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Wigan seek to wreck Hughes’ Saints debut, FA Cup a big deal for Chelsea and Leicester, and Zaha returns to lift Palace’s spirits.
1) Wigan aim to ruin Hughes’s Saints bow
It is tempting to suggest that Mark Hughes has already made the biggest contribution that he can make to Southampton’s fight against relegation – in the form of his final 18 months at Stoke – but Sunday’s FA Cup joust with Wigan gives him a chance to start showing that he has the knowhow to stimulate an improvement at his new club. At Stoke he initially wrought good performances from mercurial types and he will have to do that quicksmart with Southampton, where the likes of Dusan Tadic, Nathan Redmond and Sofiane Boufal have lacked consistency all season. Hughes also needs to get Mario Lemina playing further forward – there is really no need for him to keep taking the ball off Southampton’s centre-backs just outside his own area – and, most of all, the new manager should play with two strikers, a ploy to which his predecessor, Mauricio Pellegrino, was reluctant to commit. While Hughes tries to make a difference fast, Wigan will stick to the same approach that has already enabled them to oust Bournemouth, West Ham and Manchester City from the FA Cup this season.
2) Will Manchester United buck up against Brighton?
Winning this season’s FA Cup may not convince José Mourinho’s detractors that he is the right manager to make Manchester United glorious again, but getting dumped out of the tournament by Brighton this weekend, just a few days after that anaemic elimination from the Champions League, would certainly intensify criticism of the Portuguese. Whatever fans’ reaction, Mourinho needs his players to show they are on board with his approach – the manner of the defeat by Sevilla deepened doubts about that. If Mourinho’s team again play as if they are trying to carry out a chore against their better instincts, then the end of the manager’s time at Old Trafford will seem closer, irrespective of the result.
3) FA Cup a big aim for Chelsea and Leicester
Willy Caballero is ready to step up for Chelsea again in the FA Cup. Photograph: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
There is one itch that even that title triumph of two years ago could not scratch: Leicester have never won the FA Cup. Losing in the final three times in the 1960s is the closest they have come, but there is a fair chance they could surpass that this season. Claude Puel’s side certainly have the ability to make Sunday’s tie at the King Power Stadium an extremely arduous return to domestic duty for Chelsea following Wednesday’s defeat in the Camp Nou. Antonio Conte will most likely deploy his Cup goalkeeper, Willy Cabellero, which is no bad thing following Thibaut Courtois’ performance against Barcelona. But given that the FA Cup is the only trophy still in Chelsea’s reach this season the manager should keep other changes to a minimum, even if Chelsea face Spurs in the league next weekend.
4) Carvalhal should go all out in the Cup
On the face of things it seems prudent for Carlos Carvalhal to punt the FA Cup, to pick a shadow team and take whatever hiding Tottenham hand out, safe in the knowledge that his best men are preserved for the relegation scrap. But that feels like it would be a mistake. Carvalhal should choose his best team not as lip service to the most sentimentalised competition in the world, but more to maintain the massively impressive momentum he has built up since arriving at Swansea. Beating a Harry Kane-less Spurs would not only get them into the semi-final, but swell their confidence further going into the last few, crucial weeks of the Premier League season.
5) Zaha’s return to starting lineup music to Palace ears
From the moment Huddersfield skipped to a 3-0 win at Selhurst Park on the opening day of the season, Crystal Palace have heard the zombie of relegation groaning in their ears. Avenging that defeat this Saturday would shush the wretched creature at least temporarily, so news that Wilfried Zaha is fit enough to breathe new life into Palace from the start is sweet music to Roy Hodgson. Huddersfield, on the other hand, will be less enthused about Zaha’s return to Palace’s starting lineup, which could also feature Mamadou Sakho and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Zaha was excellent against Huddersfield on the opening day despite the result and was the main reason for the withdrawal of Tommy Smith in the 57th minute. But on Saturday Zaha is likely to be confronted with a different full-back: Florent Hadergjonaj has started the last seven league games for Huddersfield and is looking increasingly at home in the Premier League, which is why the club last week took up the option of making his loan move permanent. If Hadergjonaj manages to subdue Zaha, or force him on to the back foot, then that agonised wailing could strike up again for Palace.
6) Klopp must ensure Liverpool keep domestic focus
Liverpool will soon have the complication of facing a Champions League quarter-final and an away Merseyside derby within a few days of one another, so now would be a good time to end any doubts over their seat at next season’s top table. The remainder of their Premier League campaign might feel somewhat flat after defeat at Old Trafford dealt a near-fatal blow to their hopes of finishing second; any excitement around visitors Watford, meanwhile, is confined to speculating over whether they can cling on to their top-10 spot. It should make for a fairly comfortable afternoon for Jürgen Klopp’s team if they are at anything near full tilt, and perhaps the manager’s biggest task over the next few weeks will be to ensure that they face down their domestic assignments with due seriousness when more exciting continental dates loom. After a season of so many thrills it would be criminal to end up with nothing.
7) Will Stoke’s panic intensify if they don’t beat Everton?
It is almost a surprise to look at the league table and discover that Stoke are second bottom. Not that anyone thought they were having a good season, more that their calamity has paled in comparison to those suffered by the likes of West Brom or West Ham. Four of Paul Lambert’s eight games, since he replaced Mark Hughes in January, have been draws, with one win and three defeats. It’s a record that isn’t disastrous but equally isn’t much use: they’re one place lower than they were when Hughes was ejected. So while they are presumably pretty worried, there’s enough there to hint at hope, progress even. But if they lose at home to Everton on Saturday, a team with their own problems and who haven’t won away since the middle of December, more intense panic will set in.
8) West Brom left with self-respect to play for
Eddie Howe will be plotting to keep any signs of a West Brom revival at arm’s length. Photograph: AFC Bournemouth/Getty Images
West Brom seem to have reached the stage where all they have to fight for is the pleasure of dragging others down with them. Doing the double over Bournemouth, whom they beat 1-0 at the Hawthorns on the opening day of the season, would sure damage the survival hopes of Eddie Howe’s side, not to say their self-respect. But Bournemouth have enough firepower, especially at home, to outgun a West Brom side that have scored only seven goals in their 15 away league matches this season.
9) A crucial game of nerves in the Championship
Neil Warnock is thoroughly enjoying himself. After Tuesday night’s win at Brentford, he was already giddily looking forward to Sunday’s trip to Derby, a game that encapsulates the jumbled up nature of the Championship. This is a fixture between a club who are theoretically perfectly designed for promotion against one who, if logic applied, would be in the bottom half. But it’s Cardiff, a team selected from an island of misfit toys that are seven points clear in the top two, while Derby are feeling a familiar pang of calamity, having not won any of their past seven games as they slide towards the limits of the top six. The winners of this will be the ones who deal with nerves the best: for Derby, nerves from the prospect of failure, for Cardiff, nerves from the prospect of success.
10) Sunderland can still survive – but time is running out
Remarkably, given their appalling form and the sense of utter hopelessness that surrounds the club, it is not inconceivable that Sunderland could yet avoid relegation from the Championship. They have taken six points from their last 12 games and in that context it is something of a miracle that they are only five points adrift of 22nd-placed Birmingham. Greater escapes have been made but the wins need to start coming and play-off chasing Preston are probably not the ideal visitors to the Stadium of Light with that in mind. Alex Neil’s side are organised, hardworking, compact and deeply committed – attributes that have largely been foreign to the Black Cats for too long – and if they cannot be overcome then the games are starting to run out. Perhaps relegation would shake up a club whose existence has been zombie-like; perhaps it would be an unmitigated disaster and set them back years. “This is not the place to be if you haven’t got heart or courage,” Chris Coleman said in a message to supporters upon this week’s announcement of season ticket prices. Few doubt that Coleman himself has those qualities, but words will soon not be enough.
(GUARDIAN)
