How Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle could suffer their own Spurs-style season implosion
Liverpool might have their Premier and Champions League dreams dashed in a matter of days in May, but not before ruining Chelsea and Newcastle’s seasons.
Inspired by Tottenham exiting two cups in the space of just a few days, here is how every other Premier League club still in multiple competitions could catch Spursitis and suffer a similar season implosion.
Liverpool
May 6/7 – Champions League semi-final second leg
May 10 – Arsenal (h, Premier League)
The complexion on this Liverpool season will be much clearer in a fortnight. After fairly successfully balancing competitions – up to the regrettable Plymouth FA Cup defeat – Arne Slot prepares for five Premier League games from the Merseyside derby on February 12 to Newcastle’s trip to Anfield on February 26.
They then have a solitary Premier League game in March in between a Champions League last-16 tie, before the Carabao final at the end of that month.
Paris Saint-Germain would be a fine test of their continental credentials, easily the worst possible draw from them, Brest, Monaco or Benfica.
It might be that the title is wrapped up by then or their European campaign collapses earlier, but if Liverpool can keep both plates spinning for long enough, then a Champions League semi-final second leg a handful of days before welcoming Arsenal to Anfield with the Premier League still alive looks delightful.
Arsenal
March 4/5 – Champions League round of 16 first leg (a)
March 9 – Manchester United (a, Premier League)
Having wisely streamlined their season – with help from Alexander Isak and Ruben Amorim – to focus only on the two most important competitions, Arsenal have opened themselves up to the ignominy of another trophyless campaign.
That Liverpool sequence is crucial as Arsenal will go from six points behind having played a game more, to any potential gap having played a game less by the end of February.
March then immediately starts with a bang of that Champions League tie against Juventus, PSV, Feyenoord or Milan, before jumping straight into another meeting with Manchester United when no more domestic slips can be afforded.
Nottingham Forest
February 23 – Newcastle (a, Premier League)
February 26 – Arsenal (h, Premier League)
The response to a thrashing at Bournemouth suggests that one-off results will not derail Nottingham Forest’s momentum any time soon. Brighton were hammered in kind before Nuno’s fringe selection stumbled past Exeter and into the FA Cup fifth round.
It has been a while since Forest were the highest-ranked team left in that competition and there might come a point when Champions League qualification takes a reluctant back seat to the prospect of an actual trophy, or at least shifts across to the passenger side.
But the Premier League remains the priority and Forest will take some shifting. Only once this season have they lost consecutive games and late February offers an opportunity to atone or repeat those reverses against Newcastle and Arsenal, neither of whom particularly struggled en route to scoring three times each in November.
Forest do have a healthy six-point cushion to sixth place and really qualification for any European tournament would be a phenomenal achievement. But facing two of their most difficult opponents in four days makes their position feel a little more precarious.
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Chelsea
May 1 – Europa Conference League semi-final first leg
May 3 – Liverpool (h, Premier League)
“If there is something good after a defeat it’s that now we can be focused on the Premier League and Conference,” was a weird thing to hear a Chelsea manager say in the aftermath of avoidable FA Cup elimination.
After dispatching lower-league sides with 5-0 victories in the third round of both domestic cups, Chelsea were immediately knocked out by Premier League opposition thereafter. Enzo Maresca’s comments betrayed just how far standards have been lowered at Stamford Bridge.
It also eradicates any excuse for failure from this point and the expectation can only really be Champions League qualification with a shiny new Conference League trophy to boot.
Chelsea sauntered through the group stage with laughable ease and Gent, Real Betis, Copenhagen or Heidenheim await in the next round, two of whom they have already beaten. They are overwhelming favourites to win the whole thing but if that complacency creeps in again they will be punished.
And that Premier League run-in is not kind. Chelsea might hope to have a Champions League place wrapped up by May, a month in which they face Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest.
Manchester City
February 19 – Real Madrid (a, Champions League)
February 23 – Liverpool (h, Premier League)
Another amateurish late capitulation at the Etihad has left Manchester City facing a third straight Champions League elimination at the hands of Real Madrid. They must emerge victorious in the second leg at the Bernabeu, having only won at Molineux, the King Power, Portman Road, Brisbane Road and the Slovakian national stadium since August.
Their Premier League situation is not quite as dire but it remains precarious. Manchester City are fifth but anyone down to Brighton in 10th could feasibly catch them and they have not strung together more than two consecutive wins since the end of October.
While the FA Cup should provide some respite, Pep Guardiola and his side no longer engender confidence they can even dispatch Plymouth at home confidently. And that is very much a distant third on their list of priorities either way.
Newcastle United
March 10 – West Ham (a, Premier League)
March 16 – Liverpool (n, Carabao Cup)
Wembley is not ready for Jason Tindall to roll out the WHAM! hoodie twice in a matter of months but Newcastle are achingly close to a cup final double with Champions League qualification to boot.
The hope ahead of the Carabao Cup showpiece might simply be that they score an actual goal, having failed to do so in each of their last three domestic finals. But Newcastle have not beaten Liverpool since December 2015 so a first trophy in seven decades remains difficult to envisage.
They can ill afford to lose concentration in the Premier League either. With that winning run over, Newcastle are a mere point clear of dropping out of the European qualification places and while a run of Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool before the final plays conversely into their hands, any momentum built could be squandered against West Ham as it was back in November.
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Bournemouth
February 25 – Brighton (a, Premier League)
February 28-March 3 – Wolves (h, FA Cup)
A potentially historic season is entering the final straight. Bournemouth’s highest-ever league finish was ninth on 46 points in 2016/17, which Andoni Iraola might reasonably expect a side on 40 points in seventh to surpass with 14 games remaining.
The Cherries have also only twice reached the FA Cup quarter-final and never any further. The vintages of 1956/57 and 2020/21 really should be transcended soon but Wolves will not roll over as they did in December, while a volatile Brighton side who beat their south coast brethren earlier this season must be sidestepped first.
Aston Villa
March 4/5 – Champions League round of 16 first leg (a)
March 8 – Brentford (a, Premier League)
The FA Cup is again a welcome distraction but Aston Villa did not risk financial oblivion by adding to their ludicrous wage bill in January to manoeuvre past Cardiff at home on their way to glory at Wembley.
Unai Emery will not want to pick his favourite child out of winning European competitions and trying to qualify for European competitions so he can win them, which is where Marcus Rashford, Donyell Malen and Marco Asensio come in.
Villa might well need the Champions League to actually function as an institution beyond the next couple of years and Club Brugge, Atalanta, Sporting or Borussia Dortmund is an appealing list of potential opponents.
But that hangover of post-Champions League results in the Premier League – P7 W1 D3 L3 F6 A10 – must be addressed imminently, starting with the Brentford game.
Fulham
February 25 – Wolves (a, Premier League)
February 28-March 3 – Manchester United (a, FA Cup)
Another side at a seasonal crossroads, it is equally conceivable for Fulham to qualify for Europe or finish squarely mid-table, much as it is they reach the latter stages of the FA Cup or are knocked out in the next round.
Those two games in particular do at least bring the prospect of revenge. The Cottagers crumbled at home to Gary O’Neil’s Wolves in November and are the only side other than Southampton to have been beaten twice in the league by Manchester United this season.
Brighton
February 28-March 3 – Newcastle (a, FA Cup)
March 8 – Fulham (h, Premier League)
The same pretty much stands for Brighton, who can sense yet more FA Cup semi-final disappointment on the horizon and are at the bottom end of the teams with European aspirations, far enough from those immediately below them. A trophy would vindicate one kneejerk reaction.
Crystal Palace
March 29 – FA Cup quarter-final
April 5 – Brighton (h, Premier League)
With no disrespect intended towards Millwall, the best way of injecting some stakes into this Palace season is for them to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals and contend with a game against bitter rivals Brighton a few days later.
Palace have not done the league double over Brighton since 1932 and still count the 1991 Zenith Data Systems Cup as their closest thing to tangible silverware. Of course, far more important is that they finish on 40-something points. Just ten but absolutely not 20 or more to go.
Manchester United
February 28-March 1 – Fulham (h, FA Cup)
March 6 – Europa League round of 16 first leg (a)
The likelihood remains that plucky Manchester United will cobble together just about enough points to bravely stave off relegation to the Championship. They should just be able to win a couple of games entirely accidentally, but if not then Manchester City rock up at Old Trafford in April as an apparent gimme.
Attention thus turns to the cups and how Manchester United have somehow contrived to be among the favourites to win both. The FA Cup field looks wonderfully refreshing ahead of an inevitable Manchester derby final with pre-match build-up narrated by John Cooper Clarke, while there is no-one to fear in the Europa beyond themselves.
Manchester United’s ability to win trophies even at their most incompetent is about to be tested more than ever before. The only uncertainty is how much credit Erik ten Hag will claim when his medals are posted out.
Tottenham
1 May – Europa League semi-final first leg
3 May – West Ham (a, Premier League)
Can the same be said for Tottenham with regards to relegation? They are only two points worse off than Manchester United but their position does feel far more perilous somehow.
Undoubtedly the best-case scenario would be to continue hobbling through their Premier League campaign without ever establishing a comfortable points cushion to those below, while finding yet more children to play and thrive in the Europa.
Following that track, Tottenham could encounter a boom-or-bust situation in the final month of the season and Ryan Mason has the minerals to guide them through to a second rapid season implosion.
Wolves
February 28-March 3 – Bournemouth (a, FA Cup)
March 8 – Everton (h, Premier League)
Fair play to Wolves, who have introduced some excitement into their last two relatively middling seasons by combining eventually comfortable fights against relegation with fairly deep cup runs.
They are still awkwardly grouped with the bottom three but Everton, seven points above them, could be pulled back into danger with a home win at Molineux. Before then, Wolves will hope to reach a quarter-final for the third consecutive campaign to show Matheus Cunha it might be worth sticking around even though it probably definitely isn’t.
Ipswich
February 22 – Tottenham (h, Premier League)
February 26 – Manchester United (a, Premier League)
Kieran McKenna might place an egg or two in the FA Cup basket but drawing Nottingham Forest at the City Ground at least removes any pretence that Ipswich could try and win it.
They have not spent £135m this season to reach a cup quarter-final; Premier League survival is the only metric by which they should be judged.
Wolves are only three points ahead of the Tractor Boys before reaching that gaggle of seemingly safe clubs who absolutely can be dragged back into danger. Spurs and Manchester United should count themselves among them and having beaten the former before drawing with the latter earlier this season, Ipswich might genuinely have circled those fixtures as two of their best remaining chances to scurry out of the bottom three.