It’s a massive weekend for Man City’s title credentials, Newcastle’s hopes of an impossible dream and Aston O’Villa’s bid to stave off relegation.
Friday night lights?
This Easter weekend brings with it the advent of Friday football and although Swansea v Newcastle kicks off at the pretty unappealing time of 4.30, it does raise an interesting possibility of how Friday night football might work in the Premier League on a regular basis.
It would certainly be more appealing to punters than the Saturday morning kick-off and although it would be a hindrance to teams involved in Europe at various stages of the season, rarely would a situation arise where at least two teams weren’t available to fulfil the fixture.
Plus, it would give football fans something else to watch than the often God-awful Late Late Show of a Friday evening.
Could this be the end of City’s title crusade?
It’s interesting to draw some parallels between the state of play in the Premier League and the state of play in La Liga at this late stage of the season. In Spain, Real Madrid are six points ahead of Barcelona with eight games to play and have to face their nearest rivals away from home before the end of the season.
In England, Manchester United are five points ahead of Manchester City with seven games left and have to face City at the Etihad before the end of the campaign. On the face of it, their situations seem remarkably similar, yet the general consensus seems to be that United are nearly home and hosed, while one slip could prove fatal for Los Blancos with the Catalans in hot pursuit.
It is a consensus that appears harsh on City, but if United beat QPR on Sunday and City fail to beat Arsenal a couple of hours later, then you’d have to truly believe that the Champions have one hand on the title. If that situation does materialise, United could afford to lose to City and lose another game and still end up as Champions.
The gauntlet has been laid down for Mancini and company.
Tired legs, anyone?
We can’t imagine there was much in the way of strenuous training amongst Premier League teams in the last few days because most of them are about to be ran ragged over the course of the next fortnight.
The way these two are going, they’ll have no energy left for the Euros. Which might be no bad thing
Nearly every team has three games to play between now and Monday week, but there are some far worse off than others. Take Chelsea for instance.
Including their game against Benfica on Wednesday, the Blues will have played eight games in 25 days by the time the final whistle blows in their clash with QPR on 29 April and those eight games will include an FA Cup semi-final, a trip to Arsenal in the Premier League and both legs of the Champions League semi-final. As if trying to beat Barcelona wasn’t hard enough as it is.
The physio’s room at Stamford Bridge is bound to be quite claustrophobic for the next few weeks. Luckily for the Chelsea players, their physio just happens to be quite attractive.
Danger beckons for Aston O’Villa
Thanks to their seemingly always well-stocked contingent of Irish players, Aston Villa have always been well supported this side of the water and with four full internationals (if you include Stephen Ireland, that is) in the squad and six more coming up through the ranks, it continues to be the case.
If Villa don’t get their act together though, Irish Villa fans may well be tuning into The Football League Show rather than Match of the Day next season because the threat of relegation has got very real of late. It’s hardly a surprise that Richard Dunne has been absent during Villa’s troubled recent period.
Villa have a five point cushion from the relegation zone at the moment, but all four teams immediately below them are only a couple of results away from catching them up and some of them – Bolton and Wigan in particular – are in the form to do so at the moment.
This weekend’s fixture against Liverpool appears to be a fairly easy one on paper at the moment, but the Reds are badly in need of points and with United and Spurs to come before the end of the season, it’s enough to work Villa fans into a sweat.
Alex McLeish doesn’t exactly inspire confidence either, does he?
Impossible dream still alive for Newcastle
Contrary to most people’s expectations – expectations further fuelled by a 5-0 collapse to Spurs in February – Newcastle haven’t fallen away as the season has progressed. In fact, if anything, they’re getting stronger. In the six league games since that defeat, the Magpies have lost only once and even that defeat was in fairly unfortunate circumstances at the Emirates.
Alan Pardew’s side have won their last three and been energised by the instant success of Papiss Cisse and the brilliant form of the often temperamental Hatem Ben Arfa and look every inch the top six team at the moment.
With Chelsea potentially distracted by their Champions League and FA Cup exploits, there’s certainly potential to finish ahead of the Blues and nothing to stop them hauling back the five point deficit that currently separates them from both Arsenal and Spurs.
Finishing in the top six – which they will barring a miracle between now and the end of the season – is still some achievement, but making the Champions League next season would be enough to earn the previously derided Pardew the manager of the year gong.
