Big Midweek: Everton v Man Utd, Newcastle, Arteta, Atletico

Ian Watson
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Game to watch – Everton v Manchester United
The Premier League’s third and fourth-placed teams meet at Goodison Park on Wednesday with both flying.

Everton have beaten Chelsea, Leicester and Arsenal in their last three matches, while United are breaking records with their away form.

That run of 10 Premier League wins on the road includes a triumph at Goodison Park already this season, when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was clinging to his job. Both managers are sat rather snugly in their seats this time around, but you could argue that one team needs victory more than the other this week.

Everton need a trophy. Any will do. Carlo Ancelotti has got a lot of things right in his year in charge at Goodison but the next step is silverware.

It’s been a quarter of a century since the Toffees last tasted triumph in any competition – 9,348 days to be precise – and that drought is a large part of the reason they turned to Ancelotti, a trophy hunter with major honours in five different countries.

Everton’s blase approach to the domestic cups under Ancelotti’s predecessors has been a source of frustration to supporters but the Toffees are now deep enough into the competition to reassess their priorities.

For Solskjaer too, this represents an opportunity to take another step. The Manchester United boss is one game off yet another semi-final and the chance to atone for three last-four exits last season.

To do that, Solskjaer will have to do more than simply turn up, which is almost all it took to outwit Marcelo Bielsa at the weekend. Everton were delighted to sit back and let Arsenal have the ball on Saturday and they will be similarly stubborn in standing their ground on Wednesday, especially after shipping three to United last month.

The Carabao Cup may be seen as the least desirable of the domestic honours but no manager left in the competition will crave it more than the serial winner in charge of the potless Toffees or the trophyless leader of one of the few clubs to have won everything.

READ MORE: Five reasons Man Utd will win the Premier League

 

Team to watch – Newcastle
Newcastle’s trophy drought goes on longer than Everton’s. It’s been 51 years since the Magpies won anything other than the Intertoto Cup.

Indeed, it’s been 15 years since they reached a domestic semi-final and Steve Bruce has made good on his promise to take the cup competitions seriously. Victory over Brentford on Tuesday evening would represent a tangible step forward at a time when many Newcastle fans are struggling to see progress under Bruce.

A Covid outbreak certainly hasn’t helped matters but their recent performances at Leeds and Fulham have done little to ease the perennial pressure. The Bees won’t be willing to oblige the Magpies boss either, with Thomas Frank’s side having not lost any of their last 13 in the Championship.

Brentford are also looking for their fourth Premier League scalp of this season’s League Cup, having sent Southampton, West Brom and Fulham packing already. Their biggest threat also has a score to settle with Newcastle. Ivan Toney failed to make the grade at St James’ Park before he was sold to Peterborough. But the striker is making his way back up the ladder having now scored 16 goals in 20 Championship appearances since the Bees recruited him to replace Ollie Watkins in the summer.

 

Player to watch – Stoke’s goalkeeper
Stoke’s goalkeeping department is on the bones of its arse ahead of Tottenham’s visit with Jose Mourinho looking to give these Spurs players a taste of silverware in one of his favourite competitions.

The one thing for certain on Wednesday is that Michael O’Neill will be handing a debut to someone. Andy Lonergan, the recipient of a title winner’s medal with Liverpool last season, could play his first senior game since a loan spell at Rochdale in 2019 if he recovers from flu in time.

If not, then 19-year-old Cameroon prospect Blondy Nna Noukeu could be thrown the gloves for his Stoke bow. Noukeu’s big chance could come with Joe Bursik cup-tied in addition to Adam Davies, Angus Gunn, Niki Maenpaa and Nathan Broome all being injured.

 

Manager to watch – Mikel Arteta
The Arsenal boss tried to blind us all with numbers on Monday morning with what was presumably a pre-planned statement since the question posed was a simple enquiry about the morale in his dressing room.

The only number that really matters for Arsenal right now is two – the number of points they have taken from their last seven Premier League matches. But Tuesday offers some respite from the usual grind, though Arteta might have preferred to swerve a reunion with Manchester City when the quarter-final draw was made.

Arteta made more sense when he discussed the mentality he wanted to see from his players in the face of City’s challenge. “Normally when [a poor run] happens you have two types of people: fighters and victims. You need fighters and you don’t want any victims.”

After a year in the job, Arteta knows who his victims are, and he will be all too aware that he doesn’t have enough fighters, especially with his captain still nursing a calf strain. Injuries and their dire form will likely see Arteta go strong in a game he may have reserved more of his fringe players for but the manager has to do something, anything, to arrest their current momentum before Chelsea come to the Emirates on Boxing Day.

Arteta has already met Pep Guardiola once this season, when neither side really seized the initiative at the Etihad. Guardiola, in the face of City’s own mini-slump at the time, was unusually willing to concede possession, especially after scoring what turned out to be the game’s only goal in the first half. Everton did a similar number on Arsenal at the weekend, and Arteta has to find a way to make his attack as bamboozling as his maths.

 

Football League game to watch – Doncaster v Shrewsbury
Slim pickings in the EFL this week. Sunderland were due to host Blackpool on Tuesday before Covid acted the d*ck. That postponement leaves just two games. In League Two, Bradford, managerless and fourth from bottom, can overtake 19th-placed Grimsby by winning their Blundell Park clash on Tuesday.

If you don’t fancy paying to stream that particular doozy, might you be interested in fourth versus fourth from bottom in League One, with Doncaster hosting Shrewsbury?

Okay, a simple ‘no’ would have sufficed.

 

European game to watch – Real Sociedad v Atletico Madrid
It’s first visiting third in La Liga on Tuesday evening, with both sides needing the points with Real Madrid’s form looking ominous…

Zinedine Zidane’s men have won five on the bounce in all competitions and they kept pace with leaders Atletico at the weekend when Sociedad failed to win for the fifth consecutive occasion in La Liga.

The hosts need a win here to stop either Madrid side disappearing off into the distance. Defeat would leave them six points off Atletico having played three games more than Diego Simeone’s team.

Simeone was chuffed to see Luis Suarez return to goalscoring form at the weekend. Evidently more so than Diego Costa…

Ian Watson

 

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