Big Weekend: North London derby, Moyes v Man Utd, Leeds, Jota

Ian Watson

Game to watch – Tottenham v Arsenal
This year has been an absolute shower of contagious sh*t. But for Arsenal fans, 2021 will be even more horrific should Tottenham win the title. Which they absolutely will.

So a victory in Sunday afternoon’s north London derby would certainly leave Gooners feeling better about life as the New Year approaches. They need a win almost as much to stop Spurs as to get their own campaign back on track.

That being true, it’s hardly ideal that they head across to White Hart Lane to face a manager yet to taste defeat when he has hosted Arsenal. In 10 home matches as manager of Chelsea, Manchester United and Spurs, the Gunners have yet to wipe the smirk off Jose Mourinho’s face on his own patch. Being the first to do that, though seemingly unlikely, would certainly buy Mikel Arteta some precious breathing space with doubts over his managerial nous beginning to grow.

For that, Arteta needs to provoke a vast improvement during a week which also saw Rapid Vienna turn up on their doorstep. Arsenal have been more solid at the back this season, and they will need to maintain that with Harry Kane and Heung-min Son in the kind of form that few in Europe are matching.

In attack, though, the Gunners have been firing blanks. Even Unai Emery’s lot were more entertaining to watch than Arteta’s crew, unless you get your kicks from square passes. Arteta is clearly struggling to find the right midfield blend while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is just struggling to find the ball. The skipper looked a forlorn figure on the left last week and when opponents stop Aubameyang, right now they are stopping Arsenal.

Don’t plan to tune in late because on current form it may already be over. Spurs have scored seven in the opening 20 minutes of their last seven matches, while Arsenal have scored less than a third of their goals before the break. Rather than Arteta, it will probably be Mourinho’s approach which decides this derby.

 

Manager to watch – David Moyes
West Ham aren’t sh*t. Which has thrown us all…

It seems that Tier 2 can’t stop the Moyesiah partying like it’s 2005 and next on the guest list at the London Stadium is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and a Manchester United side currently two places lower than where Moyes left them in 2014.

The Hammers boss is doing a splendid job of restoring a reputation which was first torn to shreds at Old Trafford before the remnants were dragged through the mud on a dog’s arse in Sunderland. A solid enough stint at West Ham first time around wasn’t enough to repair his good name, or even keep his job, but having been invited back, it is only now that Moyes is starting to be taken seriously again.

His most immediate objective to maintain this ascent back to respectability is to stick it to his former employers. Moyes has faced United four times since they felt it fair to sack him without bothering to tell him first and not once yet has he beaten them. A couple of heavy defeats at Sunderland have been followed by two draws in two stints with the Hammers and this Saturday offers him his best chance to get in some fleeting retaliation.

Handily for Moyes, the United players are perhaps the single group of people who hate the London Stadium more than West Ham fans. They haven’t won there in three visits, with two desperate, dire defeats following a dour goalless stalemate.

Moyes’ first win over United and defeat for Solskjaer would turn the screw even tighter on the current United boss, especially before a sh*t-or-bust Champions League trip to Leipzig in midweek. Moyes would doubtless love to be the one doing the ratcheting while enjoying a flirt with third place in the table.

READ MORE: Top ten things we all got wrong this season

 

Player to watch – Diogo Jota
The Liverpool star goes back to his former club on Sunday night. Signing of the season he may be, but Jota is yet to shake off the label of stand-in.

That is despite having started seven of the last nine Premier League and Champions League games, while nine goals in 16 appearances since his summer move from Molineux to Merseyside is still not enough for Jota to earn the status he truly wants under Jurgen Klopp.

Right now, Klopp could make any of his front four the odd man out and point to rotation as justification. But beyond the turn of the year, if Liverpool’s forwards continue to enjoy the good health their defenders and midfielders have not, then the suspicion remains that the Reds boss will always revert to his trusted trio, despite some struggles for individual form.

To rid himself of that back-up tag, Jota has to maintain the blistering form he has demonstrated since Klopp swooped for the Portuguese almost without warning. Against his former side, he may well feel he has a point to prove. Wolves fondly waved Jota off on his way but it is said that Nuno had long since decided that the player was among their most dispensable should a bid the size of Liverpool’s arrive to help fund the remodelling of his side.

“We think this deal is good for everybody,” said the Wolves boss at the time. It certainly seems so for Liverpool and back on his old stomping ground Jota will be desperate to reinforce that point and his place in Klopp’s side.

 

Team to watch – Leeds United
It doesn’t matter who Leeds are playing, at the moment, it is never a waste of time to give Marcelo Bielsa’s men your full attention.

Bielsa’s concentration this week will have been solely on an old foe, one of the few individuals that the Leeds boss has rubbed up the wrong way since he arrived in England. Bielsa’s last meeting with Frank Lampard ended with the then-Derby boss blissfully enjoying his revenge for the spy-gate controversy which so offended the Rams and their rookie boss.

That won’t occupy any of Bielsa’s headspace this week, not when there is an in-form Chelsea side to pore over. But Leeds fans will be gasping to p*ss on Lampard’s chips, as will a few of Bielsa’s players.

To do that, Leeds will have to be at their relentless, creative best. Chelsea have lost only once in their last 15 matches – that defeat was on penalties – and Lampard has tightened up his defence to such an extent that they have conceded only twice in their last ten games. Leeds may not get the number of chances they are accustomed to creating so it is likely that they will have to be more efficient with those that do fall their way.

READ MORE: Chelsea v Leeds: Werner to target Ayling in goalfest?

 

Football League game to watch – Barnsley v Bournemouth
Where better than Barnsley to spend a wet, winter’s Friday night? Absolutely nowhere, obviously, but while tiers are a thing, the closest you’re likely to get is Sky Sports’ 5:30pm showing of the Tykes taking on Bournemouth.

The Cherries head north looking for their form. The remain in second place – just – but after losing just one of their opening 13 games, Jason Tindall’s side were held on their last visit to South Yorkshire when they visited Rotherham, before a late fightback wasn’t enough to stop Preston returning from the Vitality Stadium with a 3-2 win. If you haven’t already seen Scott Sinclair’s goal from that game, you’re welcome…

Barnsley have had their own blip of late after recovering form a terrible start but they stopped a two-game rot by winning at Birmingham in midweek. Don’t be tempted to switch over for Emmerdale – the Tykes’ last half dozen goals have all come inside the last 20 minutes.

 

European game to watch – Sevilla v Real Madrid
The Bundesliga delivers a couple of treats this weekend in the form of a summit meeting in Bavaria and Friday night’s Berlin derby. If West Ham 2-0 Man Utd isn’t your idea of fun on a Saturday evening, then surely you can be tempted with Bayern Munch versus RB Leipzig?

But before that, at 3:15 on Saturday afternoon, Zinedine Zidane undergoes another 90-minute long interview for his own job. Real go to Sevilla knowing they can be leapfrogged by the Andalusians if they suffer their sixth defeat in a dozen games.

It’s the start of a week which will likely decide Zidane’s fate. After Sevilla, they will play for a place in the Champions League last 16 against Borussia Monchengladbach before a Madrid derby next week. Defeat in any of these games could spell the end for Zidane, who insists he won’t quit, but without a swift improvement from a group of players he apparently doesn’t trust, then the decision could be taken out of his hands.

 

Big Weekend Diogo Jota

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