IT’S SQUEAKY BUM TIME
Can United finish second? Will Gerrard win the FA Cup? Is Kane player of the year?
YOU’VE missed it, haven’t you? Two weeks without Premier League football has been hard to bear but the most exciting league in the world returns on Saturday with so much to play for. Teams at the top and bottom will be scrapping for every point before the season ends on May 24. Who will leave for their summer holidays happy?
WHO WILL FINISH SECOND?
IAN LADYMAN: Manchester City will finish a reasonably close second to Chelsea. The defending champions have a record of four wins in their last 13 games. However, City are perhaps the most clinical and unsentimental flat-track bullies out there and Manuel Pellegrini’s team have only one top-five team left to play this season.
ASHTON: Manchester United. Their victory over Liverpool before the international break will give Louis van Gaal’s team belief that they will finish ahead of Brendan Rodgers’ team in the annual scramble for the top four. Beyond that, the target, in the absence of European competition or another fixture in the FA Cup, is to finish runners-up. Expect them to blow an absolute fortune this summer in the transfer market. Prepare for some massive signings.
CAN ANY OF THE PACK MAKE THE TOP FOUR?
ASHTON: Liverpool are the only team from that group with the potential to make an impact on the top four, but they missed such a huge opportunity at Anfield against United.
Southampton do not have the squad depth to make it and Tottenham, as ever, are all fur coat and no knickers.
LADYMAN: Yes. Liverpool’s race is far from run and there is still enough frailty about Manchester United to offer Brendan Rodgers and his team some hope. Liverpool know they were poor against United but they remain in good form and have the potential to win each of their games in a run in that — beyond Saturday’s game at Arsenal — does not look that difficult. One thing that may yet get in their way is the FA Cup.
AND WILL MAN UTD CONTINUE TO IMPROVE?
LADYMAN: This is perhaps the most intriguing question of all. Louis van Gaal’s team have fixtures against Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal in their run-in and these games may yet prove their undoing. If Van Gaal doesn’t interfere with his team too much and trusts in the players who earned wins against Tottenham and Liverpool then they should have just about enough to drag themselves over the line.
ASHTON: Yes. Despite a number of outstanding issues within the squad, they are on a big run in the Premier League.
Falcao is out at the end of the season and there are questions over Angel di Maria and Robin van Persie. Van Gaal also needs central defenders next season. They simply cannot plod on with Chris Smalling and Phil Jones if they want to win the Premier League or Champions League. Expect casualties.
WILL THE THREE PROMOTED TEAMS GO STRAIGHT BACK DOWN?
ASHTON: Sunderland are playing like a team that want to be relegated and there is every chance they will get their wish under Dick Advocaat, who is only there on a short-term deal and doesn’t know the players he has inherited.
Leicester are toast because manager Nigel Pearson has been affected by the pressure of running a Championship team in the Premier League. QPR, likewise, will play Championship football next season. The only team with a chance is Burnley, who will hope to get something from Tottenham at Turf Moor this weekend.
LADYMAN: I tipped Burnley to stay up at the start of the season and I stand by that. Sean Dyche’s team rarely play terribly and their final five opponents are Leicester, West Ham, Hull, Stoke and Aston Villa. Could be worse.
“Tottenham are all fur coat and no knickers”
HOW MUCH OF GERRARD WILL WE SEE?
LADYMAN: It now appears the FA Cup is the best chance Gerrard has of playing a significant role in his final season at Anfield. Suspended for three games, he must hope that Liverpool win their quarter-final replay at Blackburn next week. In the Premier League, it looks as though Joe Allen and Jordan Henderson have a grip on the central positions.
ASHTON: If Liverpool put another run together without their captain, he will see out the remaining weeks of the season on the bench. Gerrard is an emotional player and the fear, as his career with the club comes to an end, is that he could be a liability rather than a life-saver for Liverpool. Expect tears on the final day of the season.
WILL DE GEA OR LLORIS GET A MOVE TO REAL MADRID?
ASHTON: Behind the scenes at Tottenham there is a belief that Real Madrid are unlikely to bid for Hugo Lloris because David de Gea, their No1 target, is the better keeper. There will be significant changes at Real Madrid in the summer and a move to the Bernabeu will appeal to De Gea if United do not move quickly to offer him a new contract.
LADYMAN: De Gea’s failure to sign a contract extension has been one of the most peculiar subplots of United’s season. The situation is now being made even more delicate by his agentgent Jorge Mendes’ increasing irritation n with Van Gaal over his treatment off another client, Radamel Falcao. United ed fans are nervous and it’s hard to blame th them.
CAN KANE WIN GOLDEN BOOT OR BEST PLAYER?
LADYMAN: Harry Kane has been a presence to lift the spirits this season. However, I sense there may be a lean spell around the corner. As for player of the year, my vote would go to De Gea with Kane pushing him close.
ASHTON: Yes, he can win the lot because Diego Costa has an ongoing issue with his hamstring and spends most games starting feuds with the opposition. He can win the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year award, too, because he fulfils the criteria of not only being a top player on the pitch, but an ambassador off it. Good for him.
CAN PELLEGRINI KEEP HIS JOB AT MAN CITY?
ASHTON: Pellegrini can count himself lucky he didn’t get an OBE — Out Before Easter — after the chasing Barcelona gave Manchester City in both legs of the Champions League second round.
City need a manager who can stamp his personality on the club and turn this group of players into a European force because they are never going to do it under the current coach. Expect changes in the summer if any manager with pedigree in European football indicates that they are ready to take up the challenge.
LADYMAN: Given that Manchester City would ideally like their next manager to be Pep Guardiola, I would imagine Pellegrini will be given an extra year at the helm. But he needs to learn from this season’s mistakes. If he doesn’t, few fans will remember — or thank — him.
WILL MOURINHO MAKE US LOVE HIM AGAIN?
LADYMAN: Mourinho has often behaved appallingly when things haven’t gone his way and he has resorted to ugly type even earlier in the piece than usual.
I love Mourinho for his ability to build teams and spirit and I think his best-ever Chelsea team is currently under construction. With him, though, success will always leave bodies strewn in its wake.
ASHTON: Yes, because in a few weeks we will be gushing with praise and anointing him the greatest manager in the history of the game again when Chelsea win their fourth Premier League title (and his third).
If this guy behaved himself and played within the rules and the spirit of the sport at all times, we would all be out of jobs. And no-one wants that, do they?
CAN ALLARDYCE SAVE HIMSELF AT WEST HAM?
ASHTON: Yes, if he can get hold of the 1986 team — complete with Frank McAvennie and Tony ‘Instant’ Cottee up front. Other than that he is gone this time. The temptation at West Ham is to give in and finally get Slaven Bilic out of their system when he leaves Besiktas at the end of the season.
LADYMAN: Yes. If he changes his name to Bobby Moore.
“Expect tears from Gerrard on the final day”