1) How big will Mourinho’s bus be?



After Manchester United scrounged a 0-0 draw at Anfield in October, José Mourinho suggested Liverpool had played conservatively. United, he reckoned, had begun more adventurously before a lack of options forced them to batten down the hatches. “They played with a very strong midfield, with three real midfield players: Can, Henderson and Wijnaldum. We had only two. In the second half they bought Coutinho to play also inside and I had nobody on the bench to help me change the direction of the game. So the second half was tactical and organisational, but difficult for us to play more.” United have more options now (Paul Pogba is back, Alexis Sánchez has signed and Scott McTominay has emerged) and Liverpool have fewer (having sold Philippe Coutinho) – so how much will Mourinho tell his side to play on Saturday at Old Trafford? Chances are that with United two points above Liverpool and aware that Jürgen Klopp’s side would relish an attacking approach from the home side, Mourinho will advise caution again. But that would not justify starting Sánchez ahead of Marcus Rashford. PD

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2) Does Murray merit an England call-up?

Gareth Southgate has always said that he picks his England team on form, and admitted last November that, young or old, “age shouldn’t be a barrier”. With that in mind, and with Southgate set to name his squad next Thursday for the friendlies against the Netherlands and Italy later this month, how much thought should he give to Glenn Murray? Behind Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy, the third-choice striker spot is very much up for grabs. Danny Welbeck is in dismal form, Jermain Defoe can’t get a kick for Bournemouth, while neither the injured Daniel Sturridge nor Tammy Abraham have scored a league goal since October. Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling will surely go to Russia but are unlikely to play as a No 9. At 34, Murray would become the oldest England debutant in 68 years – if he continues his hot streak for Brighton at Everton on Saturday, it will become more difficult for Southgate to ignore him. MB

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Glenn Murray buries Arsenal last weekend. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters

3) Crystal Palace cannot afford to sit back against Chelsea

Crystal Palace will be woefully disappointed to have lost to Manchester United on Monday. Yet the manner in which they started and finished the game was brilliant – but for a 20-minute period after half-time where they invited pressure (and conceded twice), they caused United problems with two big, bustling strikers and excellent wing-play. It was only the heroics of David de Gea that kept Palace from scoring a winner of their own before Nemanja Matic struck in injury time. Injuries and a lack of defensive quality mean if Palace sit back against Chelsea they will get picked off just as they were against United. Antonio Conte’s side are low on confidence and could be caught cold here: the pressing and hold-up play of new signing Alexander Sørloth means Palace should try to stay on the front foot for 90 minutes. MB

4) Watford can smell blood at Arsenal

When Watford beat Arsenal earlier this season, Troy Deeney was quick to identify why the Gunners lost. “It’s [having] a bit of cojones, is what I’ll say. Whenever I play against Arsenal, I’ll go up and think ‘let me whack the first one and see who wants it’.” Time and again since those words were uttered, strikers have bullied Arsenal’s defenders, so much so that Laurent Koscielny came out this week and admitted his confidence was on the floor. That will be music to Deeney’s ears. Arsenal will have had a boost from their victory over Milan but, with less than three days to recover from their trip to Italy, and an uncertain atmosphere at the Emirates, Watford will fancy their chances. MB

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5) Wagner v Carvalhal for a place in the Premier League, again?



When Huddersfield edged out Carlos Carvalhal’s Sheffield Wednesday in the semi-finals of last season’s Championship play-offs, the Portuguese hardly imagined he would get a chance to exact revenge in this season’s Premier League. Yet on Saturday he will take Swansea to the John Smith’s Stadium knowing that if he can mastermind a win he will make it more likely that he, rather than Huddersfield, will be in the top flight next season. The flip side, of course, is that Wagner knows that victory over Swansea would be the perfect way of starting a five-game run during which Huddersfield could secure their survival, with the Swansea encounter followed by meetings with Crystal Palace, Newcastle, Brighton and Watford. Saturday’s game promises to be a belter, then. The Ayew brothers could trouble the home side but Alex Pritchard may provide the key to victory, unlocking the visitors’ defence and leaving Carvalhal with a sinking feeling again. PD

6) Manchester City only have complacency to fear

Manchester City are so good that even when they lose, they win. Well, sort of. You could make a reasonably solid argument that they did themselves a favour by losing to Basel on Wednesday night. Of course, the 2-1 second-leg defeat made no difference to their Champions League progression, but it might provide Pep Guardiola with a handy example to use when preaching against the dangers of complacency. Because that’s the only thing that can stop City now, their own hubristic assumption that the title is in the bag. Of course, it almost certainly is, but at this stage City’s Premier League aim is not just to finish top, but to set records. If they take wins for granted, they might ‘merely’ be champions. NM

Play Video 0:30 Pep Guardiola critical of Manchester City attack after Basel defeat – video

7) Bournemouth have chance of sealing survival against Spurs

This season, 38 points should be enough to stay up. You might be able to get away with 36, a total Bournemouth will reach if they beat Tottenham on Sunday. And it’s perfectly possible: this season Spurs have shown a tendency to labour after big Champions League games. They struggled to a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace after beating Real Madrid, games against Borussia Dortmund were followed by draws with Swansea and West Brom, while the 2-2 at Rochdale came after the first leg versus Juventus. The notable exception is when they pulverised Liverpool a few days after the away game in Madrid, but there’s enough encouragement for the Cherries to more or less secure a fourth season in the top flight. NM

8) Boing-boing or more booing at the Hawthorns?

Despite a seemingly endless losing streak, West Brom could still get that old boing-boing vibe going again, and we don’t mean in a Barcelona nightspot. Best not put money on it but a swaggering rise by Alan Pardew’s motley crew is not completely out of the question, as they have a relatively benign schedule. On Saturday, for instance, there’s a chance that Claude Puel could inadvertently give Alan Pardew a helping hand. The Frenchman has clearly had a positive impact at Leicester since his appointment in October but he has provoked some head-scratching in recent weeks. He has got his starting lineup wrong in the last four league matches, during which Leicester have dropped points at home to Stoke, Swansea and Bournemouth (and lost at Manchester City). Replacing Danny Simpson last week with Daniel Amartey, who has never looked secure at right-back, was a puzzle and the persistence with Matty James in central midfield while Vicente Iborra stays on the bench makes no obvious sense. If odd selections continue at the Hawthorns, then West Brom might just be able to kickstart another great escape. PD

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9) Will Southampton’s failing season get noticed?

It’s quite difficult to go under the radar in the Premier League. This is one of the biggest magnifying glasses in the footballing world, where players can’t go to the shops without everyone knowing about it. But Southampton’s quiet drift towards relegation seems not to have received much attention of late. Perhaps it’s because there’s nothing much dramatic about them – they’re not a train wreck, not a spectacular failure, not a flamboyant calamity, they’re just a bad, uninteresting football team. Perhaps they’ve escaped some scrutiny because they’re unbeaten in the last six league games, the problem for them being that five of those have been draws. Maybe more people will kick up a fuss it if they lose to Newcastle this weekend. NM

10) Where is Jordan Hugill?

Apart from everything else currently happening with West Ham, a club doing a decent impression of an unmoored boat drifting out in the water, their latest accounts were released this week. They revealed that the club made £8.7m from the sale of Upton Park, prompting a number of Hammers fans to note that was less than they paid for Jordan Hugill. Ah yes, Jordan Hugill. Remember that guy? His signing on transfer deadline day looked like a panic buy at the time, and given that he’s played a grand total of 12 minutes since, suggests that was indeed the case. Hugill might not be anyone’s idea of a saviour, but if David Moyes continues to leave him out then it will be a further indication that this is a club lost at sea. NM







