Big Weekend: City v United, Morata, Liverpool, Zaha, Sparky

Dave Tickner
Chris Smalling Manchester United

Game to watch – Manchester City v Manchester United
Obviously. You don’t need to swallow the Super Sunday Kool-Aid to be giddy about this one, an inevitably hefty game which by pure good luck also happens to have arrived at a perfect moment.

City have scored six in each of their last two games – albeit a sixth of the most recent effort hilariously ref-assisted – while United remain flawed but now possessed of a never-say-die spirit.

Come-from-behind wins over Newcastle and Bournemouth were one thing; doing it to Juventus in Turin is quite another.

Throw in the fact that in this fixture last season United came from 2-0 down to beat City and delay their title party, and it’s all set up perfectly. I for one am already foolishly over-excited about United’s comeback from 6-0 down at half-time to win 7-6.

 

Player to watch – Alvaro Morata
“In the last month of last season I was down, down, down, down. I cannot be more down. When you touch the limit, the only thing you can do is to come back.”

Alvaro Morata has certainly done that. After a nightmare end to his first season with Chelsea, the early signs this time around were not much better.

But he now has five goals in his last six games for a team exceeding expectations and matching Manchester City and Liverpool stride for stride approaching one-third distance.

His brace against Palace last weekend was crucial in getting Chelsea through a tricky afternoon, and they face another ticklish home test on Sunday against an Everton team starting to really sort things out under Marco Silva. They’ve won four of their last five in the league, the only defeat a narrow loss to Manchester United, and will travel to Stamford Bridge with more than just hope.

Morata scored in this fixture at the start of last season when things were going well for him. It would be no surprise to see history repeating itself.

 

Manager to watch – Mark Hughes
It’s November. There’s an international break next week. It’s sacking season, and Mark Hughes is the man under the harshest spotlight.

Southampton have spent the week getting rid of people who aren’t Mark Hughes, and the man himself remains adamant the departures of Les Reed and Martin Hunter offer no possible hint about his own future.

“All the board and the ownership itself made that decision to offer me that (three-year) contract so, although Les is no longer around as a sounding board and as a supportive guy in the background, there’s still a lot of people here that felt I was the right man for the job.

“I don’t think my position has been diminished too much in that regard.”

Hmm. Having staggered to safety last season, Hughes’ side currently sit 16th with a measly seven points from 11 games. His position certainly should be under threat. Defeat to Watford – themselves looking to bounce back from a defeat at Newcastle that didn’t help Southampton any – and Hughes’ time may well be up. At least he’ll still be able to say he’s never been relegated.

 

Team to watch – Liverpool
Tuesday night was bad, wasn’t it? And it wasn’t a total one-off, either, making it just three wins in the last nine games for Jurgen Klopp’s side. There are caveats for some of those six results – like playing the other three best sides in the Premier League – and the Reds remain unbeaten after 11 games of the season, but it’s still a marked fall from their imperious march through the first two months of the season.

Klopp says Liverpool have lost their mojo during their tough run, but Sunday offers the perfect chance to relocate it. A run of tricky fixtures means easier ones are surely round the corner, and they don’t come much easier right now than Fulham at home.

The Cottagers are bottom of the league and have but a single point on the road. If defeats at Spurs, Manchester City and Everton are understandable – even if an aggregate score of 9-1 offers further encouragement to Liverpool here – then back-to-back away defeats at Cardiff and Huddersfield are pretty much unforgivable.

 

One-on-one battle to watch – Wilfried Zaha v Kieran Trippier/Serge Aurier
Wilfried Zaha partnered Andros Townsend in a makeshift front two in Palace’s creditable if ultimately futile effort at Stamford Bridge last weekend. It worked well enough, but there is surely a case for moving Zaha back to the left to attack Spurs where they are weakest on Saturday evening.

While Kieran Trippier continues to rack up the assists going forward, his defending has been atrocious at times this season. Some seasoned Spurs watchers will tell it was ever thus, and it is no coincidence that his stunning World Cup form came at right wing-back rather than plain old-fashioned right-back.

Mauricio Pochettino’s other option is Serge Aurier – a professional footballer who doesn’t know how throw-ins work.

Palace have lost their last four Premier League games against Spurs by the only goal; they could and should have taken at least a point in at least two of those games. Getting the best out of Zaha will clearly be crucial to their chances of finally registering a first home win of the season against a Tottenham that no longer look like they’re having any fun but still win precisely this sort of game as well as anyone. Thanks to their consistency and stadium-based fixture jiggery-pokery, Spurs have already won six Premier League away games this season. Go back into last season and it’s 10 away wins out of 13, which is surely the least Spursy statistic in history.

 

Football League game to watch – Sheffield United v Sheffield Wednesday
Leeds have yet another rare televised game this weekend, but it’s Friday night’s Steel City derby that captures the imagination.

The Blades have stuttered slightly of late with one win in four and defeats at Derby and Nottingham Forest, but still sit third in the table.

They will leapfrog Leeds and Norwich to retake top spot temporarily at least with victory at Bramall Lane on Friday night, and, even allowing for the traditional defenestration of form books around such fixtures, should be pretty confident of doing so against a Wednesday side that have lost their last four Championship games by an aggregate score of 12-2.

 

European game to watch – Monaco v PSG
The last two winners of the Ligue 1 title are now following wildly divergent paths. While PSG march on towards genuine superclub villainy, everything has gone to crap for Monaco. They’ve sold a whole team’s worth of talent, and what’s left is now shambling around under a manager who literally doesn’t know what he’s doing.

PSG are top and have won a record-breaking 12 out of 12 thus far; Monaco are 19th and haven’t won since the opening day. It could be spectacularly ugly.

Writer to watch – Dave Tickner