Saturday Morning Manager WK25
We have a tendency to over-react to what we’ve just seen when writing weekly wrap-up columns like this one. Part of that is the nature of commenting regularly – not everything can be a long view that looks at the most recent outcome with the same weight as previous outcomes. Part of it is the nature of today’s digital culture where we get so much information that it feels like we have to say something different based on every little new piece of evidence to differentiate ourselves from all of the other news and commentary outlets out there. Whatever the reason, the opening theme of this week’s MMM is whether some of the crucial outcomes should really change our perception or not.
No Change
Spurs – Yes, they lost but for me losing a closely contested match at Anfield doesn’t change my opinion of them at all. They were in the match against a good team. They’re in the mix for a Champions League spot but are probably just a little bit short because they rely SO MUCH on Harry Kane and Christen Eriksen. That was the conclusion after they beat Arsenal and it remains the same after they lost to Liverpool.
Change
Liverpool – While I didn’t downgrade Spurs any for losing, I do think a little more highly of Liverpool’s chances based on their win. They’ve been knocking off the also-rans of the division but there have been precious few results in this renaissance against teams big enough to get you excited about the Reds’ chances as they get to the difficult part of the schedule. As the match was tied 2-2, I was convinced that Spurs would pull more Eriksen/Kane late magic out of their collective hat. Instead, Liverpool rallied and got a goal from the least likely of sources, Mario Balotelli. I’m not ready to predict that this is going to kick off a Balotelli goal streak but unlike Spurs last season, Liverpool’s summer purchases – Emre Can, Lazar Markovic, and Alberto Moreno in particular – seem to be starting to show some of the potential that made them highly touted at the time. Throw in Jordan Ibe providing another potential attacking danger out wide and there’s at least some cause for optimism.
No Change
Manchester City – They were never as bad as their recent streak would have you believe. Putting a beating on a Stoke City squad missing their two preferred starting center backs as well as their most influential attacker doesn’t convince me that City have solved all of their problems. It stops the bleeding and helps bridge the gap while Yaya Toure and Wilfried Bony return from the ACN. City are still pretty well out of the title race, the favorites for second but not unassailable as a member of the top four.
Change
QPR – Three things have me feeling fairly good about the Rs chances. New management. An away win. Charlie Austin. Given the dire state of Leicester City, Burnley, and Aston Villa (the current bottom three right now) it isn’t hard to see the Loftus Road faithful enjoying another season in the Premier League. Austin’s goals feel like they’ll be just enough now that the anchor known as Harry Redknapp has been cast overboard. Like Alan Pardew at Crystal Palace, the new manager doesn’t have to be the second coming of Sir Alex Ferguson to be a massive improvement over the state of affairs that got the Rs into the relegation zone.
No Change
Hull City – The same logic from the QPR comments could still apply if Dame N’Doye can be the exception to the Steve Bruce Transfer Bump expiring quickly. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about go look at the performance of Steve Bruce’s recent transfers. Almost to a man they come bursting out of the gates with performances that look like a major step forward from what their careers up to that point would suggest they are as players. Mo Diame started scoring goals by the bucketful. Nikica Jelavic recalled his exceptional first half-season in the Prem. Andrew Robertson looked like the division’s next great left back. Shane Long was so good he was sold on for twice the price after half a season. Curtis Davies was a revelation at the back last season. The bad news is that almost all of them reverted to who we thought they were after a while. If N’Doye can play as well as he’s shown in his initial match and change then Hull City might be able to claim a Charlie Austin-like presence to keep them up. If he reverts to something less then they will be in a battle until the end.
Change
Southampton – Not necessarily for the draw with West Ham but for a second half of the season where results are slipping ever so slightly. You get the feeling that in the first half of the season that the Saints would have clawed out a 1-0 victory in this match. They aren’t dropping off a cliff and it still may be enough to see them into the Champions League but in my mind they’re showing enough cracks that they’ve slipped from being one of the favorites to make it to top four to just being one of the contenders.
No Change
Manchester United – Like Manchester City, they put a beating on a team that they had no excuse to drop points to. Certainly nice to get a goal from RvP but expecting Chris Smalling braces amidst generally uninspiring play isn’t going to be the path to winning a top four spot and justifying the first season of the Van Gaal Experience in doing so.
The only other result that could contribute to this introduction happened in the middle of the table. Swansea dropping a 2-0 decision to West Brom with Ideye Brown contributing another goal starts to change my opinion of both clubs. We suspected that the Baggies were going to become the next Pulis squad following in the footsteps of Stoke City and the second half Crystal Palace group from last season. They are doing a reasonable job of making that happen on a pretty quickly. Swansea, on the other hand, would have been heavily favored in this one through November and even into December but they seem to have slipped significantly. Maybe it’s the absence of Gylfi Sigurdsson due to his suspension. Maybe it’s the loss of Bony to City. Maybe it was just one of those days. Whatever the reason, the Swans seem to be fading from pretty good team just outside of the European reckoning to the mid-table blahs.
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The Title Race
Chelsea – Position: First Place, Points: 59, Form: 13 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Light (BUR, @LEI, @WHU, SOU, @HUL) Another grind-it-out Mourinho special without Fabregas and Costa. Both should be back just in time to beat up on the bottom two teams in the division. Chelsea are in cruise control assuming the injuries and suspensions don’t continue and Champions League participation doesn’t overtax what is still a deep squad.
The Race for Europe
Manchester City – Position: Second Place, Points: 52, Form: 6 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Light (NEW, @LIV, LEI, @BUR, WBA) You can look at this one just about any way you want to. Nice to see Aguero back among the goals. Nice to see Nasri do anything after some of his recent performances. Nice to see a big win on the road against a solid opponent. None of it means too much other than that their top four spot isn’t in as much danger unless Chelsea slip massively.
Arsenal – Position: Fifth Place, Points: 45, Form: 12 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Light (@CRY, EVE, @QPR, WHU, @NEW) It wasn’t the comprehensive victory that you’d expect against the bottom team in the league but it was a victory. The interesting note here is about the injury suffered by Aaron Ramsey and how it might impact the team going forward. If you’re still viewing Aaron Ramsey through the lens of what he accomplished at the beginning of last season then you’d view it as a huge loss. If you view it as the loss of a player who hasn’t contributed a great deal over the past 14 or 15 months due to injury and slow recovery of form post-injury then you might not see Rosicky/Wilshere/Oxlade-Chamberlain for Ramsey as a major downgrade to the Arsenal line-up.
Southampton – Position: Fourth Place, Points: 46, Form: 10 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Difficult (LIV, @WBA, CRY, @CHE, BUR) The problem here as Southampton start to show cracks in the form that was so spectacular in the first half is that the Saints just don’t have that one difference-maker to shoot them out of problems late. Spurs have relied on Harry Kane and Christen Eriksen late in matches with frightening regularity and while Sadio Mane did the trick last weekend, there was no one to rescue the West Ham match despite Ronald Koeman’s squad being up a man in the late going. Sane and maybe Eljaro Elia are the only players who might be considered guys who could go it alone and produce true quality all on their own. Otherwise, the Saints have a squad of very good players who are best suited to scoring team goals with each contributing modest but not insignificant parts. That isn’t a bad thing but sometimes you just need that one person to rescue you and the Saints may suffer down the stretch for not having that person.
Tottenham Hotspur – Position: Sixth Place, Points: 43, Form: 9 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Difficult (WHU, @QPR, SWN, @MAN, LEI) Based on current form, I still have Southampton and Tottenham ahead of Manchester United in the Champions League pecking order. United may be up in the standings over both clubs but United are playing the soft part of their schedule right now and looking bad doing it. Things will even out soon enough as far as the schedule goes and Spurs will be playing the likes of Leicester City while United are trying to fight off Chelsea and Arsenal.
Manchester United – Position: Third Place, Points: 47, Form: 10 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Moderate (@SWN, SUN, @NEW, TOT, @LIV) All of the measurables appear to be going in the right direction on the surface. United are moving up the table. They are third. Their rolling five match point total is on the rise. They won their most recent match 3-1. Just below the surface there is still significant weakness here that leads me to keep United out of my projected Champions League spots. Their current form makes me feel like there will be one or two more slips against teams they really should beat and then comes a difficult set of matches against the top teams in the division. If it were Sir Alex and the helm you’d give them the benefit of the doubt (OK, if Sir Alex were at the helm they’d never be in this situation in the first place given the talent on hand) but in the post-SAF era they just haven’t earned that benefit of the doubt that things will turn in their favor.
Liverpool – Position: Seventh Place, Points: 42, Form: 13 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Difficult (@SOU, MAC, BUR, @SWN, MAN) They cleared the first two hurdles of their brutal stretch of matches (@WHU and TOT) but have a trip to St. Mary’s and the arrival of Manchester City to go before we start getting excited about them jumping three teams to get into a Champions League position. Their circumstances are certainly improved but not to the extent that they should be looked at ahead of even the team they just beat this week. As I mentioned above though, the signs are good with Balotelli scoring and Can and Markovic starting to look like very good summer buys that just took a little while to settle in because of their youth.
The Relegation Zone - where we examine events at the other end of the table as established clubs flounder and newly promoted clubs reveal who they are going to be this season. Like the sections above, I’ve reordered with the most likely to be relegated being first and the least likely of the group last.
Burnley – Position: Nineteenth Place, Points: 21, Form: 4 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Difficult (@CHE, SWN, @LIV, MAC, @SOU) Still in the middle of their brutal run of matches and they are dropping fast in the table having moved back into the relegation zone with QPR and Hull City both hopping over them after mid-week wins. Not too much to say here other than that they did a nice job not weighing the club down with bad contracts that will carry back into the Championship. On the other hand, they will almost certainly be faced with having to replace Danny Ings for next season’s promotion campaign.
Leicester City – Position: Twentieth Place, Points: 17, Form: 3 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Difficult (@EVE, CHE, @MAC, HUL, @TOT) An equally dismal run coming up with only the visit of Hull City offering some hope in the near future. They and Burnley could switch places on this list and I’d have no argument. The reason for having the Foxes one spot higher is that I have been more impressed with them in their recent losses than I have been with Burnley and that at least gives some hope.
Hull City – Position: Sixteenth Place, Points: 23, Form: 4 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Moderate (QPR, @STK, SUN, @LEI, CHE) A good start to a crucial run for Steve Bruce’s team. There are three more winnable matches coming up over the next month or so hosting QPR and Sunderland and traveling to Leicester City. Their performance in those three critical six-pointers will likely give us a good idea where Hull City ends the season. I just haven’t seen enough of Dame N’Doye to move them off of being one of the favorites to get relegated. A win over Aston Villa shouldn’t change our perceptions of much of anything right now other than whether or not you actually have a pulse.
Aston Villa – Position: Eighteenth Place, Points: 22, Form: 0 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Light (STO, @NEW, @QPR, @SUN, SWA) Five straight losses and a spot in the current bottom three. How quickly things went to pot, huh? Still, it feels like with a new manager that Villa have the talent to rescue themselves from relegation. Benteke can’t continue being this bad, can he? And certainly not in concert with someone who looks as promising as Carles Gil. I expect Villa will just scrape by and stay up.
QPR – Position: Seventeenth Place, Points: 22, Form: 3 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Moderate (@HUL, TOT, ARS, @CRY, EVE) As I said in the intro, now that the Harry Redknapp-sized anchor has been separated from the Good Ship QPR, I feel good about their prospects of surviving. Charlie Austin’s goals combined with a reasonably talented squad and a manager that is at least recognizes the value of things like overall strategy and match-to-match tactics instead of just “being a good man manager” should be enough. It isn’t guaranteed to be enough, but it should.
Sunderland – Position: Fifteenth Place, Points: 24, Form: 4 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Moderate (WBA, @MAN, @HUL, AVL, @WHU) They looked safe with Defoe coming in and other teams languishing below them at the bottom. If the likes of Hull City are going to start picking up points and the Black Cats aren’t going to capitalize on things like “QPR at home” that should be at least a guaranteed point then they could get roped back into a relegation battle again quickly. The gap between them and 18th went from five points to two points in mid-week and that’s a little too close for comfort when, at the same time, they lost one eminently winnable match from their remaining schedule.
West Brom – Position: Fourteenth Place, Points: 26, Form: 8 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Moderate (@SUN, SOU, STK, CRY, @MAC) They aren’t out of the woods but that’s certainly the trend with the Baggies having picked up four points or more on each of the teams below them on this list over the past five matches. Even more importantly, the points they picked up this past weekend came from a team outside the relegation zone and, as such, can be viewed as a bonus of sorts. Speaking of bonuses, a goal and an assist from Brown Ideye has to be the very definition of a bonus and if Tony Pulis can make that happen then there’s no way that West Brom are going down.
Crystal Palace – Position: Thirteenth Place, Points: 27, Form: 10 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Difficult (ARS, @WHU, @SOU, QPR, @STK) Another team that has created distance between themselves and the relegation pack over the past five matches. All the trends have been good but they’ll be praying that their fellow relegation strugglers don’t pick up too much ground as the Eagles navigate a difficult part of the schedule with Arsenal, West Ham, and Southampton the next three.
Everton – Position: Twelfth Place, Points: 27, Form: 6 points from past 5; Upcoming Schedule: Moderate (LEI, @ARS, @STO, NEW, @QPR) Close to picking up a point at Stamford Bridge but that’s been the story of Everton’s season thus far, close but not quite. The bad news here is that the pack is gaining with 18th now sitting a mere five points down. A home match with Leicester City will be an interesting barometer of where the Toffees are. They’re more talented for sure but can they overcome what has been a consistent fight from a scrappy Foxes side and put some more distance between them and the drop?
Newcomer of the Year - where we track the progress of players new to the Premier League this season
Alexis Sanchez – An OK return punctuated by a knock to the knee against Leicester City. Reports indicate that the injury isn’t likely to keep Sanchez out of Arsenal’s next Premier League match we we’ll have another chance to see how he integrates with new attacking partners Ozil and Walcott.
Cesc Fabregas – Theoretically, Jose Mourinho was just being cautious in keeping Fabregas out again and he’ll be ready to go when the league resumes in a little more than a week.
Diego Costa – Costa has now completed his suspension and should be available for selection coming up.
Charlie Austin – He didn’t play in the Rs first away win but should be back for their next match.
Dusan Tadic/Graziano Pelle/Sadio Mane/Eljero Elia – Other than the Sadio Mane thunderbolt that won the Saints their Week 24 match, this group has been too quiet for the Saints to maintain a top four pace.
Gylfi Sigurdsson – The Swans looked bad without Sigurdsson and will be happy to get him back.
Bojan – Even though he was great while healthy, we’re going to remove him from the list starting next week since he’s out for the balance of the season and there isn’t going to be anything new to write.
Alex Song – The Hammers are fading overall but Song and company came up big holding the Saints for the entire ninety minutes, the last thirty of which were played a man down.
Fraser Forster – I’m no expert in goalkeeping so I’m not going to say that Forster should have gotten to Shelvey’s shot (it was a nice shot) but it was the second time that Shelvey had beaten the keeper from long distance on the day (the other hit the post and bounced to safety). Just saying.
Daley Blind – Blind has been very good since coming back from injury and with Diafra Sakho’s status uncertain due to West Ham’s disagreement with Senegal over the forward’s participation/lack thereof in the African Cup of Nations, we’re moving Blind into this spot.
Dame N’Doye/Emre Can – the two strongest candidates to fill the spot that Bojan will vacate starting next week. N’Doye has been a huge spark since arriving at Hull City and Can has started fulfilling the huge potential that was tagged to him over the summer when Liverpool acquired him. The sample size on both is small but what we have seen recently is very impressive.
Who We’re Watching: Juan Cuadrado, Bafetimbi Gomis (he should be starting for Swansea with Bony at the ACN and then likely headed to Manchester City, Angel Di Maria (maybe he’ll find some form), Enner Valencia (likely to get a run of starts with Sakho off to the ACN), Marcos Rojo/Ander Herrera (back from injury), Eljero Elia (new at Southampton), Phillip Wollscheid (started at CB for Stoke against Arsenal), Lazar Markovic (he should get a run of games with Lallana out), Emre Can (becoming more influential at the base of Liverpool’s midfield as he gets adjusted to the Premier League).
Just Missing Out: Diafra Sakho, Angel di Maria, Enner Valencia, Thibaut Courtois, Jefferson Montero, Toby Alderweireld, Falcao, Andrew Robertson, Leonardo Ulloa, Danny Welbeck, Daley Blind, Ander Herrera, Eric Dier, Kieran Trippier, Joseph Schlupp, Patrick van Aanholt.
Dropping Off: Diafra Sakho
The Phantom Point All-Stars – Where we list those players who failed to tally any “major” statistics (goal, assist, clean sheet) but scored big in the more subtle categories like tackles won, passes intercepted, blocked shots, shots on target, successful crosses or corners won that can make a fantasy week in formats that reward these statistics. Occasionally, we’ll reward a player who gets an assist or a clean sheet if they also had a big “phantom” weekend.
Niko Kranjcar – #FreeNiko is usually about phantom attacking stats like successful crosses and corners won but he somehow managed to pile up six tackles won and four passes intercepted on the way to a big phantom effort in the Rs first road win.
Erik Lamela – In general, I don’t think very much of Lamela as a player but against Liverpool he supplemented an assist with five tackles won and three interceptions along with an SOT and two corners won. If he can put his obvious athleticism to that kind of use on a regular basis then Spurs might finally get something back on their investment.
Kieran Trippier – Yes, there was an assist involved but he merits mention anyway because he just keeps cranking out double digit performances on a bad team. This one was highlighted by six successful crosses, two corners won, a pass intercepted, and a tackle won.
Angel di Maria – Another one that had an assist but di Maria putting up any meaningful points, phantom or otherwise, is noteworthy enough to get him on the list. In addition to the assist he won three fouls, had a shot on target, won two corners, successfully completed two crosses, won two tackles and blocked a shot.
Eden Hazard – He’s efficient enough that he’s usually only up the scoring charts when he scores but this time around it was two shots on target, four fouls won, two corners won, a pass intercepted and a tackle won but no goals or assists.
Fabien Delph – Given Villa’s rotten attacking form it’s no surprise that Delph’s phantom points all came at the defensive end with four passes intercepted, four tackles won and a blocked shot .
Cheikhou Kouyate – Forming a solid tandem with Alex Song, Kouyate intercepted five passes, blocked two shots, won a tackle and won a foul on the way to a double digit phantom performance.
Romelu Lukaku – Everton couldn’t break through but Lukaku managed three shots on target and two corners won against his former team.
Graziano Pelle – Another forward for a team that got shut out that scored well for fantasy managers with four shots on target but, alas for supporters in real life, no goal.
Jan Vertonghen – Liverpool managed three goals but it could have been more without the interventions of Vertonghen who intercepted four passes, won three tackles and blocked a shot in the 3-2 loss.
The Fake Narrative of the Week - It is impossible to go a week without encountering a narrative somewhere in the football media that appears to be totally made up for the sake of gaining attention. They usually fall into the categories of made up transfer rumors, hanging on too long to a mental image of who a player was and not who he currently is, or preying on a long-held stereotype based on club, nationality, or position. When I come across them, I'll let you know and then let you know why I think they're silly.
Liverpool’s summer was a repeat of Spurs’ summer last year – This is an old one from the first few months of the season but it seems to get repeated pretty regularly with Mario Balotelli and Roberto Soldado being the primary points of comparison as failed forwards that came with a big price. While Christen Eriksen has been the only unqualified success from Spurs’ spend of their Bale money, Liverpool have more reasons for optimism than their London counterparts. Liverpool, echoing the strategy of the baseball team also owned by John Henry and FSG, focused very much on youth with their big spends. Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Dejan Lovern may represent significantly underperforming veteran buys and Adam Lallana was probably a somewhat over-priced luxury item, Liverpool are starting to see maturation from Emre Can, Alberto Moreno, and Lazar Markovic and there’s no reason to judge Javier Manquillo a failure given his age. Throw in the fact that Divock Origi is still to arrive from that buying spree and Liverpool could find that they’ve done reasonably well in restocking the cupboard with the money they reaped from the sale of Luis Suarez. It’s no sure thing of course but it certainly isn’t as dire as what we know of Spurs’ purchases who have seemingly all been replaced by youth academy products who were already on board when Bale was sold.
What’s Going On In The Fantasy Premier League World? – I’ve run out of “Sponsors I’d Like To See” for now but I’m replacing it with a section on what’s going on with some of the major season-long and daily fantasy games available to Premier League fantasy devotees.
Yahoo Overall Rank – Yahoo has added a global ranking to the information they provide about your team’s standing in the game. You can find your global rank by clicking on the “Friends” link and looking at the first line of the “Leagues” widget (the second on from the top of the page). I’m not sure whether I’m personally happy to see where I stand this season but I’m sure that there are many who are interested in knowing how they stack up.
Flip Sports – You may recall the President of Flip Sports and I traded wins on his mobile gaming platform earlier in the season – I beat him once and he beat me in the return leg. Flip has added Champions League fixtures to their initial offering of Premier League fixtures. Game play is a one-on-one challenge between two players where you pick players from one match only. If you want to know more you can see a promotional video here or go directly to their iOS app or Android app.
DraftKings.com – DraftKings.com is also featuring a more traditional “Daily” league for Champions League action this coming week. There are multiple levels of financial commitment depending on how invested or not you want to be in the outcome. The lowest level of commitment – Nutmet Level – is free with your first deposit.
MondoGoal.com – MondoGoal is promoting a £30,000 Fantasy Football Championship with a £10,000 first prize. You win entry into the championship contest every week from now until the end of the season with your weekly participation which costs as little as £2 for each time you participate.
Rotoworld.com - Here at Rotoworld we don't have any prizes or money to be won but Nik has released the results of the third round in the popular Rotoworld Premier League Cup competition.
That’s it for the first week of this feature, be sure to share anything interesting that you think fantasy managers should know about with me via Twitter.
Random Closing Thoughts - Well, this one's pretty obvious and it will be how we close out the column each week at least until a better idea comes along.
My Second Club – The Saints are slipping ever so slightly. It isn’t fire up the warning alarms time just yet but it’s certainly headed in that direction.
This Week’s Good Points: We’re covering Week 24 and Week 25 here because we truncated the column on Monday so here’s what we saw in terms of good points over those two match weeks: Hull City 4; QPR 3; Liverpool 2 (I’m indicating that a home draw with Spurs would have been the expected outcome so the win netted them two “good points” over that expectation); WHU 2; Sunderland 1;
The Good Points Table: Crystal Palace 17; Leicester City: 16; Hull City 13; Burnley 11; Newcastle 10; Stoke City 10; Sunderland 10; Swansea City 9; Spurs 8; West Ham 8; Arsenal 6; QPR 5; Manchester United 4; Aston Villa 4; West Brom 4; Chelsea 3; Southampton 3; Liverpool 2; Everton 1.
This Week’s Bad Points: Sunderland 3; Southampton 2; Manchester City 2; Arsenal 1 (a draw would have been their expectation at WHL);
The Bad Points Table: Manchester United 19; Liverpool 18; Manchester City 17; Spurs 16; Arsenal 13; Everton 12; Chelsea 10; Southampton 10; Newcastle 9; Swansea City 7; Stoke City 6; Sunderland 6; Aston Villa 5; Burnley 3; Hull City 3; West Ham United 2; QPR 2; and Crystal Palace 2.
Player of the Week – It wasn’t a week where there was a single over-the-top performance. Chris Smalling has to be considered because when else is he going to get a brace? Sergio Aguero was also in for two in a big City win. Brown Ideye was a shocker with a goal and an assist but I’m going to give the award to Dame N’Doye based on not only his goal/assist performance but the importance of that output to his team in the relegation race.
My Favorite Things – The effort and skill of Riyad Marhez…Emre Can/Michael Ballack comparisons…Mesut Ozil reminding everyone why he cost so much…a Mario Balotelli goal…QPR getting goals with Charlie Austin out…and an away win…just about everything about the Liverpool/Spurs match, that was just fun even if I wanted them both to lose somehow…
My Least Favorite Things – The defending on Laurent Koscielny’s goal, I mean come on, he was wide open six feet from goal on the near post…Mario Balotelli fouling his goal with his “celebration”…Chelsea’s entertainment value since mid-November or so…Southampton’s attack…
What did we find out? I think we covered this quite adequately in the introduction.
What’s Next? The FA Cup is happening this weekend followed by Champions and Europa League matches for those involved in mid-week. Once the Premier League resumes on the 21st we have a big one in the race for fourth that sees resurgent Liverpool traveling to St. Mary’s to face the fading Saints. Spurs also host scrappy West Ham in a top-half clash. At the bottom, Hull City face QPR and Sunderland host West Brom in matches featuring two teams each scrambling just above the drop zone. That’s four matches where both sides are fighting for the same thing and that’s not bad at all.
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