Premier League Notebook Heading into Week 6: Big Sides Hope for Derby Spark
With Chelsea having hit the ground running so far this season, the pressure has really been applied to everyone else to match their pace as soon as possible.
So far, against almost everyone's expectations, it is actually Southampton who are doing the best to match Jose Mourinho's early charge, as the usual suspects—Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool—struggle slightly for their usual level of consistency.
This weekend in the Premier League could be called "Derby Weekend," with two matches that usually offer up game-of-the-season contenders taking place on Saturday. In the first kick-off of the day Liverpool host Everton at Anfield, while the evening sees Arsenal welcome archrivals Tottenham Hotspur to the Emirates Stadium.
TOP NEWS
Madrid Fines Players $590K 😲
'Mbappé Out' Petition Gaining Steam 😳
Star-Studded World Cup Ad 🤩
For all four clubs, which to a greater and lesser extent have started the season in less-than-ideal fashion, the games offer a chance to kick everything up a notch with a morale-boosting win. Of course, on the other side of that equation, a defeat could throw a side further into the developing mire.
As Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger told reporters, per Sky Sports:
"We all know that (it is worth more than three points) because it has a psychological impact on the confidence of the team.
It's an important moment of the season, it means a lot for everybody but it's an opportunity for us to take points in the Premier League where every point counts and it looks again like every point is difficult to get.
We are playing a home game and we want to win our home games.
"
Arsenal have probably started the week the best of the four teams being discussed, even if a return of nine points from a possible 15 is not quite what fans were hoping for. With the way things have panned out it is far from a poor start, however, especially considering Tottenham's slump since beating Queens Park Rangers 4-0 in the second week of the campaign.
Mauricio Pochettino's side have struggled noticeably for fluency since that encouraging display, with concerns starting to build about their form. The Argentine will be desperate to boost his own credentials with a win over Arsenal—something his recent predecessors have often failed to manage.
The Merseyside derby has a similar dynamic, with two sides both looking to really find their gear. Everton and Liverpool have both looked porous at the back over the last few games—the Toffees conceding three to Crystal Palace!—and have not quite matched the fine attacking play of last term.
For Liverpool, the early-season stutters are a case of relearning the lessons and strategies they practised so brilliantly last season with Luis Suarez, a bit like relearning how to talk after a particularly solid blow to the head.
As passed on by The Guardian, Rodgers, in his own distinctive style, said on Thursday:
"At this moment in time we are refocusing and reintroducing the principles into our game that brought the win ratio we’ve had in the last 18 months.
We put a lot of hard work in during the first six months to a year that we were here and a lot of those processes became natural and then the consequence of that is winning. When you introduce a raft of new players and lose a core of players that’s obviously a factor and then it becomes a little bit broken. That’s how our game has looked for me for a big part of the season.
"
Derbies are always big games, regardless of the context. But all four teams involved this weekend want to make a statement after less-than-perfect starts to the campaign. The cliche about such matches is that form goes out of the window—for the managers involved, perhaps they will be hoping it is where some form is finally delivered through the front door.
Week 4 Fixtures
All games 3 p.m. BST (10 a.m. ET) unless otherwise stated.
Saturday
Liverpool vs. Everton (12:45 p.m.)
Chelsea vs. Aston Villa
Crystal Palace vs. Leicester City
Hull City vs. Manchester City
Manchester United vs. West Ham
Southampton vs. QPR
Sunderland vs. Swansea City
Arsenal vs. Tottenham (5:30 p.m.)
Sunday
West Brom vs. Burnley (4 p.m.)
Monday
Stoke City vs. Newcastle United (8 p.m.)
1. What to watch out for this weekend
A United response?
Robin van Persie has revealed that there was a pretty fiery post-mortem in the Manchester United ranks following last weekend's dramatic 5-3 defeat to Leicester City, with the players getting into each other a little bit as they attempted to find out the course for the collapse.
"We had a proper look at it the next day," Van Persie said, via ESPN. "Sometimes it was a bit confronting. It was a long, one hour or something meeting, but we went from there, started again this week and a couple of really good sessions in and everyone feels ready to face West Ham."
For manager Louis van Gaal the problems have only mounted, however, with the Dutchman claiming this week that all three of his right-sided centre-backs are now injured, leaving him to pluck a man from the youth system to plug the gap. Van Gaal can hardly complain considering the lopsided nature of his summer spending—but one wonders if it is his squad's morale and cohesion, rather than the availability of the players, that will define whether a similar capitulation happens again.
Super Sunday six-pointer
Sunday's only game, a televised meeting between West Bromwich Albion and Burnley, may not exactly be a match to set the pulses racing for the neutral punter, but it could be one of the most important matches of the early part of the season in the Premier League relegation battle. If it was happening later in the year, it would doubtless be called a six-pointer.
West Brom are on a high after beating Tottenham last weekend, and Burnley have had their moments, especially defensively, already—but both teams remain strong candidates for the drop. If West Brom can win, it will give them valuable momentum; if Burnley can triumph, that first win of the campaign will give them much-needed confidence. Hopefully that leads to a good game.
Eagles aim to bring Foxes back down to Earth
A home win over Man Utd sure is nice, but it's away trips to Selhurst Park where a team can really make hay in their bid to stay in the Premier League. Leicester have already looked like a very good side this term—irrespective of that United result—but Crystal Palace is the sort of side Nigel Pearson would have been targeting for points at the beginning of the campaign. He will be sure to remind his players they still have a job to do—they do not want to end up like Cardiff, who beat Manchester City at home early last season and then lost all form and momentum against easier sides soon after.
2. Video of the week
For many, Mesut Ozil remains the key to unlocking Arsenal's potential.
3. Player to watch
Nathaniel Clyne
The right-back's brilliant goal against Arsenal in the Capital One Cup in midweek raised awareness about his recent performances, with the murmurs of a possible England selection continuing to grow and grow with every passing performance. Now eyes will really be on him—the visit of QPR has been a great boon in recent weeks for the likes of Tottenham and Man Utd, and Clyne will hope to impress in attack and defence as the Saints continue their brilliant start to the season.
4. Game of the weekend
Liverpool vs. Everton
The north London derby is always a spicy affair, but in recent times it seems to have always been the Merseyside derby that produces the more dramatic, entertaining contests. This season this game is poised to be similarly spectacular, for some of the reasons noted at the top of this article (and a few more besides).
Liverpool need a win to restart their campaign, while Everton have seemingly waited seasons to redress the balance in the head-to-head standings. Toffees will surely think it is ridiculous that their team have not won against their city rivals since 2010—but are they currently in the shape at the back to give them the best chance of ending that streak on Saturday?
