Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
1) Mourinho to aim for more than another spoiling exercise?After the the way José Mourinho turned Red Monday into Bored Monday last season, making a mockery of the absurd hype surrounding this fixture, it would probably be unwise to get your hopes up too much before Manchester United’s trip to Liverpool for the lunchtime kick-off on Saturday. It is no secret that Mourinho’s primary focus is on containment rather than entertainment in big away games, so there is every chance that Anfield could be treated to a stinker just as pungent as last year’s hopeless goalless draw. Yet for all Mourinho’s pragmatism, United’s manager will know that this is a wonderful opportunity for his team to make a swaggering statement of intent at the home of their bitterest rivals. Despite their impressive start, they still have much to prove. Thumping largely moderate opponents is one thing, but last season they were poor away to the rest of the top six, picking up two points and scoring twice in five games, and this is the first major test of their title credentials. Last time they sought to frustrate Liverpool, packing the midfield and leaving Zlatan Ibrahimovic isolated, with Ashley Young and Marcus Rashford almost operating as auxiliary midfielders, Juan Mata left on the bench and Anthony Martial and Henrikh Mkhitaryan left at home. It has to be different this time. Liverpool are wounded. Jürgen Klopp’s defence is unconvincing, Sadio Mané is hamstrung and they will fall 10 points behind United if they lose. Surely this is not the moment for Mourinho to conduct another spoiling exercise. JS
2) Watford to test Arsenal’s mental and physical reservesSince their capitulation at Liverpool in August, Arsenal have not conceded a league goal, winning three matches and drawing at Stamford Bridge. They will do well to extend that run at Vicarage Road on Saturday even if Laurent Koscielny returns to mitigate the absence of Shkodran Mustafi. Because Watford, slick and powerful, are even better now than the team that won at the Emirates when these clubs met in January, when Arsenal still had pretensions of winning the title. “Did we think subconsciously we could turn up and it would be OK?” wondered Arsène Wenger after that 2-1 defeat. “Mentally we were not ready for the [physical] challenges.” As well as defensive concerns, Wenger must decide whether Alexis Sánchez is ready to begin on Saturday in the wake of the exertions and disappointment of Chile’s World Cup exit on Tuesday night and the continuing uncertainty over his contract. If he is not, then perhaps Theo Walcott will be given his first league start since captaining Arsenal to that pathetic 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace in April. Or, despite a couple of goals in the Europa League since then, is the fleeting captain now closer to a last resort? PD
3) What will happen when unstoppable force meets Butland?
Mark Hughes must have been even more vexed than most Welshmen on Monday, when a dazed Joe Allen was forced out of the defeat by the Republic of Ireland. With doubts about the availability of Stoke City’s best central midfielder, and concerns about the central defenders Bruno Martins Indi and Ryan Shawcross, the chances of Hughes’s side repeating the shut-out that they managed at the Etihad in March will probably depend more than usual on Jack Butland providing more evidence that he is England’s No1 goalkeeper. PD
4) Batshuayi has chance to shine in Morata’s absence
Chelsea could be in a worse position. For instance, they could be Crystal Palace – goalless, pointless and strikerless after Christian Benteke joined Connor Wickham in the treatment room, and, just to compound Roy Hodgson’s misery, Ruben Loftus-Cheek is ineligible for the visit of the champions on Saturday afternoon because the terms of the midfielder’s loan agreement preclude him from facing his parent club. Loftus-Cheek might have been the perfect player to exploit N’Golo Kanté’s absence with a hamstring injury. Without him, though, it is difficult to see how Palace can hope to penetrate Chelsea, who will expect to bounce back from their defeat to Manchester City a fortnight ago. Álvaro Morata is absent after tweaking a hamstring against City, but this is a big chance for Michy Batshuayi to win Antonio Conte’s trust. The Belgian has been a peripheral figure since joining Chelsea in 2016, but his winning goal against Atlético Madrid last month suggested that the 24-year-old is capable of filling in for Morata. JS
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