1) Mourinho to aim for more than another spoiling exercise?

Jürgen Klopp two years on – how much progress has been made? | Barney Ronay Read more

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 reserves

Since 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

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Michy Batshuayi has the opportunity to impress the Chelsea manager, Antonio Conte, further. Photograph: Jason Cairnduff/Action Images via Reuters

5) Praying for goals at St Mary’s

The only teams that Southampton have beaten so far this season – Crystal Palace and West Ham United – were in disarray at the time; that state is not entirely foreign to Newcastle United but Rafael Benítez’s team travel to St Mary’s in relatively sound form thanks to three wins and a draw from their past five matches. Joselu seems to have become a certain starter since joining from Stoke in August and has scored two goals from five matches. How Southampton’s attackers would welcome the sort of luck that the Spaniard enjoyed in his last match, when a flukey ricochet enabled him to equalise against Liverpool. That may just be what it takes for the home team to end their drought. Southampton’s continued attacking impotence means the decision to jilt Claude Puel last summer has not been vindicated so far. They are not yet in disarray, but goals are definitely in order. PD

6) Burnley having to deal with increasing expectations

Football often doesn’t make a lot of sense. In the summer Burnley sold their best defender and best striker; they replaced the latter with a player with one good Championship season under his belt and didn’t bother signing anyone else in place of the former. And yet, they find themselves sixth in the table, ahead of Liverpool and one point behind Chelsea and the Champions League places. West Ham, on the other hand, have slogged their way to two victories from their seven games, lost four and Slaven Bilic looks like a man who doesn’t know where his next mortgage payment is coming from. “There’s maybe an added element of expectation at clubs like West Ham that there isn’t for ourselves,” noted Dyche this week, quite correctly. The interesting thing for Dyche and Burnley is that, if they keep up this success for much longer, that expectation will inevitably grow, particularly if they beat West Ham on Saturday and end up in the top four: an admittedly unlikely eventuality given the other fixtures, but not a completely implausible one. The trick will be to continue that good form when everyone is watching. NM

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Burnley beat Everton 1-0 in their last Premier League match. Photograph: David Blunsden/Action Plus via Getty Images

7) Bournemouth and Defoe must start converting chances

Only Swansea City and Crystal Palace have scored fewer goals than Bournemouth this season. Eddie Howe’s side have drawn blanks in four of their seven games and found the net only four times in the other three, hence their position in the relegation zone with Swansea and Palace. The good news is that they are creating chances, as Jermain Defoe said this week. “If you keep doing the right things,” said Defoe, “it’s only a matter of time before it goes in. It can all change in one game.” Defoe is right in one sense, that it would be much more concerning if Bournemouth weren’t creating chances, but in another it sets alarm bells ringing. Creating chances, as they are doing, isn’t massively useful unless you start putting them away. Defoe enjoys a dramatic strike rate, so what would be more appropriate than continuing his old club Tottenham’s problems at Wembley. NM

8) How will Leicester react to change in formation?

It would be a bit reductive to say Craig Shakespeare’s success with Leicester City last season was simply down to not being Claudio Ranieri. For whatever reason he got them playing in a manner that Ranieri was unable to, and rode the new manager bounce perfectly to take them from a point outside the relegation zone to a very respectable 12th place. The test of Shakespeare’s chops was always going to be this season, when he had to start from the beginning and manage on his own terms. It isn’t going brilliantly so far, Leicester having lost three of their past five games. The obvious caveat is those defeats were to Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United, but Shakespeare has been spooked enough to consider a formation change for Monday’s game against West Bromwich Albion. Harry Maguire is used to playing in a three-man defence, having done so for Hull City and England, but the question is how the rest of their backline will manage. System changes are always tricky to judge, but the success of this one may have a big influence on how Leicester’s season pans out. NM

9) Width and balance can banish Everton’s blues

While Everton started fairly well against Burnley a fortnight ago, their confidence evaporated when they fell a goal down and it seems that Ronald Koeman is running out of ideas. It doesn’t matter how he sets his team up, nothing is working. There is too much sideways passing, too many square pegs in round holes and not nearly enough width. Perhaps it is time for Ademola Lookman or Kevin Mirallas, both of whom could give Everton an injection of pace, to be given a chance at Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon. They have lacked balance since the start of the season and signing Davy Klaassen, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Wayne Rooney, all of whom are most suited to the No10 role, has led to confusion. Koeman can simplify things by introducing a winger or two. JS

10) Swansea need to find a spark from somewhere

Football is a whole new ball game when players have home comforts | Liam Rosenior Read more

Swansea are not quite in “must-win” territory yet but it is getting that way. Three home defeats out of three is, even if one came against Manchester United, a terrible start and far removed from the fortress-like air the Liberty Stadium assumed after Paul Clement’s arrival in January. Huddersfield are next up on Saturday and anything bar three points, or at the very least a much more creative performance, would suggest there is serious trouble ahead. They have managed only 11 shots on target in seven games, and 46 shots overall. It suggests the losses of Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente have been keenly felt and it is hard to see who of the remaining crop can reverse the trend. Renato Sanches will miss the game through injury and could not have been expected to replicate Sigurdsson’s impact straight off the bat anyway; perhaps it is time for Clement to show some faith in the Spanish playmaker Roque Mesa, who has made only one start in the league so far. Mesa did well as a half-time substitute against Watford last month before making the error that led to Richarlison’s winner; he has struggled to settle in Wales but in the circumstances a vote of confidence could be no bad thing. Swansea need some kind of spark, some element of risk, if their campaign is not to spiral rapidly downwards. NA