Can Brendan Rodgers prove the doubters wrong?
Klopp this, Ancelotti that. It’s been a terrible week/month for Brendan Rodgers. Form has slumped, there’s constant speculation about who’s being lined up to replace him, and even his biggest advocates are starting to doubt him.
Things are so bad that you get the sense he’d rather be playing away this weekend. Alas Liverpool are at home to an Aston Villa side buoyed by their victory over Birmingham in the week. The only silver lining for the Anfield faithful is that Dejan Lovren is injured.
Can high-flying Leicester overcome angry Arsenal?
Who’d have thought that Leicester City would be sitting pretty in a Champions League position coming into the arse-end (that sounds wrong) of September? Everyone’s favourite cheery uncle Claudio Ranieri is the flavour of the month *something about crisps*.
Saturday afternoon sees them face Arsenal in what should be one of the most open and expansive games of the weekend. For the Gunners it’ll make a nice change to face a team in blue who aren’t black-belt experts at winding the f**k out of them.
Will Jose’s Inglourious Basterds cost McClaren his job?
No one likes them, they don’t care. Beating Arsenal last weekend was delicious for Chelsea fans. Not only did they return to winning by beating a fierce rival, but they p*ssed the whole country off in the process – bonus!
They visit Newcastle this weekend with the locals baying for blood. The Geordies were asked for some blind faith by Steve McClaren earlier in the week – sadly it fell on deaf ears. He needs a result and fast, or else he’ll be seeing the door.
Who will prove victorious in the Patronising derby?
Aren’t Swansea City and Southampton just great? Aren’t they just adorable? For small clubs to play the kind of football they do, well, isn’t it just delightful? No two teams in the league attract more condescending platitudes than these absolute darlings.
Southampton are proving people wrong yet again: everyone said they’d be crap last year and they were sh*t hot – this season it’s the flip-reverse of that. It all makes Ronald Koeman look more and more like a sulking gerbil. The Swans by contrast are going great guns, bless ’em.
Will Martial shame Rooney into being good?
Oh how we mocked. It only seems like yesterday when everyone was having a pop at Man United for bidding against themselves for an unknown teenager. That slowly quickly subsided when it became apparent that Anthony Martial could actually play a bit.
The hope is that the reincarnation of Thierry Henry can somehow stir Wayne Rooney out of his funk, or just embarrass him into being better than okayish. It’s easy to forget that underneath all that pretend hair, there’s a very good centre-forward…or the remains of one at least.
