A Chance To Shut Up The Smartarses

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Liverpool
Of course, Liverpool have now beaten a top-half side. We have been forced to put that little stat-lol away, much as we miss it. Of course, those of us who like a cheap laugh can console themselves with the knowledge that the win over a top-half side was against a Swansea XI who vaguely jogged around the Anfield pitch hoping not to get injured before the Capital One Cup final.

Still, let's not be churlish. One of the reasons Liverpool have not done better this season is their inability to string a run of wins together, against decent opposition or otherwise. They haven't managed to win three league games in a row - something they have a chance to do against Spurs on Sunday.

More than that, they can beat a 'proper' team. If Spurs go the same way as Swansea and Wigan, then smartarses like your humble correspondent will have absolutely no cause to take the piss out of Liverpool (at least until Brendan Rodgers next says something silly), and on a weekend when none of the other top seven are in league action, they can close to within two points of Arsenal.

With only the league to play for now, Liverpool can concentrate all their energies on qualifying for Europe. If they can overhaul the depressed Gooners, it would be a fair feat.


Spurs
As Arsenal moodily wander round the house, reading old magazines, reorganising the cutlery draw, throwing a tennis ball against the wall over and over again - anything to distract themselves from football (they were due to be playing Everton this weekend) - Spurs have a chance to stretch their Champions League lead to an intimidating ten points.

Even with a game in hand, that could be a step too far for the fragile Gooners. Time for Spurs to put the boot on their rival's throat.


Emmanuel Adebayor
Of course, Adebayor might not play this weekend, and if so he can blame nobody but himself. Under normal circumstances, with Jermain Defoe returning from injury and no other serious striking options available, Adebayor would start in this game, a theoretically tricky away trip three days after playing Inter Milan.

However, so listless has Adebayor been this season, and even against Arsenal last weekend, that Andre Villas-Boas must be tempted to start with Defoe. Spurs simply looked so much more dangerous last weekend after the Englishman was introduced in the second half, displaying a fairly basic willingness to run that Adebayor seemed to regard as something of an optional extra.

Perhaps he has been injured (he missed the Inter game), but the difference between a be-contracted Adebayor and a hungry Adebayor is simply too obvious to be a coincidence.

Assuming Spurs qualify for the Champions League, they will have plenty of money to recruit the striker that most people believe has been required for a little while now. Their motivation to spend that money might be increased if Adebayor doesn't pull his thumb out of his bottom and start playing like the centre-forward of last season.


QPR
Amazing what one win can do, eh? Last week the bells were tolling for QPR, but after beating Southampton they're only four points away from safety.

Of course, that win for Harry Redknapp, which was obviously personally fairly satisfying for a number of reasons, was a starting point. QPR and Redknapp have given themselves a chance for an unlikely survival, and now they have to take it, starting against Sunderland.


Sunderland
And that might not be the most taxing task of the weekend. A limp run of form (two points from the last available 15) has put Sunderland on the edge of the relegation zone, only comforted by the knowledge that there are probably three worse teams than them in the Premier League this season.

However, with a couple of those 'worse' teams showing signs of life, there's a danger Sunderland could be dragged into something nasty if they don't perk up soon.


Reading and Aston Villa
Nobody really blames Paul Lambert for the season Villa are having. He was left a mess by Alex McLeish, a squad with little experience and little quality, and apparently funds so limited that they could only bring in a second-division French player and a Spurs reserve on loan in January.

Put like that, it's hardly a surprise that Villa find themselves in the relegation zone, but that doesn't change the fact that going down is unthinkable for Villa. The really bad news is that, even after two games against Arsenal and Manchester City in which they didn't disgrace themselves, Villa's run-in is incredibly tough. They still have to face Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea before the end of the season, which makes their next two games all the more important.

They travel to Reading on Saturday, before QPR visit a week later. These are seven days that could define Villa's season - lose both and they could be bottom of the table with hope ebbing away, but win both and they will have 30 points, meaning they will have to scrap for about six or seven more points from the remaining eight games. Doable, surely.

On the other side there is Reading. Again, few are blaming Brian McDermott for their struggles - indeed, given the 'on paper' talent he had at his disposal, one could argue that McDermott is doing more or less as could be expected.

The good news for McDermott is that, if he can keep this side up now, he'll be given more help in the summer. Reading owner Anton Zingarevich recently told The Reading Post:

"The difficulty last summer was that we didn't have a big scouting budget over the last year when we were in the Championship. We knew the players, but we didn't want to make a mistake.

"We stuck to what we knew and we could have done more, but there is no point looking back. We have done a lot of scouting over the past few months and we know pretty much every single player in Europe. So come the summer, it is much easier.

"It is easier for players to adapt as well as they have the whole pre-season in front of them. In the summer we can have a little bit more risk than in January."

McDermott is of course fighting for Reading's survival, but it also sounds like he is scrapping for the chance to build something more durable than a side facing relegation every season. A win against Villa would go a fair way to helping with that.


Norwich
Lots of people get a hiding at Manchester United. It's not necessarily much to weep about.

"The game here at Old Trafford was never going to define our season. Anything we got from here was going to be a bonus," Chris Hughton rightly said after the defeat last weekend.

Of rather more importance is their game against Southampton this weekend. Norwich's win against Everton a couple of weeks ago took the heat off them for a while, but they're still within stumbling distance of the relegation zone.

At eight points clear they would perhaps expect to be safe now, but three points this weekend would surely confirm it.


Mauricio Pochettino
I wrote last week that Pochettino, for all his creditable performances since taking over at Southampton, had only won one game on the south coast, and that three points against QPR would go some way to convincing those doubters.

That didn't go exactly to plan. Pochettino pointed to individual errors as a reason for the loss to QPR, but many more of those performances and they will be rather quickly sucked into the bottom three.

A win against Norwich - who still only have one win from the last 11 - would put some distance between them and the relegation zone.


Stoke City
Stoke have won one away game this season. They managed four last season, three the campaign before that, four before that, two before that. From their 52 games on the road since promotion to the Premier League, they have won 14.

Perhaps this is the/a reason for their relative stagnation, despite spending oodles of cash on players in the past couple of years.

Whether it is or isn't, a win at Newcastle on Sunday would be much appreciated.

Nick Miller - available on Twitter