It's Going To Be A Big Weekend For...

Arsenal And Manchester United
There is a sense that these games have lost their edge since the departure of Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane.

However, they are still vitally important for the title race. With Chelsea looking imperious (domestically at least. More on that later), it doesn't take much for the chasing pack to lose touch with the leaders.

As we've said on a number of occasions before, the winner of the top four 'mini league' will most likely take the title, so the stakes on all of 12 of these games are remarkably high.

Perhaps a touch surprisingly, Arsenal have an excellent record in big four games at home. They haven't lost such an encounter since United beat them 4-2 in 2005, but such a record might not hold this weekend.

Confidence low, injury ridden and apparently spending all their preparation time moaning about people kicking them, the prospects for Arsenal aren't great. Their lack of a real physical presence both at the back and in midfield has been discussed ad nauseum, but the prospect of Nicklas Bendtner and the still raw Carlos Vela facing Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic should be terrifying for any Gooner.

United aren't in the greatest shape either. Alex Ferguson admitted that they were careless last weekend in nearly throwing away a 4-1 lead against Hull, and they should have beaten Celtic on Wednesday night. Still, they have climbed up to third and are six points off top spot with a game in hand, so one suspects Ferguson won't be panicking just yet.

It all adds up to a potentially fascinating Saturday lunchtime in north London.


Any Team Lower Than Sixth
Six points separate Spurs at the bottom of the table and Everton in seventh.

A win for anyone in the bottom half will see then catapult up the table, and for those at the very bottom it should earn some breathing space.


Chelsea
On Tuesday, Chelsea's defence took the phrase 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do' a touch too literally.

Luciano Spaletti's side have been little short of pathetic in Serie A this season, sitting fourth from bottom with the second worst defence in the division. And still they managed to beat the leaders of the Premier League and the side most observers still rank as favourites to win the thing.

In one game, Chelsea somehow managed to concede almost as many times as they had in the whole domestic campaign, largely thanks to some absolutely shambolic defending.

The absence of Ricardo Carvalho should not be underestimated. It's a point that has been made on this website plenty of times before, but Carvalho is a much more significant loss to the Chelsea backline than John Terry. The apparent lack of any defensive organisation in Rome could be a blip, an abberation, but without Carvalho (which they will be for around another fortnight), Chelsea are rather less than the immovable object they are with him.


West Brom
It was looking pretty good for a while there.

West Brom were tipped by most to be the team most likely of the three promoted sides, but as it turns out they look to be the ones least equipped for top-flight survival. Their defence is occasionally shambolic, their midfield lacks some creativity and doesn't compensate with physicality like Stoke, and their six strikers have six goals between them.

A run of three wins in four in September gave hope that West Brom would fight their way free of the scrap, but since then they have lost three and drawn one from a winning position.

And now they are in the bottom three for the first time since August, in dire need of a win.

So it might not be the best time to contemplate a trip to Liverpool.

However, they should not necessarily despair. As we've seen from the past week, this season's version of Liverpool still maintains some of a 'qualities' of the 2007/8 side. Dominating without finishing Spurs off last weekend, and having to rely on an extremely dubious penalty to claim a draw against Atletico Madrid in midweek.

They still have their moments of vulnerability, and as Stoke have already proved, they can be tamed and frustrated at home.

Having said that, Fernando Torres is likely to play at Anfield. Oh well.


Harry Redknapp
Anyone but the most one-eyed Spurs fan will admit that since Harry Redknapp took over at Spurs they've enjoyed a good amount of luck.

Of course getting a team as shambolic as Spurs to take seven points from nine is about more than fortune (although his instruction to Roman Pavlyuchenko to 'F**king run about a bit' suggests tactical nous isn't his greatest strength), but it still played a big part, and sooner or later it will run out.

The good news for Redknapp is that this Saturday ,Spurs visit Manchester City, currently experiencing a ropey run that could charitably be described as 'inconsistent', but perhaps more accurately might be dubbed 'rubbish'.

Redknapp has now been in the job for a little under two weeks, and just about has his preferred coaching team in place. Therefore he has had enough time to make at least some impression on his new charges.

It's when the luck does run out that Redknapp will be judged. It might be this weekend, it might come later, but a win and a performance that doesn't rely on fortune will help him out in that respect.


Tony Adams
As his predecessor will testify, there's nothing like a good start as a new manager to allay fears about your tenure. The trouble is, Adams has had nothing like a good start.

A draw and two defeats from three games doesn't engender confidence, and neither does dropping your top scorer and arguably most important player for a difficult away trip to Liverpool.

Jermain Defoe was back in the side for the defeat to Wigan at the weekend, but couldn't prevent a loss in an eminently winnable game.

With everything being so tight in the bottom half of the table, they face another such task on Saturday, with a trip to the often erratic Sunderland. Roy Keane's men have only one win in the last six, so calling a game between two such out-of-form sides is difficult.

However, as Sarah Winterburn wrote this week, Keane seems to be immune from criticism. That is not a luxury Adams can enjoy.


Yakubu
At the moment, Yakubu simply isn't justifying his place in the Everton side.

David Moyes' team are at their best with a single striker supported by Tim Cahill, Mikel Arteta and the increasingly impressive Maraoune Fellaini.

Thus far that striker has been the Nigerian, but he hasn't scored in the league since August. Hardly the most persuasive argument to keep your place.

Now Yakubu has some serious competition in the shape of Louis Saha. According to Moyes, the notoriously injury-prone Saha has only missed one day of training since arriving at Goodison Park, which would have been the first priority when he signed from Manchester United. And now, Saha is off the mark, having scored the late winner against Fulham last weekend, and presents a persuasive case to be included from the start when Everton visit West Ham this weekend.

Yakubu tends to score his goals in bursts. He needs one to start pretty soon, or he'll find his substantial posterior occupying the bench.

Nick Miller