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When you examine the English Premier League schedule for the big games of the week, usually there’s one or two that leap out at you, like last week’s clash between then-first-place Liverpool and third-place Arsenal.
This week’s big game? The one worthy of the title of the FUBO Game of the Week, features 14th place versus fifth.
Yes, place in the table matters, but so does the pedigree and the circumstance.
While underachieving Manchester United draw an audience whether they’re in first or 14th, the fact they’ve finally, mercifully canned manager Erik Ten Hag while they prepare to host Chelsea on Sunday makes for fascinating viewing.
United has come to terms and paid the release clause for Portuguese manager Ruben Amorim, but he won’t leave his current club Sporting Lisbon until after the international break in November, so assistant manager Ruud Van Nistelrooy will be in charge until then.
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Van Nistelrooy got off to a flyer with a 5-2 win against Leicester in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, a stunning result seeing as United had scored just eight goals in nine league games this season.
Chelsea comes to Manchester to set up a fascinating match. New managers often get what’s called the Dead Cat Bounce (a couple of good results don’t mean the problems are solved) but Chelsea hasn’t exactly been solid in defence with only Brighton giving up more goals than Chelsea out of the top nine teams.
But Chelsea does fill the net — it has scored 19 times, more than double United. Only Manchester City has more with 20.
The key for Van Nistelrooy and Amorim will be sparking United’s moribund strikers. Despite a gaudy array of high-priced attackers, their leading scorer is Alejandro Garnacho with just two. Rasmus Hojlund, Marcus Rashford, Josh Zirkzee and Amad Diallo have just one a piece while Antony has a big, fat zero.
Van Nistelrooy is one of the club’s legendary strikers from the 2000s and certainly has the pedigree to figure out how to get the team scoring. But United is going to need to figure it out in a hurry. Sitting 14th in the table just isn’t acceptable for a club with such a massive following, or such a massive wage bill.
On the Chelsea side of the ledger, the Blues bounced back from their loss to Liverpool with a 2-1 win over struggling Newcastle to get back in the conversation for the Champions League places.
They’ll be wary of a gleeful Old Trafford, as the supporters had wanted Ten Hag gone for a while, and it will certainly be a party atmosphere.
Jumping on them early and getting the first goal will go a long way for the Blues up in Manchester.
City back on their perch
At the end of the day, everyone plays the same schedule in a different order. But there’s little doubt Manchester City has taken advantage of a soft spot in their schedule to climb back atop the Premier League.
While Liverpool and Arsenal were battling to an entertaining 2-2 draw in London, City was scraping by last-placed Southampton 1-0. This was after they got a 96th-minute winner against second-to-last Wolves and they play 11th-placed Bournemouth this weekend while Liverpool plays Brighton and Arsenal travels to Newcastle.
City is especially ruthless in the big games, so seeing them eke out slim victories against lower-level opposition isn’t that surprising. They’ve won so much that motivation certainly is a challenge.
The Sky Blues drew against Arsenal and don’t play Liverpool until the first week of December, and the key to the season will be those games between the acknowledged top three.
City can drop points in those games and still probably win, but for Arsenal and Liverpool to yank the title away from City, they’re going to have to get wins against the champions.
A quick reminder that England did the fall back with the clocks last week, so Saturday games start an hour later than usual in Canada.
Arsenal at a crossroads
Newcastle has fallen on hard times. The Magpies haven’t won in five matches, losing three of those. They’ve scored just nine goals, compared to Arsenal’s 17.
But if they want an uplifting victory, this is the week to do it.
Arsenal finished last week’s game at Liverpool with none of their first-choice defence on the pitch. They get William Saliba back from suspension this weekend, but have injuries all across the rest of the back line.
Newcastle has struggled mightily to score, but if they can’t do it this weekend against Arsenal, you wonder if impatience from the Saudi owners will turn up the heat on manager Eddie Howe.
Newcastle has gone through blips before and he always has found a way to pull them out of it. A heavy defeat to a depleted Arsenal might start to turn up the heat on Howe.
Brighton on the bounce
Brighton has nibbled around the edges of the top teams in the league for a few seasons now, even while losing star players and managers to so-called ‘bigger’ clubs.
This year the Gulls have shown lots of promise but also stumbled, case in point their 2-2 draw with woeful Wolves last week after successive impressive wins over Newcastle and Spurs.
Brighton gets the second half of their double-header against Liverpool on Saturday after being knocked out of the Carabao Cup at home, 3-2 against Liverpool on Wednesday.
Both clubs followed the Premier League blue print of this cup competition, playing some youngsters and depth players, but it was still a game that featured several top stars for both teams.
Liverpool will be desperate to keep the pressure on City after falling out of top spot with the draw at Arsenal. There’s also lots of competition for starting roles amongst the forwards, Cody Gakpo with two and Luis Diaz with one in midweek have made the case to manager Arne Slot to get back into the first-choice XI after spending lots of time on the bench for the Premier League games of late.
This weekend’s slate
Saturday: Newcastle v. Arsenal; Bournemouth v. Manchester City; Ipswich v. Leicester; Liverpool v. Brighton; Nottingham Forest v. West Ham; Southampton v. Everton; Wolves v. Crystal Palace.
Sunday: Tottenham v. Aston Villa; Manchester United v. Chelsea.
Monday: Fulham v. Brentford.