It’s a huge weekend in North London and Manchester. It’s also a big deal for David Moyes as the pressure mounts at West Ham, and Gareth Southgate’s least favorite right-back…
Game to watch – Arsenal v Tottenham
Are Arsenal still a pretender or a real pretender? And what do we really think of Tottenham?
Saturday lunchtime North London Derby won’t definitively answer any of these questions, but it should offer greater clarity on the outlook for two deeply bewildered teams.
Everything we know about Arsenal tells us they are going to explode. That’s what they do – tease us with glimpses and the occasional real quality footage, then conspire to piss off their beds. But right now, there’s a nagging feeling that this time it really could be different.
Their perfect start was cut short by Manchester United at Old Trafford when Mikel Arteta’s gung-ho approach backfired in spectacular fashion. The former Arsenal would then have gone to Brentford and disappeared up his own ass; this one bounced back with an impressive and strangely unknown authority, even while playing a real schoolboy. The atmosphere around the Gunners is good and the skeptics are starting to believe it.
Victory in the derby would offer compelling proof that Arsenal are indeed the real deal. All they have to do is turn around a Tottenham side that looks just as likely to p*ss on the Gunners’ chips as they turn around and get their neighbours’ bellies tickled.
We’ve seen plenty of Spurs suggest they too could maintain their early-season form long enough to do more than linger around the boundary line for a Champions League place. But that’s the real test: winning at Arsenal for the first time in a dozen years.
Arsenal v Spurs: Pace of change since last Emirates NLD could give you a boost
Team to watch – Manchester United
Change may not be happening fast enough for some United fans, but a quiet revolution is taking place at Old Trafford. The squad sheet for Sunday’s derby and that of the last meeting of Manchester’s best are proof of this.
Another indicator is the fact that we pretty much know what to expect from the Red Devils on Sunday. Erik ten Hag appears to have settled into the side and the system so, unlike previous years, there won’t be any drastic changes when United cross town. No flip-flop to a back-three; no experiments with false nines; no more throwing shit at the city wall hoping something sticks.
Only injury will deflect Ten Hag from his final four weeks, and despite Casemiro’s availability, it will almost certainly be Scott McTominay and Christian Eriksen at the base of the visitors’ midfield. Casemiro won’t stay on the bench for long but the derby is not the time to sleep with the Brazilian.
Casemiro will be seated next to Cristiano Ronaldo, whose absence so dismayed United fans the last time they passed through Manchester. Back then, if dismal was Marcus Rashford’s form, Ralf Rangnick preferred an absurd combination of Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes playing as interchangeable false nines. Now, however, the preference would be to keep Ronaldo on the sidelines and let Rashford continue to build momentum.
Despite all of Ten Hag’s good work, if City turn him on, they could still embarrass United. But last season the most humiliating aspect was not the two results but the ease with which they were achieved. In neither game did United fans expect anything other than a tough time at work on Monday. Now they go to the Etihad with hopes of something more than damage control.
Coach to Watch – David Moyes
The international breaks are there for all of us, but the one that just ended was a window into unemployment for some managers. Premier League clubs – those who had yet to make a switch – kept their cool, in rare cases because they couldn’t afford to do anything else. But that doesn’t mean the danger has passed for managers under pressure.
One of them is Moyes. Despite his superior performances over the past two seasons with West Ham, the Scot is back on the familiar ground of being scrapped for his job.
That’s according to a number of reports this week which indicate that while the Hammers aren’t panicking just yet after picking up just four points in their first seven games after being third-spending of the summer, they’re bracing themselves if their results and the league position does not improve in the coming weeks.
The Telegraph says Moyes has four games to stop the rot, starting at home to Wolves on Saturday night. What could he do to change their fate? Playing his new £30million star striker could be a start.
Gianluca Scamacca has started just one game so far this season – coincidentally the only game West Ham have won – as he seeks his first Premier League goal. Scamacca has bagged three in the Conference League, which matches the collective national carry of the Hammers. After proving to be a handful against England last week, Moyes may find it difficult to justify why the Italy international remains on the bench if his side’s misfortunes continue against a team which, before meeting Man City and Erling Haaland, had the best defensive record in the League.
Player to Watch – Trent Alexander-Arnold
The narrative demands Alexander-Arnold play a blinder against Brighton on Saturday.
One of the major themes of the international break was Gareth Southgate’s opinion of the Liverpool right-back. In short: the England boss doesn’t like him.
Many pundits simply can’t understand why Southgate doesn’t want a defender who isn’t very good at defense in a defense that already creaks. Some seem to consider it a revocable offence.
It doesn’t matter which side of the Alexander-Arnold debate you’re on — it absolutely can’t be somewhere in the middle — we all know the next chapter in this particular story. The Liverpool star will go pic-Cafu against the Seagulls, likely assisting and possibly scoring, to whip his defenders into a frenzy.
None of this would shock Southgate or anyone else. The England manager will be looking – if he’s even still interested – at how he balances his attacking role with his defensive duties to stop a dangerous Brighton side, currently four places and four points ahead of Liverpool, eager to impress their new manager.
EFL game to watch – Stoke v Watford
Watford rarely miss an opportunity to change managers and the timing of the international break was simply too perfect to ignore. So Rob Edwards came out and Slaven Bilic arrived in time for a Sunday lunchtime trip to Stoke.
The Hornets’ fifth coach in 12 months takes 10th place after three wins and five draws. Only three teams have lost fewer games so far this season, but Watford apparently felt they were losing ground in the promotion race. They are just one point from the play-off places, although a dozen other teams are within a win of the top six in a ridiculously crowded draw.
The Potters are one of those teams, themselves moving up from 14th place. Stoke pulled the trigger even earlier than their visitors and Sunday is Alex Neil’s fifth game in charge after overseeing a win, a loss and two draws. It was seen in the Potteries as a positive start and Watford’s visit is eagerly awaited after Neil spent a fortnight at the training ground to score Stoke.
European game to watch – PSG v Nice
Despite intense speculation around Lucien Favre who, like Edwards, was appointed in the summer, Nice have managed to avoid the temptation to make another switch during the international break. Although they may have if Mauricio Pochettino had imagined the concert.
Favre is under pressure after Nice picked up eight points from eight games to leave them in 13th place. They travel to PSG on Saturday night to face one of the the fittest sides in Europe and Neymar, the player with the most goals in Europe’s major leagues.
It’s the kind of game Nice bought Kasper Schmeichel for in the summer but the Danish keeper made a poor first impression on his new side. Apparently, he became overweight and went running to Jim Ratcliffe when he was dropped from the season opener, days after his arrival. The grass on Favre seemed to work as Schmeichel was in the sticks for the next six games before sitting on the bench for the last game before the break – a 1-0 defeat at Angers.
Schmeichel was perched next to Ross Barkley while Aaron Ramsey missed out through injury. The Wales star could be back for the trip to the Parc des Princes, but with the World Cup looming, you can bet Ramsey won’t be rushing for his new team.
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