1) Can in-form Canaries wreak further havoc?
A third consecutive win for Norwich City would draw Alex Neil’s side level on points with Saturday’s opponents Crystal Palace, albeit with a significantly inferior goal difference and having played one game more. It would also do little to dispel ongoing relegation-related jitters around a south-London club that famously haven’t won a single one of their past 14 Premier League games.
Norwich’s victory against Newcastle last weekend helped ratchet up the pressure on Sunderland and Palace, as well as Rafael Benitez’s vanquished team, and with Sunderland due to visit East Anglia next weekend, the in-form Canaries have every chance of giving themselves some wriggle-room ahead of a daunting trip to Arsenal. Having scored last weekend, Norwich striker Dieumerci Mbokani showed no ill-effects following the trauma of his genuinely close brush with death at Brussels airport during the international break and the Congolese striker will be even more eager to show his compatriots what they’ll be missing in the wake of an understandable self-imposed retirement prompted by his furious reaction to the incredibly crass and insensitive midweek comments of Constant Omari, the head of Congo’s FA. Barry Glendenning
2) Benitez to change it up if Newcastle want to avoid going down
Rafael Benitez said after last week's defeat at Norwich that he was wary about making too many changes too quickly at Newcastle lest he confuse the players, who already find concentrating for 90 whole minutes a labour on a par with bumping off the Nemean lion. But the manager will certainly have to make a few alterations if Newcastle are to reverse an appalling series of away results and nick the win they need at Southampton. Or rather, Benitez will have to ensure that his team start the way that Newcastle played in the second half at Carrow Road. That means being assertive and energetic, at least, and deploying Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ayoze Perez up front, even if Virgil Van Dijk and Jose Fonte are strong in the air. It also means omitting Cheick Tiote, despite the prospect of he and Victor Wanyama clattering into each other promises entertainment, of a sort. Paul Doyle
3) Who has had a bigger impact this season Ozil or Payet?
It will be an utter travesty if anybody other than a Leicester City player is awarded the PFA Player of the Year award later this month. Whilst Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy are correctly the favourites, Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil and West Ham’s Dimitri Payet are both rated as 25-1 to make a late run into the box. Who of these two has had a bigger impact this season? Ozil has 18 league assists - seven more than anybody else - but is guilty of playing in a team that really should have done/be doing better. Payet, the form player in a team exceeding expectations, has forced himself into the France squad through a mixture of dead-ball wizardry, silky skills and an unerring end product. The German and the Frenchman will go head-to-head on Saturday, knowing that defeat for their respective teams will probably spell the end of either Arsenal’s title hopes or West Ham’s bid for a top-four spot. Individual honours matter little when placed next to these ambitions but this will be an interesting subplot in what should be a fascinating match. Neither team can afford to draw. Both need their creator-in-chief to again conjure up something special. MB
4) Manchester City to face stubborn but beatable foes
Manchester City have won only one of their last five home matches in all competitions and that was against a cockamamie vaudeville troupe masquerading as Aston Villa. Anything less than victory over West Bromwich Albion at the Etihad this weekend will complicate City’s hopes of finishing in the top four, so they can ill-afford to take it easy before hosting Paris Saint-Germain next Tuesday. Having said that, even though Tony Pulis is in talks over a new contract and has expressed his intention to move gradually towards a more attacking strain of football at Albion next season, City’s defenders are unlikely to be given any sort of test this weekend by visitors who seldom travel with ambition: but there is a chance that they, and PSG, might learn something from watching the way that Albion defend. PD
5) A new-look Spurs make a change from Fergie’s days
"Lads, it's Tottenham." The famously dismissive three-word motivational speech coined by Alex Ferguson has lost all relevance since Mauricio Pochettino took up the reins at White Hart Lane. The days of sneering at Spurs' absence of backbone and propensity for crumbling under the merest application of pressure have come to an end, and if Manchester United are to extend their two-match winning run and assault on fourth place, they will have to work exceptionally hard to so. From start to finish, last Saturday's Premier League encounter between Spurs and Liverpool was contested at the kind of relentless gallop that Manchester United's players have rarely emulated under Louis van Gaal. Given the comparative torpor, in which many of their matches have been played with the handbrake on, it seems far from inconceivable that Tottenham in full flight could blow them away. BG
6) Villa have come full circle since their opening day win
The first day of the season must seem like an eternity ago for Aston Villa fans. Tim Sherwood was manager and for a brief moment, following their 1-0 win over Bournemouth(a clean sheet!), Villa were third! Since then, they have won twice in 31 league matches and their vastly inferior goal difference means that the Birmingham club will be put out of their misery and relegated on Saturday if they to lost to - you guessed it - Bournemouth. Eric Black, the club's caretaker manager, suggested last week he was not prepared to throw Villa's youngsters "into the lurch" for the remainder of the campaign and whilst it is wise not to blood untested talent in such a poisonous environment, Jack Grealish could benefit from a start, which would be his first since January and almost a year to the day since he made his first ever Premier League start against QPR, something Grealish himself recognised on Twitter this week. Grealish has been targeted by some fans in the past but it is quite obvious that the 20-year-old wants to pull on the shirt, which is more than can be said for some of the squad. Give the lad a chance, he's got the talent and thrived last season when he was handed responsibility, leading Villa to the FA Cup final. What have Villa got to lose? Apart from another game, of course. MB
7) A match of little significance at Vicarage Road
It’s that time of year, when finding points of interest ahead of certain matches can be a difficult task, with this one being a case a point. A Premier League fixture between two sides with more important FA Cup semi-final business on their minds is unlikely to get the pulses of anyone involved racing, with self-preservation and injury-avoidance likely to be uppermost in the minds of most players as their respective big days out in Wembley approach in the not-too-distant future. It is, however, worth noting that Watford are on a four-match losing streak in the league, while Everton have suffered three consecutive reverses. Both managers would surely welcome the opportunity to arrest these slides before losing becomes too much of a habit. Let’s not kid ourselves, though: in a Faustian pact with El Diablo, urbane Spaniards Quique Sanchez Flores and Roberto Martinez, along with both sets of players and supporters, would happily concede the points on offer for this game if it meant a place in the FA Cup final was assured instead. BG
8) A Stoke City side that might not be entirely motivated
With Liverpool's players likely to be preoccupied by the second leg of their Europa League tie with Borussia Dortmund, it will be intriguing to see just how motivated Stoke City's players look during a match in which victory could greatly enhance their chances of qualifying for the same Europa League competition, one they may not necessarily want to be involved in next season. Like everyone else, Mark Hughes will have noticed the heights scaled by Leicester and West Ham this season and will see no reason why his upwardly mobile team shouldn't emulate at least the latter outfit next season. Meaningful participation in the Europa League would almost certainly be detrimental to their chances of doing so. However motivated they might be, the Potters look likely to have a huge impact on matters at both end of the table between now and season's end, with each of their remaining fixtures pitting them against a team currently fighting for a Champions League place or against relegation. Each of their remaining fixtures, apart from this one, that is. The strenuousness of their efforts against Liverpool are likely to be monitored with interest by supporters of Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Sunderland, Crystal Palace and West Ham. BG
9) A moment of individual brilliance from Sunderland?
On Match Of The Day 2 last week, Watford striker Troy Deeney provided an excellent appraisal of the stout defensive qualities that make the league leaders so difficult to break down. In a nutshell, their centre-halves are almost impossible to drag out of position and are happy to let their opponents have the ball in wide areas, such is their confidence in their own ability to deal with crosses when they arrive into their own penalty area. Leicester have coped admirably with the onslaughts of much better teams than Sunderland, who are likely to play to the strengths of Claudio Ranieri’s side, a state of affairs that suggests the home side will need to rely on a moment of individual brilliance if they are to become English football’s equivalent of the evil hunter who shot Bambi’s mum. BG
10) Swansea should tie Guidolin down for the long term - and fast
When Francesco Guidolin arrived at Swansea in January, the Welsh club were in disarray. Having just sold one of the their best players in Jonjo Shelvey to relegation rivals Newcastle, the Swans were in the drop zone having suffered a humbling 4-2 home defeat to Sunderland as well as being knocked out of the FA Cup by League Two Oxford United. Now, after three wins in five and a remarkable point earned last week at Stoke, they are 10 points clear of the relegation zone and within one win of the magical 40-point mark. Three points at home to Chelsea will not come easy - Swansea have never beaten the London club in the Premier League - but Guidolin seems to be following in his compatriot Claudio Ranieri's footsteps of eking out 1-0 wins (against Norwich and Aston Villa) and it would not be too much of a shock to see another of those on Saturday. Not too long ago, Brendan Rodgers was being linked with a return to Swansea but that seems a daft fit now: chairman Huw Jenkins should be doing everything he can to tie Guidolin to his club for the long-term. Otherwise, for this fixture next season, whilst the current Italian manager will be in the Chelsea dugout, the current Swansea manager could well be head coach of the Italian national side. MB
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