1) Friday night frights could await Gunners
It would be a dereliction of duty if Arsène Wenger has not spent the past few days coming up with a way to stop Liverpool’s fearsome attack from running riot at the Emirates Stadium on Friday night. Arsenal’s manager cannot say that he has not been warned. He knows how much his team has suffered against these opponents since Jürgen Klopp’s arrival on Merseyside in October 2015 and nobody could say it was a surprise when Liverpool hammered Arsenal 4-0 at Anfield in August, with Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah inspired and Philippe Coutinho not even involved. It was, to be brutally honest, an entirely predictable result given that, under Klopp, Liverpool have won three times and drawn once with Wenger’s side, scoring 14 in the process. There is proof that their attacking formula is capable of ripping Arsenal to shreds, so it is up to Wenger to change. Arsenal, who were caught on the counterattack by United three weeks ago, have to find the right balance. Playing with carefree abandon against this Liverpool side could have dire consequences. JS
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2) Pardew’s first win could spell end for Hughes at Stoke
Mark Hughes’s job may be in jeopardy but he is unlikely to give a start this weekend to Saido Berahino, the striker he spent many months pursuing before eventually prising him from West Brom for £12m. That alludes to just one of the reasons for which Stoke are in danger of relegation: when a club spends as sparingly as Stoke have in recent seasons, they need all their major signings to be successful and can ill-afford flops such as Berahino or Giannelli Imbula, nor even last season’s loan failure of Wilfried Bony or the unpromising start made to this campaign by Kevin Wimmer. Nor can they afford to leave parts of their team looking as scantly covered as, say, they do at right-back or central midfield. Stoke know they have holes to fill during the January transfer window but Hughes may not be given the chance to plug away if Alan Pardew finds a way to get West Brom scoring on Saturday. PD
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3) City’s winning habit makes Premier League look bad
Manchester City are making a mockery of the Premier League. At some point soon (but definitely not before their January meetings with Burnley and Liverpool), we may have to find ourselves asking not whether they can go the whole season unbeaten, but whether anyone can else can even hold them to a draw? Bournemouth nearly did so back in August, when they were denied only by a stoppage-time winner by Raheem Sterling. Eddie Howe’s side are weak in central midfield, in particular, and although they gave decent accounts of themselves at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge in recent weeks, it seems highly unlikely they will be solid enough to shut out City this time. Their slim hopes of victory will wither to close to nothing if Joshua King is not fit enough to feature. PD
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4) Long in for the short haul
Burnley entertain Tottenham knowing a win would extend the gap between the two sides to four points and with two of their three subsequent Premier League matches coming against Manchester United and Liverpool, Sean Dyche’s team have a real chance to cement their top-six credentials or begin the slide down the table many suspect is inevitable. Burnley have already shown admirable resilience in their ability to withstand the absence of key players Tom Heaton, Robbie Brady, Matt Lowton and Jonathan Walters, and now will have to prepare for three games without James Tarkowski. The centre-half has been ever present in the league this season but has been retrospectively banned for swinging an elbow at Brighton’s Glenn Murray last weekend. When Tarkowski’s usual central defensive partner Ben Mee was unavailable for two matches against Watford and Stoke, Kevin Long proved a more than able deputy, helping his side keep a pair of clean sheets. The Republic of Ireland international is likely to face sterner tests alongside Mee over the festive period as Burnley strive to maintain their lofty league status and it will be intriguing to see how he gets on. BG
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5) Who will be grounded by Mourinho this time?
An evening kick-off on the last Saturday before Christmas? The atmosphere will be exceptionally merry, hopefully, when Leicester host Manchester United. And José Mourinho will demand that his players show far more bottle than they did during their sorry defeat at Bristol City. The manager’s team selection may give some indication of which players he had in mind when he said some of them lacked motivation against the Championship side. Paul Pogba is probably above being dropped despite his drab performance (apart from that picturesque fall for the free-kick that led to United’s goal, of course) but Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford might be set for spells on the naughty step, while Marcos Rojo did nothing to earn a starting spot ahead of Chris Smalling or Phil Jones. As for Leicester, they will likely deploy the lineup that Claude Puel should have named for Tuesday’s Carabao Cup match against Manchester City’s second string. PD
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6) Allardyce and the Everton revival
Despite their team’s resurgence under Sam Allardyce and recent ascent to the giddy heights of ninth, Everton fans remain understandably underwhelmed by the appointment of a man who claimed to be in semi-retirement and whose contract details – specifically its length – have never entered the public domain. Under Allardyce, Everton have yet to beat anyone in the top half and just about got away with their “hoof it and hope” tactics against Liverpool in the Merseyside derby. Victory against Chelsea at home is just the kind of match that would prompt Allardyce to play a long Christmas solo on his own trumpet and winning in the ugliest manner imaginable would represent a perfectly satisfactory state of affairs for supporters who haven’t exactly been spoiled with exhibitions of total football in recent decades. A team once renowned for their Dogs of War ethos could very well give Chelsea a black eye, but one can’t help but feel that no matter what Allardyce achieves this season, he will never be fully welcome by supporters of a club who were hoping for so much better just four months ago. BG
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7) Surely no repeat of a nine-goal thriller
Swansea City and Crystal Palace served up one of the barmiest matches in recent memory when they met at the Liberty Stadium last season. Palace led 4-3 with six minutes left, only for Fernando Llorente’s stoppage-time double to give Swansea the first of their two wins under Bob Bradley. A repeat of that craziness seems unlikely, though. Swansea have been blunt under the now-departed Paul Clement, managing 10 goals in 18 games, and they will be bottom at Christmas unless they beat Roy Hodgson’s side. Palace’s away record, meanwhile, does not inspire much confidence – until, that is, one factors in them scoring their first away goals of the season against Leicester last weekend. Christian Benteke ended his drought in a 3-0 win that lifted Palace out of the bottom three and, having lost to Swansea at Selhurst Park in August, this is a fine opportunity for them to showcase their improvement since Hodgson took over from Frank de Boer. JS
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8) More sting from the Hornets?
Questioned about his side’s lack of discipline after Troy Deeney became the third Watford player in as many matches to get sent off last weekend, Marco Silva insisted lack of control was not a problem for his players while conveying the faintly ludicrous impression that it is referees who are to blame for his side’s inability to keep 11 men on the field. The one red card out of the four shown to his players in the league this season that Silva had no grumbles about was brandished at Miguel Britos for a flying two-footed tackle on Brighton’s Anthony Knockaert, arguably one of the wildest challenges seen in recent memory. This weekend the teams go toe to toe again, with Brighton looking for their first win in eight and Watford their first in five. While Knockaert was lucky to escape unharmed from Britos’s moment of madness, those of us eager to see if Brighton’s players remember what the Watford full-back did to their team-mate could be disappointed: the Uruguayan remains a doubt as he continues to recover from a foot injury. Should he return against Brighton, the disciplinary mettle of both sides could be tested to the limit. BG
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9) Imbalance for Moyes still a West Ham worry
If they were safely ensconced in mid-table, criticism of West Ham’s failure to muster a worthwhile shot on goal in their EFL Cup quarter-final defeat at Arsenal on Tuesday would have been justifiable. David Moyes made changes for the trip to the Emirates, resting Adrían and Michail Antonio and naming Marko Arnautovic on the bench, and his team never looked like scoring. Yet the meekness of West Ham’s performance underlined the imbalance in Moyes’s squad. The manager lacks fit central midfielders and wide players and, after a draining run of league fixtures, he was probably right to rotate before the rather more important task of hosting Newcastle on Saturday. West Ham are out of the bottom three after picking up seven points from three matches and another victory will take them five points clear of 18th-placed Newcastle, winless in nine games. But they are not out of the woods yet and will have to find a way to cope without invention of the suspended Manuel Lanzini. Moyes does not have a replacement for the Argentinian, whose retrospective ban for diving is a big blow. JS
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10) St Mary’s meeting could spark decisive runs
Having ended an away goal drought stretching back eight games in all competitions in fine style against Watford, Huddersfield travel to play a Southampton side that has kept only two clean sheets at home in the Premier League in 10 attempts. With matches against Stoke, Burnley, Leicester, West Ham and Stoke again to follow, this encounter marks the beginning of a relatively benign month of fixtures in which Huddersfield could conceivably go a long way towards securing their Premier League status. Just taking half of the 18 points on offer before they entertain Liverpool on 30 January would leave them nine short of the magic 40-point mark and represent an incredible achievement for a team written off by many as relegation fodder before a ball had been kicked. With just two wins in their last 13, against Everton and West Brom sides that have since changed managers, Saints increasingly look destined for a relegation battle and need to stop the rot against the team directly above them. A potential humdinger, this is a big game for both sides. BG
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