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A couple of Premier League games add to the list this weekend, while elsewhere there are derbies in two of the world’s great venues: Rome and East Lancashire.
Game to watch: Liverpool v Manchester United
It will rarely be seen on the weekend schedule and it’s not a standout game, let’s be honest. Slow purists might argue that it’s a big deal when both teams are good, but those idiots we’ll call tush and really fipsies.
What we have is perfect. This fixture, more than any other, is the one that most happily tilts when one team is good and the other rubbish. And before anyone accuses us of bias, we couldn’t give a damn about which side they’re on. Let’s remember for the first two-thirds of the Premier League’s existence that we had this perfect set-up… well, it wasn’t the current path very often, was it?
There have been plenty of Liverpool good vs Man United bad efforts in recent years, but in truth you’d struggle to find a more exaggerated one in any direction at any time since the invention of football.
Liverpool under Arne Slott have retained all the madcap high-energy flair of Jurgen Klopp’s side but have married some of the new boss’s more calming influences to really quite pleasing effect. And, let’s be honest, Mo Salah is not only rolling back the years but seemingly colliding with the concept of time like a scientist playing some mad god who will surely destroy us all. also helps.
He’s never been better, and Liverpool are great. United, on the other hand, is a lazy, embarrassing, bloated mess. Off the field, Scrooge was inspired by MacRatcliffe’s cartoonish efforts. And a squad too stupid and stupid to learn a new system on the pitch.
It should be a massacre, but let’s not forget what we all wondered when these two last met back in April. It turned out to be very good nonsense. Liverpool would have gone on top with the win but Ghalib would manage just one goal in the first half and then looked on in horror as Bruno Fernandes equalized from the center circle and Kobi Minno curled in a beauty to leave a struggling United comical and Possibly put forward.
Salah saved a point late on from the chance because of course he did, but we’re totally ready for more of that kind of nonsense here and thank you. Or failing that, Liverpool 5-0 Man United and ‘Amorem Sock’ headlines will suffice.
Team to watch: Newcastle United
One thing we will never fully understand about football is how investors get by on fixture release days. We understand ‘when are the big derbies?’ Kind of excited, and don’t want to be one of those people that totally dreads ‘oh everyone is playing everyone twice, once at home and once away’.
But what we will never understand is that before the ball is kicked, people diligently go through the fixture list to find difficult runs and potential trouble spots. And that’s because predicting one team’s woes at any given point in the season is difficult enough, and trying to do so for multiple teams is impossible.
And it’s our long road to a point we can only half-remember now: that Newcastle’s Christmas fixture list must have looked like such a potentially unpleasant run through August eyes. But Eddie Howe’s post-Christmas nightmare is far from over, with Villa at home followed by visits to the Big Six of Manchester United and Tottenham now an easy way to spend the holidays.
Now they are at the fifth position. Premier League table And that A Champions League place is likely to come with it..
Villa were beaten on Boxing Day with a truly impressive performance against a competent team. Man United were dealt with in a way that more and more teams deal with them now, where it’s so easy you forget to laugh.
And then there’s the Spurs, which no one will ever forget to laugh about.
Newcastle have now won their last five games in a row in the Premier League and Carabao, scoring 16 goals and conceding just one. They now travel to a team whose response to a defensive injury crisis was simply to abandon the concept altogether. And before that they had no particular interest.
They conceded 12 goals in their last four games, a run during which their only win was a Shambolic 4-3 Carabao victory against fellow embarrassment Manchester United.
It’s only been two weeks since Spurs could be considered lucky to have ‘only’ escaped a 6-3 home defeat against Liverpool, and you wonder what Newcastle’s current form and fueling their misery is. Given the trend of what could happen here – although primarily based at St James’ Park at first – Spurs are at their most vulnerable.
Alexander Isak (eight goals in his last six league games) against this defense should come with a graphic content warning. We can’t wait to be honest.
Managers to watch: Karen McKenna
A manager whose stock has probably never been higher is right now. While much of the reaction to Ipswich’s 2-0 win over Chelsea inevitably focused on the visitors’ ongoing role in any title race that Liverpool may or may not allow to happen, McKenna may well consider a job. What and another great reward for the effort that he and his side have put in in a season in which they should be up against the mighty indeed.
Even before winning as they have in recent months against Spurs, Wolves and now most impressively Chelsea, Ipswich can pride themselves on how competitive they have been, along the way. With plenty of hard-earned draws and narrow defeats.
With that particular standard in mind, McKenna and his side probably deserve the biggest praise for how they responded to a 4-0 home thrashing by Newcastle. The Magpies are playing well at the moment and are capable of doing that sort of thing to anyone, but it was still a game and the result was far from what Ipswich had been about before.
And looking at this game after Arsenal and Chelsea, it was a situation that had serious snowball potential. Instead, an embarrassingly narrow defeat and a potentially season-defining win against Chelsea has put Ipswich firmly back on track and with a very manageable road map to survival.
Then comes the trip to Fulham, where you never know what you’re going to get, and in Marco Silva another manager who likes McKenna is just doing what he’s doing at the moment. And Take a little care to make sure he doesn’t accidentally become the next Spurs manager..
Player to watch: Gabriel Jesus
One goal in 20 games for Arsenal between August and December 14 – and that at Preston at the Carabao – six goals in four games for a man who may be saving Mikel Arteta trouble. Had to go out and buy four new players in January to revive their front three.
Jesus has also now scored against a team other than Crystal Palace in this current run, with his wider contribution to Arsenal’s much improved open attacking play going beyond direct goal contributions.
A trip to Brighton, Joe looks to be having his quality season once again. And currently somewhat lagging behind, giving Jesus ample opportunity to ride out these unexpectedly good times.
Football League game to watch: Blackburn v Burnley
An East Links derby with plenty riding on second-placed Burnley looking to return to winning ways to end 2024 and start 2025 after goalless draws against Middlesbrough and Stoke.
Blackburn have followed up a six-game winless run with a four-game winless run that has hurt their play-off chances, but they held off Leeds’ home charge with a last-gasp equaliser. was given They have also been waiting a long time for a win against their local rivals, ever since David Dunn’s penalty secured a 1-0 win at Turf Moor in a Premier League game almost 15 years ago, bettering the Clarets. Failed to get.
European game to watch: Roma vs Lazio
Worse ways to start the new year in Serie A than a good friendly Derby della Capitale at the Stadio Olimpico.
Roma have endured a very miserable season to date and are languishing in mid-table while their city rivals are in the Champions League.
An interesting note for him with Roma’s designated home team: they have won five, drawn none and lost four of their nine home league games this season. Lazio’s away record is also five wins, no draws and four losses.