Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
1) Level playing field for threadbare derby
“It’s like going to a fight with a gun without bullets.” A manager’s postmatch interview is a decent advertisement for the health of his team and the problem for José Mourinho is that his lament after Spurs’ toothless defeat to RB Leipzig will, most likely, apply to the rest of their fixtures this season. Saturday brings something of a level playing field, though, given Chelsea are hardly laden with attacking depth. Tammy Abraham is struggling to be fit and Frank Lampard may have to go again with Michy Batshuayi or, given his good display off the bench against Manchester United, Olivier Giroud. In a parallel universe, Chelsea signed the forwards they wanted in January and allowed Giroud to fill a gaping hole at Tottenham. Instead, nobody feels satisfied and both sides find themselves feeling the heat of rivals making ground beneath them in the race for Champions League places. What price Giroud popping up with the winner – just as he did in a north London derby in 2013 – and forcing Mourinho to bemoan his threadbare set of options again? NA
• Chelsea v Tottenham (Saturday, 12.30pm – all times GMT) 2) Does Sarr hold key to Watford survival?
Watford sparked a mini-resurgence with victory over Manchester United just before Christmas. After four winless matches they could really use another. They could be boosted here by the return of record signing, Ismaila Sarr, who has been restricted to 11 starts this season. Watford have won four of those, and look a side transformed when they can benefit from the Senegalese forward’s pace and directness on the right. The front three of Sarr, Gerard Deulofeu on the left and Troy Deeney in the middle looks capable of saving the club from relegation should they stay fit, but without any one of that trio the team looks immeasurably poorer.If Watford’s results in those 11 games were extrapolated over a full 38game season, they would end up with 52 points; if their results in 15 matches without him in the starting lineup were mirrored across a season they would finish with 23. SB
• Manchester United v Watford (Sunday, 2pm)
3) Will Arsenal or Everton continue league upturn?
Exactly two months ago, Mikel Arteta and Carlo Ancelotti watched their new teams from the Goodison directors’ box and might have been forgiven slipping off to the nearest hostelry well before half-time. The goalless draw was comfortably one of this Premier League season’s worst games but it is not unrealistic to expect far more entertainment from Sunday’s rematch. While both Arsenal and Everton – who endured disastrous first halves of the season – remain deeply flawed, the statistics tell a tale. Between them, the new managers have lost only two of the 16 top-flight games. Both can now glimpse a European place previously out of the question and anyone who takes the three points this time will sense the wind in their sails. Ancelotti’s side, with three wins and two draws from the last five, are in the better form and have not had a Europa League tie in Greece to contend with. But Arsenal showed the right blend of defensive stability and attacking fluency against Newcastle and passing this test would suggest the Arteta revolution does have legs. NA
• Arsenal v Everton (Sunday, 4.30pm)
4) A battle of bottom of the class
In Premier League rankings, it’s the lowest scorers (Palace) against the joint second-lowest, the team with the fewest shots (Palace) against the joint second-fewest, the team with the fewest goals from inside the box (Newcastle) against the team with the (joint-) fewest from outside, the team with fewest passes (Newcastle) against the fifth-lowest passers, the team that has attempted the secondfewest crosses (Palace) against the third-fewest (with just three more attempts). The Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka has been forced to make 106 saves; no one else is in triple figures; Newcastle have made 716 clearances, more than 40 more than anyone else. Over their last 10 games Palace have one win and eight points, putting them 19th in the form table; Newcastle have two wins (one of which was against Palace) and are 16th. In positive news, Newcastle’s forward line could be boosted by the returns from injury of Yoshinori Muto (seven appearances this season, no shots) and Dwight Gayle (nine/two). SB
• Crystal Palace v Newcastle United (Saturday, 3pm)
5) The latest on-field reaction from Manchester City
There are people – many of them adults – who deem those seeking to take over football at any cost more likely truth-tellers than an independent body of legal experts with access to relevant evidence. Such is football fandom and such is the loyalty that has been manipulated by multi-billionaires casting themselves as plucky outsiders. Such is politics that we are intimately familiar with the strategy, but these particular circumstances have now changed. It is eminently possible that