Premier League Notebook Heading into Week 24

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has every reason to be confident when his side face Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane on Saturday; his record against the club's archrivals speaks for itself.

Of the 44 times Wenger has faced Spurs, he has lost on just six occasions—winning on 21 of them. With the white half of north London currently just two points behind the red in the Premier League table, the Frenchman will doubtless be thinking that now would be a good time to further improve that record.

His side also go into the game full of confidence, buoyed by recent victories over Manchester City and Aston Villa that showcased both a new-found tactical and mental stability along with an ever-growing tactical threat.

Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil are back to fitness and, if the Aston Villa game can be taken as any sort of reliable yardstick (touch-and-go, that one), in good form—although a continued injury to the perhaps overplayed Alexis Sanchez means the Gunners could end up being without an important player for the upcoming key game.

Wenger has been coy about Sanchez's fitness—initially ruling the Chilean out of the game before appearing to leave the door slightly ajar on Friday. As per the Daily Mirror, he said:

"

He wants to play, of course, he's very keen, he feels he can defy the medical people because he is so keen to play that he thinks he can get over strains.

I don’t know yet [if he could feature], I need medical advice on that, and I need as well to see what he can do in training.

"

That compares with a day earlier, when the official website quoted him as saying: "Alexis is not ready. He is not far away, the Leicester game is a possibility."

It would seem Wenger will be without Sanchez but is just trying to create some doubt in the Spurs camp. Nevertheless, it is their own approach that the Gunners should be focusing on.

Arsenal's fragility in big away games has been discussed at length over the last few seasons, to the point where it was almost cause for a parade down the Holloway Road when the side won—and won so impressively—against Man City at the Etihad Stadium.

Those away-day issues have only travelled with them to White Hart Lane to an extent—two of the last three meetings were lost 2-1—but they last season claimed a 1-0 win, a repeat of which Mauricio Pochettino will undoubtedly be determined to avoid this time around.

Pochettino is the 12th different Spurs manager Wenger has come up against, and you sense the Argentine feels it is that dynamic that really needs to change if his side are to overhaul their neighbours.

"He is a good example because this balance you need to give the club," Pochettino said, per the Daily Express. He continued:

"

I think he was perfect because always he had the balance of the team: young, medium and experienced, players. And for the club it’s the same. We are a company, a business, it’s the same, you need a good balance.

We need to settle the basis for the future...but we are focused on the present too. The fashion is to sign only young players...no! Football is also about the present because Saturday is a big game for us.

"

That is true. Win, and Spurs will move a point ahead of their rivals into fifth—fourth if Southampton fail to get anything from their game against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road.

Spurs have enjoyed such leads over Arsenal during latter stages of the campaign before and still faltered down the stretch, but with Pochettino seemingly instilling a great resolve in the squad and the likes of Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen delivering on a weekly basis, the once inevitable collapse suddenly does not seem quite so likely this time around.

That is why Arsenal will have to summon much of the spirit they showed against Man City if they want to get the right result (remember how Spurs demolished Chelsea at the start of the year?).

Much has been made of the wealth of attacking options available to Wenger now, but it is in defence where the team remains most fragile. Gabriel Paulista arrived in January but, for the next six months at least, seems to be more of a versatile back-up for all three positions along the back line than an immediate starter, meaning the fragility that was exposed by the likes of Swansea City and Stoke City earlier in the season remains somewhere just under the surface.

Aston Villa were not able to peel through the layers to get to that softer underbelly, but Tottenham will believe they are much better equipped to do so. If they want to finish above their archrivals this season, you feel they will have to.

Paul Gilham/Getty Images

---

Week 24 Fixtures

All games 3 p.m. GMT (10 a.m. ET) unless otherwise stated.

Saturday

Tottenham vs. Arsenal (12:45 p.m)
Aston Villa vs. Chelsea
Leicester City vs. Crystal Palace
Manchester City vs. Hull City
QPR vs. Southampton
Swansea City vs. Sunderland
Everton vs. Liverpool (5:30 p.m.)

Sunday

Burnley vs. West Bromwich Albion (12 p.m.)
Newcastle United vs. Stoke City (2:05 p.m.)
West Ham United vs. Manchester United (4:15 p.m.)

---

Jamie McDonald/Getty Images

1. What to Watch out for This Week

How Will Adebayor Respond to Latest Twist?

Emmanuel Adebayor was one of the players unable to push through a move on transfer deadline day, as Tottenham ultimately blocked him from completing his desired loan switch to West Ham United.

While that was taken by many as an example of the continued bad blood between the two clubs, it also speaks to the particular frustrations of Adebayor: so annoying you want nothing to do with him, yet capable of being so good you fear he might come back to bite you.

Adebayor has been that sort of character throughout his entire career, and at Spurs, he has been no different. Being appointed vice-captain earlier in the campaign was seemingly an attempt by Mauricio Pochettino to motivate the striker through responsibility, a tactic that backfired badly when Adebayor criticised the home support after one disappointing result and was subsequently dropped down the pecking order.

The Togolese has undoubtedly been knocked by the remarkable ascent of Harry Kane (perhaps more so than even Robert Soldado), and he has now arrived at another important crossroads. Will he sulk after not getting the move he wanted, or will he refocus and redouble his efforts to contribute to the Spurs' cause of the remainder of the season? With Adebayor, you can never tell.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall

Are Manchester United actually any good? The jury might still be out on Louis van Gaal's team (they took their time to beat Cambridge United!), but in a way, that only makes their current position of third in the league all the more impressive. 

West Ham should provide a stern examination, however, especially at Upton Park, where the atmosphere has been vibrant in recent weeks and the side seem to play with a great purpose and physicality. United will have to be better in all aspects of the game than they have been in recent weeks in order to get a result and retain their current grip on a Champions League-qualifying place.

West Ham need a result for similar reasons; if they lose, following on from the loss at Anfield last time out, their European hopes would suddenly seem to have all but disappeared.

"As most people know, I break up the season into phases and although we have had a little blip, we can get back on track if we can beat Manchester United on Sunday," Allardyce wrote in his latest London Evening Standard column. "That will give us 11 points from eight games in phase three. If we don’t, it will be below par, compared to the first two phases this season. We just need to lift ourselves a bit to make it three phases where we have finished eighth or higher on points."

Can QPR Get That Post-Managerial Departure Boost?

QPR's biggest bit of transfer deadline day business actually came a day later, as Harry Redknapp resigned from the club.

The party line is that the veteran manager needs double knee-replacement surgery (ouch), although the timing of the exit will lead many to presume—not unfairly—that other reasons are in play.

Results this season have not been great (especially away from home), and club owner Tony Fernandes has wasted no time in expressing his desire for a change in approach—away from signing established players on big wages, to attracting young talent to be developed—which has done little to dissuade observers of the notion that Redknapp was allowed to jump before he was pushed.

Nevertheless, the club did no business before the window closed, meaning new director of football Les Ferdinand and caretaker boss Chris Ramsey will have to work with what they've got until a successor is appointed, who will have to do the same until the end of the season.

The squad undoubtedly has talent, but with just 15 games left in the season, there is not much time to get back on the right track. With the away results so dire (the team are still on zero points on their travels), the home games become all the more imperative—beating Southampton at Loftus Road will be no easy task, but the club surely needs some sort of positive result to avoid morale plummeting through the floor.

From Non-League to the Top League in a Flash

Crystal Palace already had one former non-league striker on their books in Dwight Gayle, but they have now found another.

The Eagles snapped up 21-year-old Barton Rovers striker Keshi Anderson prior to the close of the transfer window after Anderson impressed with a hat-trick against a Palace youth side while on trial with Brentford.

Anderson was expected to join up with the under-21s for the remainder of the season (and perhaps beyond that as well), but instead, manager Alan Pardew—himself a former non-league player who worked his way into the professional leagues—has included him in the squad to face Leicester City.

"He has the opportunity to train with us today and I have put him in the squad for Leicester," Pardew said on Thursday, per the Daily Mirror. He explained:

"

It will be a good experience for him to come and see what goes on. His headlights are still full on.

He came to our attention late. He got a bit of attention from other clubs and he played against us and caught our eye and it’s a great opportunity for him.

And he has taken a similar route that I took myself, coming from non league so he will have great sympathetic eyes from my point of view.

"

2. Video of the Week

This week, we sat down with Leighton Baines to talk about the Merseyside derby, among other things.

You can also read our interview with boss Roberto Martinez here.

3. Player to Watch

Willian

After the arrival of Juan Cuadrado on deadline day, it is Willian's place at Chelsea that seems to be most under threat as a result of the Colombian's presence.

Of that triumvirate behind Diego Costa in the Blues attack, it is Eden Hazard who is untouchable out on the left, while Oscar seems better suited to the central role than anyone in the squad, bar perhaps Cesc Fabregas.

Cuadrado is a natural right-footer, bringing natural width to his team, and his pace and direct running is surely something Mourinho will be looking forward to employing. In many ways, he is a superior attacking version of Willian, albeit perhaps without the same defensive instincts.

Which is why Saturday's away game at Aston Villa could be so significant. Not only did Chelsea infamously lose this game last season—heightening the need for revenge—but with Cuadrado perhaps unlikely to be thrown straight into the fray, it is a chance for Willian to reinforce his continued value to the team.

Mourinho instinctively opts to play defensive in the biggest games of all, and Willian perhaps better aligns with that approach right now than Cuadrado. It would not be a surprise to see the Brazilian working hard up and down the pitch at Villa Park on Saturday, desperately reminding his manager that newer is not always better.

Alex Livesey/Getty Images

4. Game of the Weekend

Everton vs. Liverpool

It is surely no coincidence that two of English football's biggest derbies fall on the same day, but neutral fans are not going to mind the somewhat contrived nature of this feast of football.

The early kick-off at White Hart Lane might have more riding on it in terms of the league picture, but the Merseyside derby could well end up being the more passionate and explosive affair.

They often are. A police request to move the kick-off time forward was rejected this week and drew criticism for heightening tension around a game that has often been known as "the friendly derby."

The days of Everton fans sitting in the Kop and Liverpool fans helping fill the Gwladys Street End may have gone, and the importance of local bragging rights may have continued to grow, but it remains a derby of unique emotions—two clubs that seem to be driven by a desire to be better than the other but united whenever the other faces adversity.

On the pitch this campaign, both clubs have faced their share of adversity, with Liverpool perhaps coming out of it sooner. The Reds struggled badly with their shape and structure at the beginning of the season, but things have improved in recent weeks after Brendan Rodgers finally hit upon a system that played to his side's strengths—a system that has brought Emre Can to the fore and will now be enhanced further by the return of Daniel Sturridge.

Everton have struggled in similar fashion but are yet to turn that corner. Fans have started to get on players' backs slightly in recent weeks as attacking moves stall and the vibrant, adventurous play of last season has been replaced by a hesitancy and inconsistency that has left the team worrying more about relegation than contending for Europe.

Rising out of that slump has become increasingly important with each passing week, and doing so in the derby would be doubly timely for Roberto Martinez and his players.

The games are usually thrillers, contests in which tactics invariably serve a secondary role, and perhaps that environment will help the Toffees shake off the shackles.