out again.
3) Özil’s class can still help Emery
out of a hole
Mesut Özil
doesn’t return to Arsenal’s Premier League team at the side of Wolves on
Saturday he perhaps not ever will. His performance at Anfield on
Wednesday was a timely reminder that for all the defeats few players in the
world have his ability to strip a defense stripped with such insouciant élan.
His unplanned
back flick to create Ainsley Maitland-Niles’s goal at Anfield was the latest in
a rich group of unique creative genius. The detail he has played only 71
minutes of Premier League football this season is almost an
act of cultural vandalism.
At his best
there is no one in the world with Özil’s cold-blooded serenity performance and
imagination in the final third. And while he has in general been nowhere near
his best under Unai Emery. His performance against Liverpool could help as an
olive branch.
4) Everton and Spurs sense chances to
lift the gloom
Without
lower-league opposition in the Carabao Cup so far this season Everton has compressed
Watford Wolves West Ham and Watford again. The corrupt news is that they are
not going to play another side start with W until mid-January but Marco Silva
hopes win over the Hornets in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday will mean the
mood and self-reliance will be different when Tottenham visit on Sunday.
The
performance in that match and particularly in a terrible first half was however
not so overpowering that Spurs won’t be looking at this game as a chance to
improve their own mood and confidence.
News just in
from a little interested historical difference department though overall
Everton has won 31% of their games against Tottenham drawing 31% and losing 38%
in the month of November they have lost 44% drawn 44% and won just 12%.
5) Don’t expect fireworks from
toothless Watford
Quique
Sánchez Flores has wrought a complete tactical makeover at Watford from four at
the back to five from a team that could hardly defend to one that has accepted
only one handball backed goal in their last three league games.
From one
that might sometimes score to one that hardly even tries. Troy Deeney’s injury
hasn’t helped João Pedro’s arrival in January the 18-year-old Brazilian received
a work authority this week might finally.
In the time
being Roberto Pereyra and Gerard Deulofeu are much happier outside the penalty
area and tend to stay there leaving Watford dulled.
It’s just as
well Watford Borough Council’s big cheerful display has been put back half an
hour to allow fans to make it after the game because unless Flores has been
working on another change they are unlikely to have any fireworks to enjoy at
Vicarage Road.
6) Saints, to settle for a
respectable thrashing at City?
There are
times when the game list is total sadistic. Just ask Southampton who have had
to follow their 9-0 loss at home to
Leicester with two trips to the Etihad Stadium.
They got off
appealing lightly with a 3-1 defeat in the Carabao Cup when City relaxed
key players such as Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and David Silva. Ralph
Hasenhüttl may endure a long night of the depth as he considers what a
full-strength team could do to his side.
City after
all has already scored 49 goals this season. There have been thousands of
football matches involving teams who would both in secret settle for a draw
beforehand. This might be the first definitely in Premier League history in
which both sides would accept a 4-0 home win.
7) Blades
sharpened by firm defensive foundations
Not at all
side has acknowledged fewer goals than Sheffield United in the Premier League.
They have let in eight the same number as Leicester and Manchester City and
another clean sheet at home to Burnley would give them a chance of a victory
that might take them as high as fifth in the table.
United’s
defensive record compares especially well to their fellow promoted sides they
have conceded half as many as Aston Villa (16) and a third as many as Norwich
(24).
The back
three of Chris Basham, John Egan and Jack O’Connell the kind of EFL partisans
who are imaginary to get vertigo in the Premier League have all been
outstanding this season.
The club
broke their transfer record four times in the summer all on aggressive players.
But it is the old defense that is pushing them to unexpected heights.
8) Odds are against Carroll to thrive
on return to West Ham
Andy Carroll
resumed to training this week after a slight groin strain and looks set to
return to West Ham for the first time since good-bye on a free transfer this
summer.
I hope he
will be fit the West Ham manage Manuel Pellegrini, said kindly. He like Winston
Reid is a player who has had many damages long injuries and they deserve to
have a normal career.
It is possibly
already too late for that a few months from his 31st birthday and with
this game being played 13 years to the day since he made his senior entrance
the famously injury-prone Carroll has started just 100 fewer club matches than
Crystal Palace’s 26-year-old Wilfried Zaha.
If he
continued to start as often as he has across his profession so far he would
catch up with Mark Noble’s current number of career starts sometime in October
2036.
Football of
course has its unchallengeable law of the ex which states that a player will
always over-perform against his former teams but Carroll appears to be an
exception here as well.
9) Pukki and Maupay key to Amex
outcome
The two most
prolific scorers in last season Championship will have a big say in who wins
Saturday’s important Premier League meeting at the Amex.
Teemu Pukki
struck six times in his first five top-flight matches this season but has unsuccessful
to find the net in his past five. In the meantime, Neal Maupay has thrived at
Brighton even if his goal tally (four) is lower than Pukki’s.
The Frenchman a £20m summer signing from Brentford, is much
more than a goal-getter and his intelligent movement and passing have been central
to the attacking style introduced at Brighton by Graham Potter.
Maupay is as
likely to score net this weekend as he is to create a goal for his attacker
partner Aaron Connolly who is far more Pukki-like in his play. Suppose Brighton
to overcome in an enjoyable duel on the south coast.
10) An unlikely top-six set-to at
Selhurst
On the day
Everton (16th) plays Tottenham (11th), Selhurst Park hosts the most unlikely
November top-six fixture for some time. Leicester’s success this season was not
entirely surprising but Palace’s position is a genuine surprise.
Though it
would be even more impressive should they still be there once their current
testing run of fixtures (Manchester City, Arsenal, Leicester, Chelsea,
Liverpool) comes to an end late this month?
Leicester
fans are unlikely to bliss a visit to a team that did the double over them in
each of the past two seasons even if not all of those losses had entirely
negative consequences.
Afterward it
was Palace’s 4-1 win at the King Power Stadium in February that
precipitated the sacking of Claude Puel the following day and the
transformational arrival of Brendan Rodgers soon afterward. After that Palace
game they had lost seven games out of nine they have lost five of 21 since
winning 12.
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