Big Weekend: Liverpool v Man Utd, Newcastle, McKenna, Jesus, Roma v Lazio, Burnley v Blackburn
Couple of belting Premier League games on the list this weekend, while elsewhere there are derbies in two of the world’s great locations: Rome, and East Lancashire.
Game to watch: Liverpool v Manchester United
Rarely going to see this on the weekend schedule and it not be the stand-out game, let’s be honest. Dull purists might argue it’s at its biggest when both teams are good but to those fools we would say tish and indeed fipsy.
What we have now is perfect. This fixture more than any other is one that fizzes most pleasingly when one team is good and the other is rubbish. And before anyone accuses us of any bias, we could not give one single shiny sh*te which way round they are. Let’s remember for that for the first two-thirds of the Premier League’s existence when we did get that perfect set-up it… well, it wasn’t often the current way round, was it?
There have been plenty of fine Liverpool Good v Man United Bad efforts in more recent years, but in truth you’d have struggle to find it more exaggerated in either direction at any time since The Invention of Football than it is right now.
Liverpool under Arne Slot have retained all the madcap high-energy brilliance of Jurgen Klopp’s side but married it with some more calming influences from the new boss to really quite delightful effect. And, let’s be honest, Mo Salah not just rolling back the years but seemingly tinkering with the very concept of time itself like some crazed God-playing scientist who will surely destroy us all also helps.
He’s never been better, and Liverpool are great. United, on the other hand, are a lazy, embarrassing, bloated mess of a thing, bedevilled by the cartoonish efforts of Scrooge McRatcliffe off the field and a squad too feckless and stupid to learn a new system on the pitch.
This should be a massacre, but let’s not forget we all thought when these two last met in April and it turned out to be wonderful nonsense. Liverpool would have gone top with a win but managed only one goal from a dominant first half and then watched in horror as Bruno Fernandes equalised from the centre-circle and Kobbie Mainoo curled in a beauty to put a struggling United hilariously and improbably in front.
Salah rescued a point late on from the spot because of course he did, but we’re fully braced for more of that kind of nonsense here please and thank you. Or failing that, Liverpool 5-0 Man United and ‘Amorim sack’ headlines will also suffice.
Team to watch: Newcastle United
A thing that we will never fully understand about football is how invested people get in fixture release day. We understand the ‘When are the big derbies?’ kind of excitement, and don’t want to be one of those completely dreary ‘Oh everyone is playing everyone twice, once at home and once away’ smartarses.
But what we’ll never understand is this idea that before a ball has even been kicked, people earnestly going through the fixture list to find the difficult runs and potential trouble spots. And the reason is because predicting one team’s predicament at any given point of the season is hard enough, and trying to do so for multiple teams near impossible.
And that’s our long-winded way of getting to a point we can now only half-remember: that Newcastle’s Christmas fixture list would have looked through August eyes like one such potentially unpleasant run. But Eddie Howe’s Nightmare After Christmas simply hasn’t materialised, with Villa at home followed by Big Six trips to Manchester United and Tottenham now turning out to be a simply lovely way to spend the holidays.
They are now fifth in the Premier League table and that is likely to come with a Champions League spot.
Villa were swept away emphatically on Boxing Day in a genuinely impressive performance against a still-competent side. Man United were dealt with in the sort of way more and more teams now deal with them, where it’s so uncomfortably easy you almost forget to laugh.
And next up it’s Spurs, about whom nobody will ever forget to laugh.
Newcastle have now won their last five games in a row across Premier League and Carabao, scoring 16 goals and conceding just one. They now travel to a team whose response to a defensive injury crisis has simply been to give up on the very concept altogether. And they weren’t particularly interested before.
They’ve conceded 12 goals in their last four games, a run during which their only win was a shambolic 4-3 Carabao success against fellow embarrassments Manchester United.
It’s only been two weeks since Spurs could be considered lucky to have escaped with ‘only’ a 6-3 home defeat to Liverpool, and you do wonder what might happen here given Newcastle’s current form and their penchant for inflicting misery – albeit previously mainly St James’ Park-based – on Spurs at their most vulnerable.
Alexander Isak (eight goals in his last six league games) against this defence should come with a graphic content warning. We can’t wait, to be honest.
Manager to watch: Kieran McKenna
A manager whose stock has perhaps never been higher than it is right at this moment. While much of the reaction to Ipswich’s 2-0 win over Chelsea inevitably focused on the visitors’ foibles and beard-stroking ruminations on their ongoing role in any title race that Liverpool may or may not permit to occur, McKenna could reflect on a job well done and another major reward for the effort he and his side have put into a season in which they should really be powerfully outmatched.
Even before the wins arrived as they have in recent months against Spurs, Wolves and most impressively now Chelsea, Ipswich could pride themselves on how competitive they had been, with plenty of hard-earned draws and narrow defeats along the way.
With that particular quality in mind, McKenna and his side perhaps deserve the greatest praise for how they’ve responded to a 4-0 home thumping from Newcastle. The Magpies are playing well right now and have the ability to do that kind of thing to anyone, but it was still a game and result out of kilter with what Ipswich had previously been about.
And given that game was followed by Arsenal and Chelsea, it was a situation with serious potential to snowball. Instead, a narrow shame-free defeat and that potentially season-shaping win over Chelsea have put Ipswich firmly back on track and with a still very manageable roadmap to survival.
Next up comes a trip to Fulham, where you never quite know what you’re going to get, and in Marco Silva another manager who like McKenna right now just needs to keep doing what he’s doing and take a bit of care to make sure he doesn’t accidentally become the next Spurs manager.
Player to watch: Gabriel Jesus
One goal in 20 games for Arsenal between August and December 14 – and that at Preston in the Carabao – has been followed by six goals in four games for a man who might just be saving Mikel Arteta the bother of having to go out and buy FOUR new players in January to revitalise his front three.
Jesus has now even scored against a team that isn’t Crystal Palace in this current run, one in which it should be noted that his wider contribution to Arsenal’s much-improved open attacking play extends beyond direct goal contributions.
A trip to Brighton, who appear to be having their standard season once again and are currently somewhat leaky at the back, provides Jesus with ample chance to keep these unexpectedly good times rolling.
Football League game to watch: Blackburn v Burnley
An East Lancs derby with plenty riding on it as second-placed Burnley look to find a route back to winning ways after a pair of goalless draws against Middlesbrough and Stoke to end 2024 and begin 2025.
Blackburn have followed a six-game winning run with a four-game winless run that has hurt their play-off chances, but they did halt leaders Leeds’ home charge last time out with a last-gasp equaliser. They’re also long overdue a win against their local rivals, having failed to get the better of the Clarets since a David Dunn penalty secured a 1-0 win at Turf Moor in a Premier League game almost 15 years ago.
European game to watch: Roma v Lazio
Worse ways to kick off the new year in Serie A than a nice friendly Derby della Capitale at Stadio Olimpico.
Roma have endured a pretty miserable season to date and languish in mid-table while their city rivals occupy a Champions League spot.
One interesting quirk for this one with Roma the designated home team: they’ve won five, drawn none and lost four of their nine home league games this season. Lazio’s away record is also won five, drawn none and lost four.