Five things to watch this weekend in the Premier League

Robbie, Bobby, Sparky and Howard all feature in our look ahead to the weekend in the Premier League.

The return of Robbie Keane

How long is it since Robbie was in good form in the Premier League? We reckon it was the first half of the 2009-10 season when he was on a fine run with Spurs, including banging four in against Burnley in September 2009.

Since then he has been on loan at Celtic, had a few more games at Tottenham, been on loan at West Ham and then moved to LA. He has been in good form for his new side but the standard is low enough and if it wasn’t for his continued excellence for Ireland we would be preparing the career obituary.

Instead, if he shows the same spirit for Aston Villa, beginning this weekend against Everton, as he has in the green of Ireland, he could be a very valuable short-term player for Alex McLeish. With what seems like half the Irish squad already at Villa Park, he should settle in well. And with Shane Duffy possibly trying to mark him this weekend, it should be very interesting viewing for all Irish fans.

Will Roberto Mancini stop whining?

He is sitting top of the league and he could buy any player he likes in the transfer window but Roberto Mancini is still not happy. After the Carling Cup defeat to Liverpool on Wednesday he again whined about their tough schedule, and even before the game he was complaining that he didn’t have enough players. Seriously. It's like a supermodel complaining about her knees looking a bit fat. Gold standard first world problems.

Cheer up Bobby!

It seems the big problem is an injury David Silva is carrying but with City not playing until Monday, away to Wigan, he may yet make it back. Add in the fact that City should easily overpower a team that lost to Swindon last weekend and Roberto might, just might, be in a better mood by the end of this week’s round of games.

Samir Nasri might take the team bus home, though.

Can Sparky light a fire under QPR?

The London strugglers travel to Newcastle for Mark Hughes’ first game in charge. Rangers have lost five of their last six games and they sit just one place above the drop zone. In short they are in deep trouble and Hughes has a big job to do.

Newcastle fans won’t get the chance to welcome back former hero Joey Barton as he serves a suspension for the red card he received at Norwich. While he may be irritating to most of us, especially after his comments this week, he is probably Rangers' best player. Adel Taarabt could be but Hughes will have a job keeping him in the mood to play.

Newcastle play their first game without Demba Ba but they still should send QPR home with another defeat. At least you are back in work Mark.

Will the O’Neill bandwagon flatten Chelsea?

Since his arrival, Martin O’Neill has turned Sunderland from miserable losers to lovable entertainers. They stunned Man City with an injury time winner on New Year’s Day and then thumped Wigan 4-1 two days later.

With Derry wonder - and fingers crossed, full Irish international soon - James McClean leading the charge, Sunderland arrive at Stamford Bridge in great shape. Even Nicklas Bendtner is looking like a bit of a player.

Anyway, Chelsea’s ageing rearguard may yet have Gary Cahill on show for the first time but there is something missing in this Chelsea side. Sunderland are just the sort of team AVB would want to avoid at the moment and with the Black Cats priced at a ludicrous 15/2 for this game, we think there may be some value there.

Any chance of some consistency, ref?

Now we know that Vincent Kompany took his lead from his manager and got a little whiney this week. But he was at least justified as his red card against United at the weekend was harsh in the extreme. And then we all saw Glen Johnson’s crazy two-footed lunge on Wednesday which was not even deemed a foul.

This weekend sees Liverpool travel to Stoke, and we expect you will see more tackles here than you will in Michael Fassbender’s flick Shame, and that’s saying something. And the man with the whistle at Anfield is Howard Webb, hardly a popular choice amongst the Kop faithful.

With the issue of two-footed tackles once again high on the agenda, we think this could be the game where the issue rears its head again.