It’s a good thing when the title race, the battle for Champions League places and the relegation dogfight are still alive in the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season. It’s going to be a big few days.
Will a Newcastle upset be the Talk of the Toon?
From a long way out, Sunday’s clash between Manchester City and Newcastle was being identified as what Stan might call ‘a potential banana skin’ for City’s title challenge, but up until the last week or so, nobody had predicted the significance it would assume.
And before we get all obsessed with the title race, a Newcastle win would not merely be a spanner in the works for Mancini’s men but a serious boost to the Magpies’ chances of achieving Champions League Football next season, so the stakes are high on both sides.
Unlike a shot-shy Manchester United on Monday night, you can be pretty sure that Newcastle, inspired by the incredible Papiss Cisse, will attack and having easily disposed of Chelsea on Wednesday and comfortably dispatched Man United on home turf already this season, they’ll not be lacking confidence.
The best thing from a neutral point of view is that a draw is not much good to either side so we can expect a fairly titanic tussle on Tyneside.
And what of United?
By the time Manchester United kick off against Swansea on Sunday, they’ll know where they stand and know whether a second title in succession is in their own hands or something they can as good as forget about for another year.
If City do win at Newcastle, United have no one to blame but themselves as their insipid display against their bitter rivals was not something we have come to expect from the multiple champions or a team managed by the traditionally positive Sir Alex Ferguson.
Should City slip up, however, we don’t expect United to let a second opportunity pass through their grasp. Whether they’ll have that opportunity or not is out of their hands… unless they score a helluva lot of goals.
Newcastle aren’t the only ones that could cause an upset this weekend
Such has been the topsy-turvy nature of Arsenal’s season that the prospect of a home defeat to Norwich on Saturday afternoon cannot be completely discounted. Champions League Football looked in the bag a few weeks ago but the combination of a very poor run and the chance that Chelsea might steal the last European spot will have Gooners nervously biting their fingernails at the Emirates.
Lose this weekend and Arsenal fans might have have to get used to life without RVP
Sealing a third placed finish is not only important as a means to compete with the continental bigwigs again next season, but also to make sure that there’s at least a chance that Robin van Persie will stay at the club beyond the summer. Fail to do so and the Dutchman will almost certainly leave, and he mightn’t be the only one either.
Salvation Sunday
Let’s get one thing straight Sky Sports: Wolves v Blackburn in the middle of October is not what we’d call ‘Super Sunday’. The games taking place on this and next weekend, however, are far more worthy of such an excitable moniker.
The United and City games are bound to take centre stage, but the programme of fixtures could easily be dubbed as ‘Salvation Sunday’ such is the effect they may have on the relegation battle. With Wolves already down and out, six points separate the next five teams and although it won’t officially be sorted until the final day, this weekend will go a long way to determining the other two sides to get the drop.
Villa, Bolton and QPR are all in action at home on Sunday afternoon so you can expect ears to be glued to earphones in the crowd and large cheers to erupt when word gets round about the fate of their fellow strugglers. A win for Villa and their survival is almost certainly, if unconvincingly, guaranteed.
Likewise, defeats for Bolton and QPR and they’re very much in sh*t hitting the fan territory, especially given that Wigan could all but secure safety with a win at Blackburn on Monday night. Of the three, Bolton seem to be showing the most fight and would appear to have the easiest fixture at home to West Brom. However it materialises, we have a feeling that all three will go into the final day with question marks lingering over their top flight status.
Will there be one last squawk in Blackburn’s survival bid?
Unlike the other teams involved in the relegation dogfight, Blackburn don’t have the luxury of being able to drop points and keep their survival hopes alive. That’s not exactly true, but it would take a miraculous sequence of events for them to lose on Monday and stay in the top flight, but loaves and fishes aren’t in plentiful supply around Ewood Park. Chicken on the other hand…
The omens ain’t good for Steve Kean and company. They didn’t muster a single shot – not a one – against Spurs on Sunday and they’re facing a Wigan side on a run of form that nobody could have foreseen, not even Roberto Martinez.
Having beaten Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle in recent weeks, the task of overcoming Blackburn will hold no fear for the Latics, while the stench of relegation around Ewood is becoming increasingly fowl by the day.
Blackburn’s fate is as good as sealed; we’re just waiting Wigan to hammer the final nail in the coffin.
