Champion's League

City set for period of domination, is this the end of Kenny Dalglish?

Jon Champion — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT

ESPN’s man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend’s Premier League action. Watch ESPN’s exclusive action from the final day of Serie A on Sunday with Juventus v Atalanta at 1.30pm and Catania v Udinese at 7.15pm

FIXTURES Sun 13 May Chelsea v Blackburn, Everton v Newcastle, Man City v QPR, Norwich v Aston Villa, Stoke v Bolton, Sunderland v Man Utd, Swansea v Liverpool, Tottenham v Fulham, West Brom v Arsenal, Wigan v Wolves.

For only the sixth time in Premier League history, the title race has gone down to the last day of the season. It has never been decided on goal difference before but that is very much a possibility this time round.

The expectation going into the weekend is that Manchester City will beat Queens Park Rangers and everything else will be all but academic, but this season has thrown up so many twists and turns that you can never be quite certain.

Slightly less convincing is the prospect of Manchester United winning at Sunderland; the Stadium of Light has become a difficult place to visit since Martin O’Neill has got his feet under the table.

Should City beat QPR and become champions they will have been the best of a mediocre bunch. The fact the top two in the Premier League could both end with 89 points tells you that the rest of the league has been relatively weak - United won the league with 80 points last season and found points harder to come by. It’s difficult to see anything other than an imminent period of City domination going forward, unless there is similar significant investment in one of their main rivals.

The real springboard for City’s success was winning the FA Cup last year. That really put them on the trophy winning map and the winning league is a natural progression from that. Mancini’s side have made heavy weather of it though, sailing for the first six months and playing some tremendous stuff, they then lost their way and only really rediscovered that early-season ruthlessness in the last month.

The fact United were able to overtake City shows certain mental frailties in Mancini’s side, but it seems they’ll get away with them this year. It ultimately seems as though the key moment of the season was the first derby in November, City won 6-1, United’s citadel was stormed and for the first time in 81 years a visiting team had scored six at Old Trafford.

The fact it looks very possible they’ll win the title by merit of their marginally superior goal difference tells you exactly how crucial that emphatic victory has been.

From the race to the summit, to the desperate scramble to avoid the trapdoor - if QPR are swept aside by City, then a win at Stoke would be enough for Bolton to remain in the Premier League.

Owen Coyle’s men are much better off going to Stoke at this stage of the season rather than the first half, when Stoke were playing well. The Potters have now won just one of their last 10 games and seem to be easing off a little, much to the frustration of Tony Pulis.

It could be that everything is set up for one last hurrah for Kevin Davies - his parting gift after nearly a decade as a talismanic stalwart at Bolton could be to score the goal that keeps them in Premier League; it’s time for him to stand up one last time in the Bolton cause. I’m in no doubt that Owen Coyle will give the address of his life in the dressing room at the Britannia Stadium but teams in this situation either suffocate or thrive and Coyle must make sure they feel able to go out and play rather than be worried about the consequences of not performing.

Speaking of the consequences of not performing, Arsenal know if they fail to do so at West Brom, they may lose their Champions League berth. But if they win, they finish third and can consider that to be a reasonable season after plumbing the depths in the autumn and hitting the highs in the early spring.

They go to the Hawthorns, where Roy Hodgson will be looking to go out with a bang after what they’ll consider a good season. Having lost nine games at home, their form at the Hawthorns has improved recently and they have the prospect of finishing in the top half.

However Arsenal’s prize is much the greater - it’s worth millions of pounds and the future of certain players, most importantly Robin van Persie. This is a much bigger deal for Arsenal and it would be a surprise if they don’t go and win the game.

Back in North London, Tottenham will be hoping their rivals slip up, because then three points in their own game against Fulham would see them finish third – the position they held for much of the season. The extra incentive is there, as finishing fourth would leave them hoping Chelsea don’t win this season’s Champions League in order to enter it themselves next year.

I have been critical over the season of Martin Jol’s methods and it seems they’re still not hugely popular with one or two of the players, but they could finish seventh in the league which is a tremendous return for them, it would equal the type of league finish they were achieving under Roy Hodgson. They’ve won five of their last seven, they’re entertaining to watch especially with the likes of Clint Dempsey and Moussa Dembele.

But Tottenham have found some form at the back end of the season, picking up a couple of wins and a draw in their last three, and they should have enough to see off Fulham, particularly with that home advantage.

Newcastle’s destiny is not in their own hands. The Magpies go to Everton hoping Spurs fail to win, or Arsenal lose – if either happens, they can grab a top four spot with a win at Goodison.

Most neutrals will hope Newcastle can do it, as they’ve brought so much to the table this season. It will be tough for them to replicate the form they’ve displayed this term next year. The likes of Chelsea and Liverpool are unlikely to perform as poorly next time out, and Newcastle may struggle to hold onto their better players. Their model has been to buy players relatively cheaply and sell them when a decent offer comes in, and it remains to be seen how resistant Mike Ashley will be when big clubs come along waving chequebooks for the likes of Fabricio Coloccini, Tim Krul, Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse etc. Whether the model works longer term we’re about to find out.

The Toffees, meanwhile, have only lost three times in the last 22 games and are starting to seem like their old, obdurate selves. They sit one point above Liverpool, which will give them every motivation to win.

Liverpool go to Swansea for what could be Kenny Dalglish’s final game in charge. I was very intrigued by his response at the end of the FA Cup final at Wembley, the camera panned to him and he had tears in his eyes which is unusual for a man who doesn’t portray much emotion; he seemed particularly melancholy, which is very un-Dalglish.

I just wonder if he knows the American owners have already made a decision to dispense with his services at the end of the season. If that decision has been made on league performances, you could understand why. They currently sit eighth in the table, with 30 points dropped at home, 13 Premier League defeats and 34 points from the top of the league; that is not what the Americans bought in to.

There'll be another managerial conundrum at Carrow Road, where Norwich host Aston Villa. Canaries boss Paul Lambert is being strongly linked with Villa, should they decide to part ways with Alex McLeish. Norwich are another team who have eased off towards the end of the season, although they did play very well in their 3-3 at Arsenal last weekend.

They’ll play with freedom and cause problems for Aston Villa, who are safe but are only really going to survive by default. They have been, without question, the most boring team to watch in the Premier League this season. I would expect Norwich to finish with a flourish and a win.

Another team finishing with aplomb are Wigan. For them to drag themselves to safety from a position of such hopelessness at the mid-way point of the season almost outstrips anything any other side has managed this season. Six wins from their last eight games and maintaining the belief in the way they should play football - we should applaud Roberto Martinez for getting his team out of trouble in such style, and the club's fans will certainly do that after Sunday's home game with relegated Wolves.

Finally, on to Chelsea against Blackburn, two consecutive league defeats for Roberto Di Matteo and only one win in five league games, but they finish six in the table whatever happens – and they’ll have that Champions League final on their minds.

Blackburn are a hopeless case and I fear it is just a matter of waiting for the implosion, both financially and in terms of players leaving Ewood Park. There seemed to be an air of denial about Steve Kean this week, with him making comments about giving it a go next season and hoping to get out of the Championship at the first time of asking.

The greater danger is the club going through the Championship and into League One, given the way the club is managed. They end the season the way they lived through it: in a total mess.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster of the FA Cup and Barclays Premier League. Watch ESPN’s exclusive action from the final day of Serie A on Sunday with Juventus v Atalanta at 1.30pm and Catania v Udinese at 7.15pm

City must prove they have ditched old habit of letting glory slip through their fingers

Jon Champion — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:17:00 GMT

ESPN’s man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend’s Premier League action. Watch exclusive all-day coverage of the FA Cup Final on Saturday from 8am

FIXTURES Sat 5th May Arsenal v Norwich Sun 6th May Newcastle v Man City, Aston Villa v Tottenham, Bolton v West Brom, Fulham v Sunderland, QPR v Stoke, Wolves v Everton, Man United v Swansea Mon 7th May Blackburn v Wigan

It goes without saying that this weekend will have a huge impact on the title race. City are in the driving seat after a dogged and disciplined performance gave those 'noisy neighbours' a 1-0 victory over United on Monday at the Etihad Stadium.

The blue half of Manchester will face a stern test in the game of the weekend away at Newcastle, whose own Champions League aspirations were boosted by that superb win at Chelsea in midweek.

It is very much in the history of Manchester City to get into winning situations and see it slip through their hands, but this is the new City, and although many expect them to win their final two fixtures, this is their pivotal game. City will be expecting United to win their last two and must therefore do the same.

Only two teams have managed to beat Newcastle at St James Park this campaign, and City will need to be at their best if they are to avoid coming unstuck and opening the door for the red half of Manchester to regain the title.

Never in their wildest dreams did Newcastle supporters imagine that their side would be on the brink of a Champions League place with two games to go, but they will now be expectant of grabbing it with a win on Sunday. The atmosphere will be electric and passionate as it is the game that decides both clubs’ seasons. Manchester City may find they feeling a long way from home when they step out on the turf of St James Park.

Manchester United will be aware of the result in Newcastle by the time they kick-of at Old Trafford against Swansea, but they must win their final two fixtures. United’s line-up in Monday’s Manchester derby was cautious and they would be expected to return to their standard 4-4-2 formation on Sunday.

Swansea have only won once in their last seven, and as long as United are on their game they should have too much for their Welsh visitors.

Away from the title race the battle for third and fourth place is really hotting up with Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle only separated by a point.

Arsenal contest the only fixture on Saturday at the Emirates against Norwich City, who have had a fantastic season but were well-beaten by Liverpool last week and have not performed well recently. They should be ideal opponents for Arsenal as they look to secure a Champions League spot with six points from their final two matches.

But Spurs will be hoping their North London rivals slip up before they travel to Aston Villa on Sunday. Villa are really struggling but they should scrape over the line. Only one win at Villa Park in six months is not good enough and it will be interesting to see if Alex McLeish is still at the helm next season.

Tottenham looked good at Bolton in mid-week and they seem to be gradually getting back on track. The England management question mark has also been lifted, which will come as a timely relief for their players and supporters. They are in pole position for fourth place but must not take their foot off the gas against Villa, who are desperate for points.

Villa will be looking over their shoulder at how the teams below them get on. One of those, Bolton, face a massive game at home to West Brom, which they must win to stand any real chance of staying up.

Owen Coyle’s side did not get a lift from the emotional return of Fabrice Muamba in mid-week but they face a side who may have their minds elsewhere, as they know that a new manager will be in the dug-out next season, after Roy Hodgson’s appointment as England manager.

It has come to the crunch now and Bolton must capitalize on their home advantage to stay up.

Also battling at the bottom are QPR, who entertain Stoke at Loftus Road. Rangers have won their last four home fixtures and with a trip to Manchester City on the last day this is a must win game for them. Stoke have only won one in nine but they are always difficult opponents and their height and power at set pieces could trouble QPR.

But Mark Hughes has made Loftus Road a fortress over the past month or so, beating the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs and if they can reproduce that form they should beat Stoke. Tony Pulis’ side could have a big impact on who goes down as Stoke entertain Bolton at The Britannia on the final day of the season.

If the bottom sides pick up points on Sunday, Blackburn could well be down if they lose at home to Wigan in Monday evening's game at Ewood Park.

The form book does not favour Rovers, who have lost six of their last seven, while Wigan have won five from the same amount of games. Roberto Martinez’s side have played with real adventure and deserve to be where they currently are but if they lose to Blackburn they will be right back in the thick of things. However if the Latics come away with a victory, they could be assured of survival.

It's credit to the excitement of this season’s Premier League that there are only two games with nothing riding on them in the penultimate weekend of the campaign.

Relegated Wolves host Everton at Molineux, and although Terry Connor’s side showed resilience to earn a 4-4 draw away to Swansea in their last game it is a case of too little too late. Everton have been very solid in recent weeks, and I should be too well drilled to slip up in this one.

If the Toffees win at Wolves they will be pretty much nailed on take seventh place above their Merseyside rivals Liverpool.

The Reds may even be pipped to eighth spot after their mid-week home defeat to Fulham. That win will leave the Cottagers brimming with confidence when they take on Sunderland at Craven Cottageon Sunday.

Martin Jol hopes to be back in the sidelines after a recent chest infection but, Martin O’Neill’s team have been drawing too many games recently. It’s five stalemates in their last six outings and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is another draw for Sunderland here.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster of the FA Cup and Barclays Premier League. ESPN will be providing all day and commercial free coverage of the FA Cup Final on Saturday from 8am till 8pm

Forget Torres, Drogba is the man to fire Chelsea to a cup final win

Jon Champion — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:42:00 GMT

ESPN’s man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to this weekend's Wembley showpiece. Watch ESPN's exclusive all-day coverage of the FA Cup Final on Saturday from 8am

FA Cup final day is still one of the most exciting days of the year, and I am really looking forward to the 131st edition. We have two heavyweights in the final this year in Chelsea and Liverpool. Of the 763 clubs that entered the competition, all the potential David’s have had a go at causing a historic upset, and now just these two goliaths remain.

Perhaps surprisingly, these two have never met on this stage before. They have met in a League Cup final in the last decade, as well as three Champions League semi-finals, so it is not as if they aren't used to playing each other in big matches - indeed, they met in the quarter finals of this season’s League Cup.

They know each other’s games and approaches inside out, which makes this game a tough one to call. Chelsea will start as slight favourites, due to their superior recent form, and I believe they are slightly better off than Liverpool in terms of their current development. Liverpool’s signings this season have not really come to fruition, whereas Chelsea's - such as Juan Mata and Gary Cahill - have really found form in recent weeks.

But, in the Reds favour, they do have two outstanding players in the form of Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard, both of whom are capable of providing moments of magic. The Uruguayan frontman scored one of the best hat-tricks I have ever seen last weekend at Carrow Road against Norwich City, and if he and Steven Gerrard come to the party then they have a real chance.

Neither side will go into the game brimming with confidence after mid-week home defeats in the Premier League. Both sides made lots of changes and neither of them coped with their opponents. Liverpool’s defeat to Fulham was pretty miserable, while Chelsea’s loss to Newcastle at least came against a side who have generally been in fine form of late.

What stands the Blues in good stead for Saturday’s showcase final is the fact that they have been playing big games on a regular basis over the last few weeks and have produced when it really matters. They will bring back big name players for the final as well.

Didier Drogba has a fantastic record in cup finals - whenever Chelsea play in a cup final, he seems to score and it is often the winner. Meanwhile, in Ashley Cole, they have a player who holds a piece of FA Cup history, with more winners medals than any other player in the modern era.

Chelsea also have a great recent history in the FA Cup, winning three of the last five finals.

As for Liverpool, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher have both won the FA Cup twice in 2001 and 2006, Pepe Reina was in goal for that memorable final against West Ham in 2006 and Glen Johnson has won the cup with Portsmouth, but that’s it in terms of big match FA Cup Final experience.

Chelsea’s big match players - the likes of Drogba, Lampard and Terry - relish these kind of big match atmospheres, and the Chelsea squad have more experience in these big games, and that could be the defining factor. If Drogba is on form, he can be unstoppable, and I would see him starting ahead of Torres, although the Spaniard may well make a cameo appearance against his former side.

It is a very difficult one to call, but I fancy Chelsea to edge it. Either way, we're certainly set for a compelling encounter.

United won't be afraid to attack City on Manchester's big night

Jon Champion — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:00:00 GMT

ESPN’s man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend’s Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of Norwich City v Liverpool on Saturday from 4.30pm on ESPN.

FIXTURES Sat 28 April Everton v Fulham, Stoke v Arsenal, Sunderland v Bolton, Swansea v Wolves, West Brom v Aston Villa, Wigan v Newcastle, Norwich v Liverpool Sun 29 April Chelsea v QPR, Tottenham v Blackburn Mon 30 April Manchester City v Manchester United

There’s only one place to start this weekend, ironically where we’ll end it – the 162nd Manchester derby. This is the most important Manchester showdown since Denis Law’s famous back heel for City that sent United down to the old Second Division in 1974, and I have a feeling that event may be superseded by the consequences of Monday evening’s meeting.

The game is wonderfully set up. The most amazing, most surprising score line of the season came in the reverse fixture – the 6-1 win for Manchester City at Old Trafford back in October – but remember Manchester United won at City in the FA Cup, so it’s beautifully balanced.

Manchester City have managed to regain some momentum as Manchester United have lost theirs. They had conceded one goal in seven games and were looking rock solid, but then they let in four in 52 minutes against Everton. It’s a question of whether that momentum of Manchester City is enough to throw Manchester United, and it’s one I’ve been wrestling with for most of the week and still haven’t come to a firm conclusion. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Manchester United have built their reputation on upsetting the odds in situations just like this where they are about to be knocked from their perch and they’ve managed to discover some ingenuity that allows them to see it through. It’s going to be difficult to bet against Manchester United in a game such as this.

Despite the fact a draw would suit them, I don’t think United are going to adopt a defensive approach. The only concession will be that Wayne Rooney might play a little bit deeper to make a 4-2-3-1 formation rather than a 4-4-2. Rooney will be able to drop back and help out in midfield a little bit more than usual, but I expect them to go and be positive.

The only other change will be at right back, where Rafael had a shocker last week, with the suggestion being that Chris Smalling will come in. This means they will have three central defenders in the back four. They are better off with the height, although height is something that they don’t necessarily need against Manchester City, but that will strengthen them.

Key players from Manchester City’s point of view are ones that can potentially win the game for them. Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero fall into that category and we also have the possibility that Mario Balotelli could be involved. However, it is a stretch of the imagination to think that in such a pressure-cooker atmosphere he will be given any sort of role given his recent foibles. Elsewhere, Vincent Kompany is very important for Manchester City because he is arguably the best defender in the Premier League and the one thing they can’t really afford is for United to score early on.

It’s a great showcase for English football because you know that every set of eyes on the planet will be set upon the coverage in the Etihad Stadium.

I don’t have any gut feeling about the outcome of the match. I’ve wrestled with this as I’ve wrestled with every other game this season. Common sense suggests that City should win because they are at home, have the momentum and have already scored six against Manchester United earlier in the season. But then again, this is Manchester United, and normal rules don’t apply where they are concerned. I’m sure this United team is nowhere near as good as many of its predecessors, so have they got it in them to see off the challenge?

Another key game this weekend is Arsenal’s visit to the Britannia Stadium, a trip they never, ever look forward to. Although, the Gunners do seem to have something in their bonnets going to Stoke City and the physical challenge that will be presented to them will be a good measure of whether they’ve moved on at all under Arsene Wenger this season. There is a renewed incentive for Arsenal, with possibly only three Champions League places up for grabs thanks to Chelsea’s European progress, which will should fire them up. It’s just one win in the last seven for the home side so I rather fancy Arsenal on this occasion.

Also now very much in the Champions League hunt are Newcastle United, who travel to a Wigan Athletic side just one point above the relegation line. For Alan Pardew’s men, how gutting would it be if they finish fourth and then find out that’s not good enough for the Champions League? But who says they aren’t going to finish third? I think it’s unlikely, but then again I’ve been saying it’s unlikely they’ll get into the top four all season.

Chelsea’s home match with Queens Park Rangers on Sunday may well be overshadowed by the controversial handshake situation between John Terry and Anton Ferdinand, but it is an important game in its own right for both clubs. Chelsea’s best hope of getting in the Champions League is to win it because they’re four points off fourth place in the league. Roberto Di Matteo has recorded ten wins, four draws and one loss, so that has put him in pole position to be the new long-term Chelsea manager - or at least as long term as any Chelsea manager can be. QPR have proved rather adept at hunting down the big fish of the Premier League in recent weeks, albeit at home, as they’ve lost their last five on their travels. If they were to get a point they could rely on winning their remaining home fixture against Stoke and that might be enough. QPR believe they’ve got it in them to win it, so let’s see.

Another game with consequences at either end of the table is Tottenham Hotspur’s home encounter against Blackburn Rovers. Spurs at QPR last week were slow and predictable. They have a large squad but they have only got two fit centre backs and they’ve only got one fit forward in Jermaine Defoe. Emmanuel Adebayor and Louis Saha have been injured and they lost Ryan Nelsen at the back last week at the last minute, so they are rather empty in their key areas. Having said that, they do face a Blackburn side that doesn’t travel well - they’ve lost five in a row before beating Norwich last week and they’ve only got 31 points, which doesn’t seem anywhere near enough. They’ve got to win two of their last three games to have any chance. They finish at Chelsea so maybe their best bet is to perform as they’ve rarely performed this season at Tottenham, then Wigan at home a week on Monday. Wigan seems to be their potential escape route, but a difficult one.

Vying with Rovers to steer clear of relegation are Bolton Wanderers, who go into their clash at Sunderland off the back of four wins in seven in the Premier League. If they were able to replicate that form over the season as a whole, it would put them in the top half very comfortably. Kevin Davies has had a fuller role in recent weeks and has played his part in that mini renaissance under Owen Coyle. If there is a good time to go to Sunderland, this is probably it - they do seem to have taken their foot off the gas. Three of their last four games have ended 0-0 and they haven’t scored in 405 minutes in the Premier League now. Bolton have shown themselves adept at putting a side with confidence in decline to the sword at Villa Park midweek, but they may have to settle for a point at the Stadium of Light.

With the relegation fight getting ever more tense after every game, Aston Villa have been reeled back into the scrap off the back of a sequence that has seen just the one win in 13 games. They are now just three points clear of danger and Saturday’s opponents, West Brom have found a vein of form of late. Roy Hodgson is tapping on the shoulder of Harry Redknapp in the England managerial stakes and hopes to get the call if the leader of the race falls. A lot of credit goes to their central defenders, Gareth McAuley and Jonas Olsson, who between them have held the side together on many occasions this season. I would expect West Brom to win this and that would leave Aston Villa in all sorts of trouble.

Elsewhere this weekend, Norwich City have the incentive of knowing they will go level on points with Liverpool if they win this weekend’s encounter at Carrow Road. It would be extraordinary if they did, given the disparity in resources between the two. Liverpool have a dreadful record in 2012 in the league. It’s three wins in 15 Premier League games, which is nowhere near good enough. Places are up for grabs in the FA Cup Final though, and the likes of Craig Bellamy and Maxi Rodriguez will be looking for an impressive display to try and force their way into Dalglish’s plans for the Wembley final, and that is probably the factor that gives this game any sort of edge.

Their Merseyside rivals, Everton, will aim to follow up that remarkable 4-4 draw at Old Trafford with a home victory over Fulham on Saturday. But the Cottagers have won three of their last four games, and are aiming to match their best ever Premier League finish of seventh, which is still perfectly attainable. Everton are tough nuts to crack though, especially at Goodison Park. They have been defeated only three times in 19 in all competitions and if there’s one manager that will keep his team going all the way to the bitter end, it’s David Moyes.

Finally this weekend, Swansea City are on a run of only one win in six in the Premier League, but they can realistically expect to make that two wins in seven against a Wolves side with eight defeats in nine games. Doris de Vries must be thinking ‘what if?’, as he took the strange decision, in retrospect, to leave Swansea at the end of last season and join Wolves last summer.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster of the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Norwich v Liverpool from 4.30pm on Saturday.

Chelsea face another 'Grade A' fixture, but can they maintain their swagger?

Jon Champion — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of QPR v Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday from 4.30pm on ESPN

FIXTURES Sat 21 April Arsenal v Chelsea, Aston Villa v Sunderland, Blackburn v Norwich, Bolton v Swansea, Fulham v Wigan, Newcastle v Stoke, QPR v Tottenham Sun 22 April Manchester United v Everton, Liverpool v West Brom, Wolves v Manchester City.

This weekend sees Chelsea compete in yet another Grade A fixture, having so convincingly won their FA cup semi-final against Tottenham last Sunday, and ground out a surprise first leg lead in their Champions League tie with Barcelona on Wednesday evening.

They now come up against one of their biggest and closest rivals in Arsenal in a match which will hold huge significance in the battle for Champions League places for next season.

There is so much history between Arsenal and Chelsea; their most recent was a thriller, Arsenal winning 5-3 at Stamford Bridge, with a hat trick from Robin Van Persie. But it’s difficult to know what to make of Chelsea going into this weekend’s encounter. Will their physical and mental exertions against Barcelona take their toll, or will the morale boosts of the last week see them play with real swagger?

I tend to think it’s more likely to be the former. It would be remarkable for Chelsea to find their top level of performance after what they have just gone through and what they are about to in the second leg against Barcelona next Tuesday.

Despite losing to Wigan on Monday, Arsenal are still in pole position for third place, even if they lose to Chelsea. The Gunners created buffer for themselves with their recent purple patch, and that meant they could afford one slip up without being punished too severely.

We now know Mikel Arteta will be out for the season with a knee injury, and he will be a big miss for Arsenal, having grown in influence and authority over the course of the season. When he first came it seemed like a panic buy, and for the first few weeks he looked like a fish out of water but gradually he settled in. He’s adopted a slightly less attacking role then he had at Everton, but he has been a real positive influence for Arsenal and it has been £10 million well spent.

Another team chasing champion’s league qualification is Newcastle, who have put themselves in the thick of Champions League contention with five straight wins. They have given themselves a genuine chance of finishing in the top four, which I find quite astonishing.They are level on points with Tottenham, two clear of Chelsea and five behind Arsenal with a game in hand. So if Arsenal were to lose to Chelsea and Newcastle were to win their home fixture with Stoke City this weekend, they will surely have even the Gunners in their sights.
They’ll be confident of keeping up their part of the bargain, not least as Stoke have little left to play for now safety has once again been assured. They pay lip service to this idea of a top ten finish and getting more Premier League points than ever before, but Newcastle will be the team with real hunger, and I’d expect that to show come full-time on Saturday afternoon.

This all leaves Tottenham feeling rather concerned. They travel to QPR on Saturday evening to face a side who are strong at home – winning their last three at Loftus Road – despite poor away form. With some tough fixtures ahead - they still have to go to Chelsea, entertain Stoke and face Manchester City - this is a match QPR will feel they have to win if they are to retain their top flight status.
I can see them doing it; they’ve beaten the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool at Loftus Road this season and Tottenham look to be lacking a bit of confidence at the moment. That, combined with QPR’s recent improvement, may alter the balance somewhat.

It’s also a pivotal weekend in the title race, and Manchester United will feel this is a good weekend to play Everton. David Moyes’ side put so much into their FA Cup Semi Final defeat against Liverpool last weekend that they may well be mentally and physically lagging. United, with nine wins out of ten, have scored in 48 of their 50 games this season, and will be confident of keeping the gap at the top at five points. Everton are tough nuts to crack but they showed in that FA Cup defeat how they lack a ‘plan B’ when the going gets tough. And at Old Trafford, not only do you need a ‘plan B’ but more often than not plans C, D and E, too.

Manchester City, meanwhile, have got the equivalent of a gimmee. Wolves “bounced back” with a draw at Sunderland last weekend, after seven defeats on the trot, but they could be relegated this weekend. They’ve also lost arguably their best player, goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey to injury for the remainder of the season. I can’t see anything but a win for City and relegation for Wolves – even if results elsewhere extend their suffering for another week.

It is also looking bleak for Blackburn, who have now suffered five defeats in a row. It seemed as though some of the players believed they had done enough when they were winning a few matches a month ago. They’ve got two home matches that will ultimately decide their fate, the first is against Norwich on Saturday and the second is a potentially huge fixture against Wigan on the penultimate weekend of the season.
Blackburn are playing full of fear and its difficult turning around an ocean going liner when its set in a certain direction – and the direction Blackburn are heading in is towards the Championship.
Unlike Rovers, Norwich will play without fear or inhibition - they’ve got 43 points to their name - but they’ve only won two of their last nine in the Premier League and they capitulated in the end against Manchester City having played very well for an hour. A trip to Ewood will present the perfect opportunity to bounce back with a positive result.

Bolton are the other side currently in the bottom three, but they’ll still fancy their chances of pulling themselves out of the drop zone, not least as they have two games in hands over most of their rivals. But it’s time for their spine - Nigel Reo-Coker, Kevin Davies and David Wheater - to stand up and be counted, while Darren Pratley would do well to show he made the right call last summer when he abandoned newly promoted Swansea for Bolton.
His former club travel to the Reebok this weekend, and their patchy away form will encourage Bolton ahead of a fixture they really must win.

Amazingly, the form side in the Premier League are Wigan Athletic, and they’re now five points clear of trouble. They travel to Fulham on Saturday having won four of their last five, yet when the sides met back in October, Fulham’s 2-0 win at the DW was the seventh of eight consecutive defeats. If anyone deserves an accolade it’s Roberto Martinez. He has maintained faith in that group of players when everyone else - myself included - had lost hope in their chances of survival. He’s told them the way they play football is the way that is going to keep them out of trouble, and it seems he is going to be proved right.
But Fulham are three games unbeaten and have risen from14th place up to 10th, thanks in part to the form of fringe players such as Alexander Kacaniklic and Kerim. I get the feeling that though some of his methods were initially unpopular with the squad, the players are gradually accepting and adjusting to life under Martin Jol.

You could call Aston Villa against Sunderland ‘a dead rubber’, but Villa have a very big four days ahead of them. If they were to lose their next two games – the second is against Bolton on Tuesday - they would be bang in a relegation battle. They have just one win in the last eleven Premier League games, and they have a pretty threadbare squad at the moment. We always talk in a blasé fashion about a side falling into the relegation mire at the very last; they are the only candidates that could possibly fulfil that role this season but if they win one of those two games they should have just about enough points on the board to survive.

Liverpool, while being nowhere near that relegation scrap, will be equally as disappointed with their showing in the league this season. Their cup showings are covering the cracks and when Andy Carroll nodded in that late header against Everton at Wembley, it bought Kenny Dalglish a bit of time and breathing space. Were one to compile a form table for the calendar year, they would be next to bottom of it, and that is clearly not good enough.
West Brom are playing with a bit of freedom and have won two of their last three. Roy Hodgson will surely feel he has a point to prove to those at Liverpool, where his league record was not too different to that of Kenny Dalglish in the Scot’s current spell. West Brom will be in the mood to cause Liverpool a headache, and given the Reds’ poor home record and the potential for a cup hangover, they may do just that.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster of the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of QPR v Tottenham Hotspur from 4.30pm on Saturday.

Everton and Spurs look to shift balance of power and reach Cup Final

Jon Champion — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:06:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's FA Cup action. Watch exclusive coverage of Saturday's FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Everton from 11am on ESPN

This promises to be a mega weekend for the FA Cup. It's only the third instance of a 'double derby' FA Cup semi-final weekend. The first came in 1950 when Liverpool defeated Everton and Chelsea lost to Arsenal. Then it happened again in 1993 when Arsenal beat Tottenham and Sheffield Wednesday overcame their city rivals United, both at Wembley.

Saturday's semi-final between Liverpool and Everton is the third Merseyside derby of the season, with the men from Anfield winning the previous two. But I have a sneaking fancy for Everton in this though, just because their recent form has been so strong, with just two defeats in seventeen in all competitions. I know David Moyes has scant regard for his runners-up medal from three years ago, when his side lost to Chelsea - he feels his decade at Everton can’t really be validated until he brings home a major trophy. If they can sneak past Liverpool then they’ve got a really good chance of doing that. But it’s a big ‘if’.

It’s probably the most important Merseyside derby since the final of 1989, which followed horribly hard on the heels of the Hillsborough disaster. There will be a minute’s silence in both semi-finals this weekend to pay respect to the 96 who died in that tragedy 23 years ago.

Liverpool may well be fuelled by that. An FA Cup semi-final against their oldest and closest rivals on the weekend of the Hillsborough anniversary - if that can’t motivate them, nothing will.

Third choice keeper Brad Jones steps out of the deepest and darkest of shadows to take his place between the posts for the Reds. There is a theme over the years of goalkeepers becoming heroes in the FA Cup having come from nowhere, and indeed of goalkeepers being plucked from obscurity before freezing on the big day. He’ll certainly hope to find himself in the former section of the history books come Saturday evening

But Everton go into this with as good a chance as they’ve had in 20 years of toppling their rivals. I don’t feel there’s a great deal between the teams this year, as the Premier League table suggests.

Sadly for Everton they’ve lost their current form player in Steven Pienaar, who is ineligible having featured for parent club Tottenham in the third round. Their key man will probably be Nikica Jelavic, who has made such an impression since signing from Rangers in January. A man who clearly knows the way to goal, he is something Everton really have been missing. Jelavic has all the signs for being a potential Everton hero for a number of years to come, and netting in this semi-final would be a good place to start.

Liverpool, meanwhile, will look to Steven Gerrard to lead by example. A man who as a boy used to go to Goodison one week and Anfield the next. There are always these twists, particularly with to the Merseyside derby, that so many of those that are now associated with red were initially blue and vice versa. Liverpool is a city apart and I think it shows on derby day.

Moving onto Sunday’s semi-final, it is an important day for both Tottenham and Chelsea, but I feel for Spurs it is a slightly more important. Barcelona loom for Chelsea three days beyond this game, and the longer this game goes on, the more that will play on their players’ minds.

Tottenham have got their own battle for a top four place, but they can put that aside for just one weekend. Harry Redknapp has a soft spot for the cup ever since his early managerial days with Bournemouth, where he knocked Manchester United out so spectacularly at Dean Court that January afternoon in 1984, and he’ll have his players up for this. It’s also time Gareth Bale stepped up to the plate after a fallow few weeks for Tottenham.

Just as I have a sneaking fancy for Everton, I would just edge towards Tottenham for a place in the final, as much because of Chelsea’s Champions League involvement than anything else, however good their run of form has been under Roberto Di Matteo.

Jon Champion previews the weekend's Premier League matches

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the FA Cup and the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Liverpool v Everton in the FA Cup Semi Final from 11am on Saturday.

Ignore Mancini's 'mind games', City still have hope in the title race

Jon Champion — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:23:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of the FA Cup Semi Final between Liverpool and Everton from 11am on ESPN

Looking at the title race as it stands, I don’t agree with Roberto Mancini’s claim of it being all over - that’s just his version of blunt mind games.

It’s still alive and if Manchester United slip up once more and Manchester City manage to win their remaining games, then it does all come down to that derby game on April 30.

On Saturday, Manchester City travel to Norwich. Manchester United won at Carrow Road and City need to follow suit, but Norwich continue to surprise. Just when one got the impression they had switched off and were thinking of their beach towels, they go and win at Tottenham. Paul Lambert described that win as the best performance by a Norwich team in his three years in charge. The Canaries are perched very happily in tenth place and have been a match for the best, particularly at Carrow Road.

It will be a real test of Manchester City’s away record, having only taken one point from their last three games on the road. They can cut the deficit to two points due to the difference in kick off times with Manchester United, which would mean that Sir Alex’s men would just start to feel City’s breath on the back of their necks ever so gently again, which they haven’t for a little while.

I expect Manchester City to win. They showed what good flat track bullies they are against West Brom, who were very compliant opponents. If Manchester City were going to have any pretentions at all of prolonging the title race, then this is a game that they simply have to win.

It was, of course, Manchester United's defeat at Wigan on Wednesday which gave City this new slither of hope, and I was amazed as everybody else by the champions' poor showing at the DW. Whether there was just a little complacency creeping in with that eight-point lead having been handed to them almost on a plate, for whatever reason they were not the usual Manchester United. Yet that it rarely happens twice in a row, particularly with the nature of their manager. One would expect Aston Villa to feel the full force of a Manchester United side 'on the rebound' on Sunday.

United have won all six home games since the Blackburn debacle on New Years Eve. It’s difficult to see anything other than them making it seven, although Aston Villa's away record is perhaps not as woeful as you may expect. Of the 14 draws Villa have picked up this season, nine of them have been away, in fact they’ve lost only four away games. They won at Chelsea and calved out a draw at Anfield recently, and obviously have a way of playing that is difficult to break down away from home. Manchester United have an imperative to win this, whereas Villa don’t, and that should see United through.

As for United's midweek conquerors, Wigan find themselves coming into form at the right time. They’ve lost only one in their last six, a very unlucky defeat at Stamford Bridge last week. When I asked Sir Alex Ferguson back in autumn whether Wigan would go down, he said ‘no, they’re course and distance specialists’, to use a horse racing analogy. They’ve been in a pickle so many times that they know how to pick themselves out of it.

They’re far from out of the woods yet with five games to go but Roberto Martinez's side seem to have that belief and they’re certainly playing for their manager. They’ve given themselves a better than even chance of escaping, and it would be vindication of the unwavering faith Martinez has shown in the group of players he has assembled.

But Arsenal away is probably the toughest test in the Premier League at the moment, as Manchester City found last weekend. With nine wins in ten, they have built up a five-point cushion for their top four place, and they will be more than a little confident having won 4-0 at Wigan earlier in the season. Wigan will do well to get anything in North London on this occasion.

Another team in a dog fight at the bottom, QPR, have won their last three at home, including victories over Liverpool and Arsenal, but they’ve lost their last four on their travels. Their last two home games against Tottenham and Stoke are going to be vital to their chances. It’s taken a while for Mark Hughes to impose his 'modus operandi' on them, but gradually they’re looking rather more organised than they were six weeks ago. They’ve got their ideal opponents this weekend in West Brom. With one win in six in the Premier League, the Baggies were pretty meek at Manchester City in midweek and I have a feeling that this could be QPR’s fourth away win of the season and arguably their most important. If they win this they are perhaps just one victory from safety, and they’ll fancy their chances, particularly given West Brom's patchy home form. I feel quite strongly that Queens Park Rangers will come out on top this weekend.

Also down towards the foot of the table, it’s looking rather grim for Blackburn. After a mini resurgence, they’ve gone and lost four in a row and now they’re three points short of safety. They’ve lost impetus at a crucial time, and it will be difficult to regain it with just five games to go. Two of those are at Tottenham and Chelsea, so it’s an uphill struggle for Steve Kean and his team. Swansea, like Blackburn, have lost their last four, including three of their last four at the Liberty, which was their great strength for so much of the season. It’s slightly taking the shine off what has been a tremendous debut season in the Premier League. I would love, from Blackburn’s point of view, to say they’ll win at Swansea but I’m not sure they will.

Finally, rock bottom Wolves play Sunderland. They’re nine points from safety with only 15 points available. At Stoke last weekend, for the third game in a row they led and then lost. They were pretty lifeless at the end of that. It seems they know their fate and have done so for a couple of weeks. They’ve lost seven in a row, they’re shipping goals left, right and centre and there’s internal dissent in the camp surrounding the captain Roger Johnson, who’s been dropped in recent games. Even though Sunderland have won just two of their last nine in the Premier League, I'd tip Sunderland to win this weekend's match quite comfortably.

Jon Champion previews the weekend's FA Cup semi-finals

Togetherness and experience giving United the edge over City in the title race

Jon Champion — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of Stoke City vs Wolverhampton Wanderers live on ESPN from 4.30pm on Saturday...

FIXTURES Fri Apr 6 Swansea v Newcastle Sat Apr 7 Sunderland v Tottenham, Bolton v Fulham, Chelsea v Wigan, Liverpool v Aston Villa, Norwich v Everton, West Brom v Blackburn, Stoke v Wolves Sun Apr 8 Manchester United v QPR, Arsenal v Manchester City

Manchester United’s performance, and indeed result, at Blackburn Rovers on Monday night highlighted the difference between themselves and their neighbours. United are exactly that, and their togetherness and experience told in a game in which they were largely frustrated for long periods, when they were rewarded with two goals in the last 10 minutes. City don’t seem to have quite the same nous when it comes to winning and closing games out. That is why, all of a sudden, Sir Alex Ferguson’s team have a five-point lead, which seemed unthinkable even six weeks ago.

But Manchester United are still a little more fragile than they have been in past seasons, but they are a fragile side that has won 10 of their last 11 Premier League games. A home fixture against Queens Park Rangers should be exactly what they need on this busy Easter period. The Red Devils have scored in 46 of their 47 matches in all competitions this season, which tells you how consistent a threat they have been.

QPR, having beaten Liverpool and Arsenal, have shown they can take on the top sides, which is what they must continue to do in the final month or so of the season given their run in. However, both of those victories were achieved at Loftus Road - they are not so clever away from home and I cannot see beyond a home win for Manchester United.

Such as result will mean Manchester City are likely to troop out at Arsenal eight points behind. This would be psychologically significant for a side that has taken its share of battering both in the media and in on the field recently. I saw them last weekend against Sunderland and, while they came roaring back from 3-1 down, they were a shadow of their former selves for the first 80 minutes. They have only won one of their last four Premier League matches and their away record is modest for a leading side – four defeats on the road and only seven wins. I expect their frailties to be fully tested at the Emirates Stadium.

After ending their winning streak at QPR last week, the Gunners are now only above Spurs on goal difference, with Robin van Persie in the midst of what by his standards is a dreadful drought – three games without a goal. This game is a lot more difficult to call than the one at Old Trafford. I just have a sneaking suspicion that, with all their leading lights back, City will show their true colours, so I am going for City to sneak a win. From a neutral’s perspective, I hope I am right because they must to win to keep the title race alive. With three points, Manicini’s men will still be very much in the hunt. However anything less is likely to leave a gap of seven or eight points, which would be too big to overcome.

If Arsenal are defeated, Tottenham Hotspur would regain third place with a solitary point at Sunderland. Swansea proved to be compliant opposition for Spurs last week, as the Londoners ended a run of five games without a win, but Martin O’Neill’s Black Cats should provide a much sterner test on Saturday lunchtime. This is the hardest of all the games to call this weekend because Sunderland have been ‘in and out’ of late. After a dramatic improvement following the Ulsterman’s arrival, their form has tailed off and, after the cup exit to Everton, I’m not quite sure what they are playing for between now and the end of the season. That may play into Tottenham’s hands, because I am sure Harry Redknapp will have his troops ‘at it’. Realistically, Tottenham have only got one target for the rest of the campaign because, ultimately, Champions League qualification will be more important to them than the FA Cup. I can see Spurs going all guns blazing and, if was forced to choose a winner, I’d plump for them.

Roberto Di Matteo’s record as Chelsea boss makes pretty impressive ready – seven wins in nine. I thought they looked nervous at home to Benfica in midweek but they got the job done. They are scoring plenty of goals under the Italian – 20 in nine games - and I can’t see anything other than three more points for the Blues at home to Wigan Athletic, despite the Latic’s recent revival.

Liverpool are enduring their worst run of league form in nearly 60 years- six defeats in seven Premier League games. Kenny Dalglish has just eased off on all the rhetoric and defiance in his public utterances. No longer is he accusing his inquisitors of a lack of intelligence for questioning his side’s recent form. We learnt this week that there is going to be an internal review conducted by the Fenway Sports Group at the end of the season, to which Dalglish will be asked to contribute. While there are no suggestions that his job is under threat, there are serious questions being asked of Liverpool’s lack of form because a top-four place was the aim set in August and even if they win two cups I don’t think that will paper over the cracks.

Their opponents on Saturday, Aston Villa, are in equally woeful form – one win in eight – although they briefly threatened a dramatic comeback against Chelsea on an emotional day at Villa Park last week. Many of their thoughts will be with captain Stilian Petrov, who is battling Acute Leukemia. The prospect of a place in the FA semi-final at Wembley should act as an incentive for Liverpool’s players and, despite their serial habit of dropping points at home, I can only see them adding to their win at Villa Park earlier in the season and completing the double over Villa at Anfield. Villa are only five points above the drop-zone and another defeat will seriously perk up the clubs below them.

I am not as confident in Swansea City as I was during the middle of the season when they were winning almost every game at home and drawing the rest. The Swans have only managed to win two of their last seven at the Liberty Stadium and, home and away in the Premier League, it is four defeats in their last seven. While there are no alarm bells going off in South Wales, there have been one or two signs in their last few games, notably the home defeat to Everton, that sides are beginning to work out how to combat their expansive and very attractive playing style. I would be very surprised if Alan Pardew hasn’t picked up on that, given his tactical triumphs this season.

Newcastle United have won their last three games and are five points off the top-four. While it is rather farfetched to think they are going to achieve a Champions League place, they have every chance of pipping Chelsea to fifth, who will do well to stay focused on the league run in, given their upcoming fixture schedule and the distractions of huge semi-finals against Spurs and Barcelona. I think Europa League qualification for Newcastle would be a huge achievement. Having said all of that, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see this game finish all-square. The Swans remain reasonably difficult to deal with at home and Newcastle will be tactically cute, so I think a draw is on the cards.

After recording three straight league wins under very difficult circumstances, Bolton Wanderers boss, and Manager of the Month, Owen Coyle deserves tremendous credit. Ahead of the game with Fulham, his message to his players will surely be ‘don’t ease off’, because they still remain in real dogfight. They seemed to have found a way of playing that really suits them. Although they could have been three goals down at Molineux last weekend, they played brilliantly in the ‘business end’ of that game and deserved the win.

Fulham can play without fear now. They are marooned in 10th place on 39 points, which will be more than enough to stay up this year. They have shown they are capable of beating the best and losing to the worst, so goodness knows what will happen. I'd expect it to be an open and entertaining game, and Bolton should have enough to get something out of the game, which could be vital come May.

Norwich City are another side which have been showing all the signs of having their minds on the beach. They have won only once of their last six but their Premier League status has already been secured, which is a wonderful achievement. In Everton, they are a playing a side that will definitely not give up before the end of the season. The Toffees have only lost twice in their last 15 games in all competitions. David Moyes’ men are also playing for a place in the FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool. They currently sit above their Merseyside rivals in the Premier League table and will be determined for things to remain that way. I fancy a fully-motivated Everton to claim all three points at Carrow Road.

West Bromwich Albion are finishing the season poorly with three defeats in their last four games. Blackburn Rovers have lost their last two but won three of their previous five. Steve Kean’s side needs the points, while West Brom don’t and that might be key. Blackburn have more reasons to be motivated although they also have more reasons to the nervous. Nevertheless, I fancy Rovers to get something at the Hawthorns – probably a draw.

Wolves are six points from safety and, I am sorry to say, have probably gone. They have conceded 24 goals in seven outings, shipping five on three of those occasions. I was amazed the see the public spat between goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and captain Roger Johnson last week. The former Birmingham defender has proved himself to be a rather divisive character in the dressing room this season and his appointment may well have played a significant role in the side’s demise. Unfortunately for Terry Connor, I think Stoke City are ready to provide some sort of backlash following their lackluster showing at Wigan. With a much smaller squad, the Potters have played the same amount of games as Chelsea this season, but I fancy the hard-working Potters to take all three points at the Britannia.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Stoke City vs Wolverhampton Wanderers , Saturday, 4.30pm.

Champions League a bridge too far for Toon, but London trio all fallible

Jon Champion — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:46:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action...

FIXTURES Sat 31 Mar Aston Villa vs Chelsea, Everton vs West Brom, Fulham vs Norwich, Man City vs Sunderland, QPR vs Arsenal, Wigan vs Stoke, Wolves vs Stoke Sun 1 Apr Newcastle vs Liverpool, Tottenham vs Swansea Mon 2 Apr Blackburn vs Man Utd

The balance between the three London sides in contention for those last two Champions League spots - Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea – appears to have swung. For a long time it was Spurs who were the sure things, Chelsea who looked set to grab fourth and Arsenal who looked destined to miss out.

Now, Arsenal are hot favourites for third, while last weekend’s draw at Stamford Bridge leaves Spurs with a five point gap over Chelsea, now rank outsiders.

The three sides all have certain fragilities which could affect them at various times in the last eight games of the season. It’s hard to predict what’s going to happen with any certainty, because they don’t deliver the level of consistency that you would normally expect from a top four side, although Arsenal clearly seem to have found their rhythm at the right time.

Just below that capital trio are two sides who face one another in what looks the most intriguing of this weekend’s Premier League ties. Newcastle against Liverpool is one of the blue-chip Premier League fixtures, thanks largely to those 4-3 thrillers in the late 90s, two of the greatest Premier League games of the last twenty years.

Liverpool have already secured a Europa League spot by virtue of their Carling Cup triumph, with the possibility of FA Cup success still to come. But the Champions League is now beyond them, and I fancy that may also be true of Newcastle, despite another brilliant showing at West Brom last time out. They would have to finish above two of Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea, and although they’re already level on points with the Blues, the North London pair are still quite far ahead.

Newcastle are still in a strong position for a Europa League place, however, and they’ll therefore be disappointed to be going into this game with so many injuries. Given a full-strength team and home advantage, they would really fancy themselves against Liverpool, but they’ll be forced to deal with the threat of Luis Suarez without first choice centre backs Steven Taylor and Fabrizio Coloccini. Liverpool are themselves a bit of a wounded animal at the moment, having lost five of their last six in the Premier League, but on this occasion those injuries might just tip the balance in their favour.

Chelsea are still fighting on three fronts, with that tremendous Champions League win in Portugal in midweek and the forthcoming FA Cup Semi Final against Tottenham. Chelsea appear to have discovered a little something extra under Roberto Di Matteo, because it’s five wins, a draw and a defeat in seven matches under the Italian’s caretaker management and he’s clearly getting a response from his squad, which Andre Villas-Boas wasn’t in his last few weeks. Aston Villa should be compliant opponents on Saturday. Eight points clear of trouble, Villa are, in my view, the dullest team to watch in the Premier League. They’ve won just one of their last seven in the league, yet their best result of the season was a 3-1 win at Chelsea on New Year’s Eve. Nevertheless, Chelsea are on a bit of a roll under Di Matteo, and I would expect them to avenge that defeat with a win at Villa Park.

Tottenham against Swansea should be the most pleasing game on the eye of all the weekend fixtures. Spurs are without a win in five Premier League games, but should win on this occasion, not least because Swansea will be without one of their unsung heroes Steven Caulker, who is on loan from Tottenahm. While most of the plaudits have gone to their more creative players, Caulker has done very well and I understand the staff at Spurs are looking forward to assimilating him back into their first-team squad next season. Swansea have won three out of their last four in the Premier League, but Tottenham played very well against Bolton in the FA Cup in midweek and should continue their return to winning ways.

QPR’s daunting run-in continues with the visit of Arsenal to Loftus Road. Having only recently faced Liverpool and a tricky trip to Sunderland, they still have to play the top five before the end of the season, and that may well be the most telling factor in their battle against relegation. Indiscipline is another contributing factor, with Djibril Cissé’s second red card in as many months leading to a four game ban. Strangled by suspensions, it’s just a question of whether QPR are good enough to get at an occasionally fragile Arsenal, who have enjoyed seven consecutive Premier League wins. Earlier on in the season QPR may have caused problems, but this is a different side. They haven’t got the terrier-like Neil Warnock urging them on, they have Mark Hughes who is an altogether different style of manager, and for that reason I would be surprised if Arsenal don’t win this particular London derby and put QPR in even deeper trouble.

Elsewhere at the bottom, Wolves seem to have collapsed. There is an air of resignation about the players and the club in general. They made a huge mistake in the sacking of Mick McCarthy and the handling of his appointing his successor. Terry Connor was watching Saturday's opponents Bolton play at Tottenham on Tuesday and while everyone thinks he is a very good assistant, few are yet convinced he is a manager. Bolton have won their last two matches in the Premier League, against QPR and Blackburn, doubly valuable wins because they were against their companions in distress. Looking at the bottom of the Premier League table, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the bottom three stay the same until the end of the season, with Wolves at the very bottom.

Another of the current bottom three, Wigan Athletic, have at least been showing signals that they could perhaps turn things around. They’re only off the bottom by virtue of Wolves’ collapse, but their last three games have brought two draws and a win, and they have lost only one of their last seven. They’ve most likely left themselves a little too much to do this year but I certainly wouldn’t rule them out of escaping. They’ll find their games against Stoke difficult but the Potters are not as strong on their travels as they are at the Britannia. This is a difficult one to call, with the relegation threatened teams a lot is down to desire at this stage of the season and this game against Stoke is a good barometer of Wigan’s desire.

Blackburn Rovers were complacent against Bolton in their local derby last weekend. They did not play well and received a sharp reminder that they cannot afford to ease off. They will be rank outsiders against Manchester United at Ewood Park this weekend, but we shouldn’t forget they won 3-2 at Old Trafford on New Year’s Eve in probably the most surprising result of the season. Having said that, that will be the ultimate motivation for Manchester United, who have won nine of their last ten in the Premier League. They are not the results machine that they have been in previous seasons and I do see them slipping up at some point between now and the end of the season to give an extra twist to the title race. It’s their 47th game of the season; they’ve only failed to score in one match, which was at Newcastle over the New Year. Blackburn still need three wins to be sure of safety, but Manchester United should have too much for them on Monday night.

You can’t bet against Manchester City at home; they’ve won every league game they have played there this season, scoring 44 and conceding just seven. The crunch match is going to be the Manchester derby at the end of April, but the key for them at the moment is who’s fit and who isn’t. Without Vincent Kompany they look vulnerable at the back, whereas with him you can see precisely why they’ve got the best defensive record in the Premier League. They’ve missed him for the last few games and are hoping that he will be back this weekend. They’re also hoping that Sergio Aguero will return because he was equally missed in that 1-1 draw Stoke last Saturday. This weekend’s visitors Sunderland are a side who have just gone off the boil slightly, with two wins in their last seven games in all competitions. Despite disappointment against Everton in the FA Cup in the week, they’re sitting comfortably in eighth place, and while Martin O’Neill won’t want his team to ease off, it would only be natural if they did slightly. Unless they are anything other than at their best, and unless Manchester City have an off day, I cannot predict anything other than a home win.

Everton, on the other side of the coin to Sunderland, will be buoyed by their place in the FA Cup semi-final and, with two defeats in fourteen games in all competitions, they’re a tough nut to crack. I struggle to see West Brom winning this game, after how poor they were against Newcastle last weekend; I couldn’t believe how naive and open they were in the first half. They have taken one point from their last three games after a run of three consecutive wins and that sums them up. They have a good spell and then a bad spell, and that is why they’ll end up lower to mid table. The only question regarding this match is whether it will be an Everton win or a draw.

Fulham have a similar problem - three defeats in a row after three wins in a row - and they’ve failed to score in their last three games. They were very unfortunate at Old Trafford on Monday night not to earn a penalty late in the game, because they had played quite well throughout the game. I like the number of attacking players that Martin Jol is managing to pack into his line-up with Pogrebnyak now as the main striker. If you look at their midfield it includes players like Moussa Dembélé who is one of the best attacking players in the Premier League! Their game against Norwich is a game that doesn’t particularly engage me because nothing really rides on it. I think there’s plenty to admire about Norwich but they have only one win in five games and that was against a very poor Wolves team. They seem to be coasting towards the end of the season and maybe Fulham can take advantage of that. It should be one of those games where you sit back and enjoy the football, without too much concern for the result.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN. This season, ESPN’s live television football coverage includes the Barclays Premier League, the FA Cup, the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, England U-21 matches, Dutch Eredivisie and international friendly matches.

Rovers' resolve, Swansea surge, but Tottenham tumbling

Jon Champion — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:14:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of Stoke City vs Manchester United live on ESPN from 4.30pm on Saturday...

I’ve been encouraged but also amazed by the productivity and the emotional nature of the response of the wider public well beyond football to what happened at White Hart Lane last weekend.

I can’t pretend it was anything other than a horrible day for anyone who was there - people felt stunned, tearful even, as they watched potentially tragic events unfold on the pitch. That’s now thankfully been tempered by the news of the astonishing recovery Fabrice Muamba is beginning to make and I just hope it continues in the same vein.

Last Saturday, you wouldn’t have thought there was a chance of Bolton being able to play Blackburn, in what is always a very tasty Lancashire derby, one week on. But thankfully that game is going ahead in rather happier circumstances. As much as things have been put into perspective by the events of the last week, in a football sense this is a very important fixture for Bolton, particularly after they slipped back into the bottom three during the week.

Will Bolton ride on a tide of emotion, fuelled by the knowledge that their team-mate is still seriously ill in a hospital 200 miles away, or will the traumatic nature of the past week take its toll on them?

I believe it may well be the former. Owen Coyle, who deserves a mention in this for the wonderfully dignified way in which he’s conducted himself and conveyed the image of his club, let alone providing personal support at Muamba’s bedside, will always have players in line behind him. I would expect Bolton will produce probably their best performance of the season against Blackburn and they may need too, because Blackburn, extraordinarily, have managed to find some form and are now five points above the bottom three.

I don’t know from where Rovers have dug out this resolve. From what I hear, talking to one or two people at the club, the players have gotten together a bit – there are a number of experienced men there, such as Paul Robinson, and they have perhaps cleared the air somewhat.

That’s helped Steve Kean in that he has a united group of players possibly for the first time this season. They’ve given themselves a fighting chance of staying in the Premier League, against all the odds. But I’d have to fancy Bolton on what’s sure to be an emotional afternoon at the Reebok.

Elsewhere fellow strugglers QPR travel to Sunderland, with the West London side presumably still buzzing after that astonishing result in coming back from 2-0 behind to beat Liverpool, especially when you consider they had taken just two points from their previous six games.

They’ve got a horrible run-in, and I still feel that maybe we’ll look back on that result as a one-off rather than the start of a run, because so many of their remaining fixtures are so tough.

But I don’t think Sunderland is as tough a fixture as it was a month ago. They were insipid in their midweek game at Blackburn. They’ve only won one of their last five games in all competitions, but they do have the prospect of the cup replay against Everton, immediately after this QPR game, which becomes a very important match for them. So they could be excused for concentrating more of their efforts on that. They may give QPR half a chance.

Liverpool have had eight away defeats and eight home draws – two fairly damning statistics for a side who had ambitions of finishing in top four. Kenny Dalglish has this week said that people who criticise him and the team don’t understand football. Well, the league table tells its own tale. 42 points from 29 games, 12 points off fourth place, and given the amount of money they’ve spent, that’s just not good enough.

As for Wigan, who visit Anfield on Saturday, they’ve drawn their last couple of games, and that’s just not enough, they need wins. The teams drew 0-0 at the DW in December, and it’s tempting to say that if QPR can turn over Liverpool, then so can Wigan. But this game’s at Anfield, and it’s unlikely this will happen to a Dalglish team twice in a row, so I can’t really see beyond Liverpool for this one.

Wolves are now bottom of the pile on goal difference behind Wigan and Bolton. Terry Connor’s four games in charge have yielded one point and they’ve let in fourteen goals. I bumped into Mick McCarthy at a function in London this week and he was adamant he would’ve kept them up. It’s hard to disagree with him because you just feel the managerial change has totally destabilised the club. The playing staff don’t seem to be responding to Connor in the way they did to McCarthy, even when Mick was struggling.

Their hosts Norwich do seem to be switching off early, having taken one point from the last four games. They seem similar to Charlton of yesteryear, who used to get to a safe position in the league and then go on holiday from mid-March onwards. I’m sure Norwich will dig out a result or two between now and the end of the season - one of them may well be against Wolves - they don’t really need to do too much more, with 36 points to their name, putting them 13 points clear of trouble.

While Norwich are easing off as we approach the finish line, Swansea are sprinting towards it, having now won three in a row. They’re eighth and just three points behind Liverpool, and were they to finish ahead of the Merseysiders, that would be fantastic for them and pretty damning for the Anfield side, given the comparative resources of the two teams. But they will find Everton a tougher nut to crack than some they’ve faced of late, but the Toffees have just gone off the boil as well, losing their last two, at Liverpool and against Arsenal, after a relatively long unbeaten run.

It shows the limitations of their squad that David Moyes has banged on about for much of the season. I think they can be forgiven for slipping below their very highest standards on occasion this season. It’s about whether Moyes can crack the whip and return them to their best for a trip to the Liberty Stadium, because no-one goes there and gets anything unless they’re actually playing absolutely at their best, as Man City found.

What’s riding on Newcastle’s visit to the Hawthorns on Sunday is their chance of European qualification. They’re still five points clear of the team behind them, Liverpool, but their Europa League prospects are largely going to be determined by who wins the FA Cup and what effect that has on the shake-up for European places via the league. But all they can do is keep winning at the moment and they’re winning enough to stay in contention. I don’t think they’re quite the force they were earlier in the season. They were without Tiote last week and ended up playing Cabaye, a central midfielder, on the left wing, and Gutierrez at left-back. They changed that later in the game and looked rather better

West Brom are one of these teams that you never know quite what you’re going to get from. They did win at St. James’ Park in December and with Roy Hodgson very keen to press his England credentials at the moment, he’ll be driving them hard right till the end of the season. I wouldn’t be surprised if this one ended in a draw.

In the battle for the Champions League spots, there’s a London derby as Chelsea host Tottenham on Saturday lunchtime. The Blues have had four wins under Di Matteo, before the midweek setback against Manchester City.

They do look a better unit, but I still think there are a number of shortcomings. Much was made by many of us about Fernando Torres scoring twice in the FA Cup, but he was back to his hesitant self at the Etihad on Wednesday night. So I think Didier Drogba will come back to lead the line against Tottenham with rather more brio.

I quite fancy Chelsea in this given just how badly Tottenham have lost their way of late. They’ve now dropped below Arsenal, having been 10 points clear just a matter of weeks ago.

It’s a question of momentum, isn’t it? There’s negative momentum afflicting Tottenham, and I don’t see that changing with this fixture. Chelsea away is a tough ask, with Di Matteo having rounded up the players and gotten them to play for him in a way that they weren’t for the old manager.

Arsenal, meanwhile, look likely to make it a seventh consecutive victory – they’ve scored 19 goals in the six games they’ve won recently. They’re up to third place now, having chiselled out a win at Everton. They do seem a more resilient outfit recently, and I don’t see them being troubled by an Aston Villa side going nowhere quickly.

They’ve done just about enough to stay up but they’ve impressed no-one. They’re 10 points clear of trouble but in virtually any other year, they’d be looking over their shoulders with rather more fear.

Manchester United went to Stoke earlier in the season, and were lucky to get away with a draw. They will now be hoping Stoke give a similarly tough examination to Manchester City, who will go into the game a point behind Manchester United.

Self-evidently, if they draw or win, they will go ahead in the table, before United play on Monday night. A lot has been made of Manchester City having dropped out of the title race, or pole position, which they have, but I don’t buy into this stuff that all of the momentum is with Manchester United.

Tevez coming back in could just be the little boost they need. He set up the winner against Chelsea on Wednesday night. I quite fancy them against Stoke, even though Stoke are quite a tough nut to crack at the Britannia. This is the sort of game that defines champions. If City can go there and succeed where United failed, it would be one more reason to suggest they are the better team.

Manchester United have the sort of run-in that Sir Alex Ferguson would’ve chosen for himself had he the power to do so, starting against a Fulham side that travels as well as Real Ale, with only two away wins all season. Fulham won three in a row and lost the last two. I’ll be amazed if they don’t make that three wins followed by three defeats.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Stoke City vs Manchester United, Saturday, 4.30pm

Liverpool the team for the big occasion as FA Cup takes centre stage

Jon Champion — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:57:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's FA Cup sixth round action. Watch ESPN's FA Cup sixth round coverage with Tottenham Hotspur vs Bolton Wanderers on Saturday at 4.30pm and Chelsea vs Leicester City on Sunday at 2pm.

There may also be some Premier League action this weekend, but the FA Cup deserves to take centre stage.

The competition is still very open - we could be heading for a Merseyside final, an all London final, or it could be Leicester against Bolton. Looking at the quarterfinal line up, I’d be rather surprised if it was all settled this weekend, I think we could be looking at one if not two replays here.

For me, Everton against Sunderland looks like the tie of the round. David Moyes actually rested players for the Merseyside derby during the week on the basis that he would have them available and in peak condition for this one, so from their perspective it seems the cup is the centre point of the remainder of their season. I know David Moyes is desperate for another taste of a Wembley final and is attaching great importance to this game.

Sunderland will also see this as a game of great importance. They managed to beat Liverpool without tigerish midfielder Lee Cattermole and their most creative forward in Stephane Sessengon, but will miss them more playing away from home. This is a really intriguing match-up and I wouldn’t be surprised if this one goes to a replay.

Tottenham are the highest ranked team left in the competition but haven’t played particularly well against lower league opposition so far this season, and they can’t afford to take as many liberties against Bolton. Owen Coyle has been given a little bit of breathing space after a getting a bit lucky against QPR last weekend, meaning he can afford to concentrate more of his resources on this game. Bolton’s main objective is to stay in the Premier League, but they’ll look at Tottenham’s inconsistencies and believe they have half a chance of getting back to Wembley for a second straight season.

I think the Chelsea celebrations may have just about died down by the time they kick off against Leicester after their remarkable comeback against Napoli. Roberto Di Matteo has now won all of his three games in charge, but succumbed to a few casualties on Wednesday night – John Terry and David Luiz may both be missing, so I think it will be a substantially weakened team that takes to the pitch, not through any desire on Di Matteo’s part.
Having seen Leicester - the Blues' FA Cup quarterfinal opponents - a few times this season, I’m just not sure what we’re going to get from them, they are frustratingly inconsistent. You look at the team sheet and there are some Premier League names on it and on their day I think they can give Chelsea a game, especially if they face a changed team. I will go for a Chelsea win in this one though, but if Leicester can hold them for an hour, things might get interesting and we might get into replay territory.

The fourth and final quarter final is a fourth meeting of the season of Liverpool and Stoke, and as always Stoke will be a thorn in Liverpool’s side. Liverpool have been held eight times at home this season and I think Stoke will go there and give it everything as it’s their last remaining focus after playing in so many competitions. They are good enough to go to Anfield these days and get some sort of result, not necessarily a win but this would be another fixture I could see going the distance – and that would mean a re-match at The Britannia.

I'm tempted to say Liverpool are the favourites for this competition. Their performances in the big games have been very good - it's been finding that level on consistency in the seemingly more routine games that's cost them in the league.

But if they can continue to grind out those one-off performances - which is, after all, what cup football is all about - then I can see them going on to complete a 'cup double'.

Meanwhile in the Premier League, Fulham face Swansea in a game for the purists, if not for those keen on seeing something fiercely competitive. Both sides have done very well to secure safety so early on in the season and as neither side are going anywhere in a hurry, it could lack that competitive edge. It will be tremendous on the eye but I don’t think it will go down in history as one of the most meaningful games of this Premier League season.

Newcastle are just about alive in the race for Europe, I think it’s more likely that they will just miss out, but it will still be a tremendous return. They take on a Norwich side that looked a little bit tired last weekend. They’ve reached that stage of the season where they can either play without any inhibition or results will tail off after realising the magnitude of what they have achieved.

Wigan played very well last week and had a wonderful chance to beat Norwich. They have good wingbacks in Boyce and Beausejour, and an industrious midfield but don’t have anyone who looks likely to score any great weight of goals. Opponents West Brom won three on the bounce before losing at Old Trafford, which is the story of their season – no consistency, but on their day good enough to take on the best. However Wigan are far from the best and despite their stirrings at Norwich, I’m rather thinking West Brom will return to form with a win.

Manchester United go to Wolves on Sunday with the chance to go four points clear, which would make the top of the table look very different to how it has done for the majority of the season. I expect them to take that chance, even with their defeat at Molineux last season. Wolves have drawn one and lost two under Terry Connor, who has been left holding the baby, a baby that is screaming its head off at the moment. I don’t think that footballing father figure, Sir Alex, will make the baby’s mood any better.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more. For more information visit espn.co.uk/tv

Things heating up at the bottom, can Arsenal narrow the gap on Spurs at the top?

Jon Champion — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:02:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of Everton vs Tottenham Hotspur live on ESPN from 4.30pm on Saturday...

With things so delicately poised at the top of the Premier League, it’s sometimes easy to overlook exactly how fraught the upcoming relegation scrap is likely to be. But with the five bottom sides all struggling for any kind of form and currently separated by just two points, there are sure to be plenty of twists and turns at the foot of the division.

This weekend sees four of those five sides face one of their relegation rivals, making this a crucial round of fixtures in the battle for survival.

Despite all the upheaval at the club, with fan protests against the owners and manager Steve Kean, Blackburn somehow currently find themselves just above the Premier League drop zone. They have the chance to widen the gap when they travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers, who will still be reeling from the 5-0 thumping doled out by Fulham last Sunday.

These have also been a particularly unsettled few weeks for Wolves. They sacked Mick McCarthy after last month’s 5-1 humbling at the hands of West Brom, and then seemed to take an age to identify a replacement before settling on McCarthy’s former assistant, Terry Connor. They sort of suggested he was always their first choice, but I’m not entirely convinced that was the case. We now hear stories of defender Roger Johnson turning up to training somewhat worse for wear, so we can expect him to be disciplined by the club in due course.

But what really matters is what happens on the pitch, and with things so tight at the bottom these fixtures are absolutely integral to the two sides’ hopes of survival. A tense draw wouldn't surprise me, but I just have a feeling Wolves' fearsome home crowd may help them to a crucial win.

The second relegation ‘six-pointer’ comes at the Reebok, where Bolton Wanderers host Queens Park Rangers. Bolton’s opening day 4-0 victory at Loftus Road suggested this could be an enjoyable campaign for all involved with the club, but the fact of the matter is that they’ve won just five Premier League games in the 26 which have followed, with none of those victories coming since mid-January.
They still have the distraction of the FA Cup, and given they don’t have a big enough squad to rotate the side, that will still be sapping energy and focus. Defeat to Rangers would leave Bolton five points adrift of safety and that will be something Hoops boss Mark Hughes is also well aware of.
Hughes has yet to really stamp his authority on QPR, but he will once again be able to call on his desired striker partnership of Bobby Zamora and Djibril Cisse, with the Frenchman returning from a three-match ban. The pair have only played 33 minutes together so far, and whether or not they hit it off could well decide whether or not the West Londoners avoid the drop.

When Norwich visited Wigan at the start of the season, many expected both to be embroiled in the relegation scrap come the end of the campaign. But Norwich have defied expectations and are already all but safe. The same cannot be said of Wigan, whose chairman Dave Whelan last weekend revealed he would be seeking talks with manager Roberto Martinez over the club's current position. The Latics have won just one of their last 12 Premier League matches, and they don’t seem to have the goal threat that has got them out of trouble in recent seasons – 23 goals in 27 matches is a very poor return indeed.
For that reason, Norwich will be confident of a victory at Carrow Road, which would take them to 38 points, a great achievement for a side of whom so little was expected.

If you were being kind, you would describe Aston Villa’s current home record as ‘disappointing’. If you were being realistic, you’d describe it as simply ‘bad’. Just three wins in 13 home fixtures is a record akin to those sides right down at the bottom, and though Villa should have enough to eke out the two or three victories required to ensure they don’t get dragged below the dreaded red line, these are still troubling times for fans, manager and owner alike.
Saturday’s visit of Fulham gives them the chance to get back on track, but the Cottagers have suddenly found a bit of form, winning their last three and soaring up to eighth place.
Yet Martin Jol’s side are essentially the curate's egg of the Premier League – they’re just as capable of winning brilliantly as they are losing feebly, so Alex McLeish will be hopeful his side catch them on one of their off days.

Like Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo makes his Premier League debut as Chelsea manager with a fixture against Stoke City. If nothing else, the departure of the Portuguese appears to have lifted the mood at the club, with the players laughing and joking before the midweek cup victory at Birmingham, and also on the bench during the match.
Yet they still have problems. What was originally intended to be a transitional season may now become two, and with Champions League football for next season currently looking unlikely and several new players needed before they can compete at the top again, there’s a lot of rebuilding to be done. They must win here to keep their top four hopes alive.

Sunderland seem to have shot themselves, not just in one foot, but in both. The red cards handed to Stephane Sessegnon and Lee Cattermole during (and after) Sunday's Tyne/Wear Derby draw at Newcastle mean both players will be missing for the next three games, with Cattermole missing a fourth due to it being his second dismissal of the season.
That will severely weaken the Black Cats for the visit of Liverpool, who will consider themselves unlucky to have been beaten by Arsenal last time out. That loss will most likely have put an end to any lingering hopes of Champions League qualification, with the prospect of completing a cup double now likely to be their top priority.
Sunderland’s resurgence under Martin O’Neill appears to have been halted, but they have at least comfortably avoided being drawn into the relegation mire, which you wouldn’t have predicted four months back.

West Brom may have won six games on the road this season, but when they face the big boys they usually battle valiantly before crumbling, and I expect the same to happen when they travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United on Sunday.
We’ve said many times that United haven’t been at their best this season, but they still keep grinding out those wins are have kept themselves within touching distance of City. They know exactly what it takes to be successful in a title race, and I have no doubts they will succeed where they failed last season and beat the Baggies at home.

The fixture between Swansea and Manchester City is sure to be a fixture that’s pleasing on the eye. Brendan Rodgers’ side have performed admirably against the top sides this season, with their 4-0 opening weekend defeat at the Etihad Stadium the only time they’ve looked really well beaten. But at home the Swans are far more formidable, and they have lost just two of their 13 home fixtures to date. This will be a real challenge for Roberto Mancini’s Premier League leaders, but the motivation of knowing United will most likely win their fixture will see City go all out to do the same, and I believe they will come away from south Wales with the points.

All of a sudden, Arsenal are once again the hot ticket in town - as was the case a few years back. Robin van Persie’s sparkling form continues unabated, but the same cannot be said of Monday evening’s opponents Newcastle, who are now stuttering somewhat having performed so well for the first six months of the season. That heavy defeat at Tottenham has perhaps taken the wind out of their sails, with the subsequent home draws with Wolves and Sunderland not enough to keep them in the hunt for a top four spot.
Three impressive wins on the bounce for Arsenal - albeit the last one in vain - have really lifted the mood both among the players and on the terraces, and there's no reason to suggest they shouldn't continue their resurgence against Newcastle on Monday.

Saturday evening’s trip to Everton could be one of the major roadblocks on Tottenham's path to the Champions League. Everton are currently in good shape, having now gone six unbeaten. They worked wonders in the January transfer window by begging, stealing and borrowing what they could, and now look back to their old selves after a somewhat stuttering first half of the season. Spurs haven’t looked quite themselves over the last few weeks, and that ten point chasm which once Iay between them and Arsenal has quickly closed to four. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Gunners narrow the gap on their North London rivals to one point this weekend, with the help of David Moyes’ side.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Everton vs Tottenham Hotspur, Saturday, 4.30pm.

Magpies have the edge over Black Cats, Arsenal's commitment put to the test

Jon Champion — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:19:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of Newcastle United vs Sunderland live on ESPN from 11am on Sunday...

FIXTURES Sat 3 March Liverpool v Arsenal, Blackburn v Aston Villa, Manchester City v Bolton, QPR v Everton, Stoke v Norwich, West Brom v Chelsea, Wigan v Swansea Sun 4 Feb Newcastle v Sunderland (live on ESPN), Fulham v Wolves, Tottenham v Manchester United

In what could be a pivotal weekend in the Premier League season, the pick of this weekend’s fixtures comes on Sunday, when Newcastle host bitter rivals Sunderland. The Tyne-Wear derby is one of the most underrated in the English football, and because it takes place 300 miles away from London it doesn’t quite get the attention others do, but for both sets of supporters it’s about as big as it gets.

Although both sides lost last weekend, Alan Pardew and Martin O’Neill’s sides head in to the fixture enjoying relatively good form. Not since 1948 have Newcastle and Sunderland been placed higher (they currently sit in sixth and ninth respectively) going in to the derby and although there isn’t too much between the two sides, you have to see Newcastle as favourites. Not only do the Magpies have home advantage, they have come out on top in recent matches against their closest rivals – Sunderland fans won’t thank me for mentioning the 5-1 humiliation they suffered in this fixture last season.

Two of the clubs vying for a Champions League spot face each other when Arsenal travel to Anfield to face Liverpool in Saturday’s early kick-off. It will be difficult for the Gunners as Kenny Dalglish’s men will be buoyed by winning the Carling Cup last weekend, although we will have to wait to see if their talismanic captain Steven Gerrard is fit after his excursions playing for England in the week. Those Arsenal fans who have claimed that the victory in the north London derby against Spurs last weekend has saved their season well, I’m afraid may well be mistaken. The Gunners' problem is that they have struggled for consistency this season and the trip to Merseyside will be a real test to see if they possess the commitment and resolve to dig out results. I have my doubts.

Another epic Premier League tussle sees Tottenham take on Manchester United at White Hart Lane. After the aforementioned defeat in the north London derby, Spurs have only won two out of their last six games and they need to quickly re-discover the form that has propelled them to third in the league. Although Sir Alex Ferguson’s side have won six and drawn one out of their last seven games, this is not the formidable United side of years gone by and for that reason I think it will end all square on Sunday.

Although Blackburn have lost three of their last four games and shipped fifteen goals in the process, I fancy Steve Kean’s side to emerge victorious in their encounter with Aston Villa on Saturday. The Villains have won only three games out of a possible fifteen, and defeat on Saturday would really set alarm-bells ringing in the ears of supporters at the midlands club.

Another side firmly in the midst of a relegation battle are Bolton, who face a daunting trip to league leaders Manchester City. Roberto Mancini’s men boast a perfect Premier League home record of thirteen wins from thirteen, and I imagine it will be pretty straightforward for them against the Trotters. Although four of the Lancashire club’s six wins have come away from home and eternal optimist Owen Coyle will be telling his players to focus on that, I just can’t see anything other than a home win.

There is real cause for concern at QPR after another defeat last weekend at home to Fulham, their third in three games. The ‘new manager syndrome’ has had little affect on the west London club and they continue to be very ill disciplined, with a number of players receiving their marching orders in recent weeks. They face an in-form Everton side who have only conceded four goals in their last seven games. Manager David Moyes spent very wisely in the January transfer window and I expect the Toffee’s will come away from Loftus Road with all three points.

This weekend sees Stoke play the 44th game of what has been a very long and arduous season for the Potters. They face a Norwich side who are sitting comfortable in eighth place, and with a few more wins, the Canaries can start thinking about a second successive season in the Premier League. However, Tony Pulis’ side seem reinvigorated by their 2-0 win over Swansea last weekend and I see them taking all three points at the Britannia Stadium this time round as well.

How the fortunes of West Brom have been reversed in the last fortnight. Resounding wins over Wolves and Sunderland has opened up an eleven point gap between themselves and the drop zone. They take on a Chelsea side who will be without captain John Terry through injury. The constant speculation that manager Andre Villas-Boas will be sacked at any given moment cannot be good for the players and they will have to work very hard to come away from the Hawthorns with all three points.

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez welcomes his old side Swansea to the DW stadium on Saturday. Brendan Rodgers’ side are currently ten points clear of the Latics and although they have only won twice away all season, there is no better time for the Swan’s to inflict more misery on Martinez and his Wigan team.

Coming from 2-0 down at half time to draw 2-2 against Newcastle must have felt like a victory for new Wolves boss Terry Connor. As I said last week, I’m not convinced by the appointment of Mick McCarthy’s former assistant as manager and I feel that if the Molineux club wanted to have the desired affect of changing managers then they should have dispensed with McCarthy in January. The West Midlands club face an inconsistent Fulham side who although are strong at home, I can see this ending in a stalemate – which unfortunately is not quite good enough for Wolves at this stage of the season.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Newcastle United vs Sunderland, Sunday, 11am.

Man City welcome Toure return as title race reaches 'squeaky bum time'

Jon Champion — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:30:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action...

FIXTURES Sat 25 Feb Chelsea v Bolton, Newcastle v Wolves, QPR v Fulham, West Brom v Sunderland, Wigan v Aston Villa, Man City v Blackburn Sun 26 Feb Arsenal v Tottenham, Norwich v Man Utd, Stoke v Swansea.

If Manchester City are genuinely Champions elect, as some of their fans have been saying, this weekend's game against Blackburn Rovers is one they must win, and I think they will.
I can’t see Blackburn getting anything from the match. They remind me of a car that needs its breaks serviced; you know the breaks are faulty therefore you know it is going to crash, it is just a question of when.
City have Yaya Toure back from the African Cup of Nations to assist their title charge. He hasn't played a domestic match since the 3-0 Premier League win over Liverpool on January 3. Since then, City have crashed out of both English cup competitions and seen Manchester United close the gap at the top to just two points.
The Ivorian is obviously a key figure, but I didn’t realise quite how important he was until I spoke with the City coaches earlier this week. They explained that, not only is he a driving, dynamic force from midfield, but that he is also the most popular recipient of passes. The player everyone looks to pass to.

But when you look at the title race you shouldn’t be backing a team you should be backing a manager. We are now getting towards what Sir Alex Ferguson christened himself, “squeaky bum time” and even though Manchester United are hardly pulling up trees with their form, they are only two points behind Manchester City.
This weekend they go to Norwich, where Eric Cantona was famously sent off in the past. The Canaries are in eighth place with 35 points and probably only need two wins to be sure of staying up in the Premier League, which would be a tremendous achievement for them.
They will make life difficult for Manchester United, but we are into the final third of the season; the time that Ferguson and United traditionally get the bit between their teeth so I would expect them to win on that basis.

Tottenham are at Arsenal on Sunday and this game may well exemplify the shift in power in North London. Arsenal seem to be going nowhere fast and are clinging to fourth place by their fingernails; something I can’t see them maintaining for much longer. Tottenham look set to finish above Arsenal for the first time in Arsene Wenger’s time with the Gunners and while there is a 10 point gap on paper there is a gulf in the quality of football. I expect a full strength Tottenham side to go to the Emirates and win.

The Andres Villas-Boas story rumbles on. It does seem that he has gone for revolution rather than evolution at Chelsea; clearly he has been told he has to change the guard but I feel the change has been too radical. No one seems to know what the future direction of the club is at the moment so maybe it is a good time for Bolton to go to the Bridge.
Bolton should have every bit as much, if not more than Birmingham City and they managed to chisel out a draw. I just feel they lack a goal-scorer; Kevin Davies looks a shadow of his former self but Owen Coyle is relentlessly positive so I won’t write Bolton off in this one.

Newcastle remarkably, are still sixth and could be as high as fourth come the Sunday evening. The big news for them is that Cheik Tiote and Yohan Cabaye are back in the centre of midfield. At home their form is formidable with just two defeats from 12 games this season. There is always a great belief in the Newcastle crowd and I think that will carry them through against a Wolves side still lacking a manager.
I can’t help but think that Steve Morgan has made a mess of the whole managerial change. Caretaker Terry Conor is trying to keep the players happy but it is hardly the ideal preparation for a game which could shape their season.

Another team who have sought a change in fortunes by making a change in the dugout are QPR. But there hasn’t been a massive upturn in form since Mark Hughes arrived at Loftus Road, and the pressure will be on for the visit of his former club, Fulham. Bobby Zamora will also be facing his former employers, just to add a little extra spice to what is often a more 'friendly' derby.
QPR are only out of the bottom three on goal difference and they are not playing the sort of football that suggests they will put together a run of results before the end of the season.
Fulham are an enigmatic side but they keep doing just enough to keep them out of danger which is hardly a satisfying way to go through a season. My feeling is that Hughes will have Rangers right up for this and that may be enough to see them through.

With West Brom we have another team that is just doing enough to stay out of trouble. Peter Odemwingie is threatening to show some form after a disappointing start to the season.
Speaking about disappointments; Sunderland’s have been washed away by the arrival of Martin O’Neil. I think James McLean, the youngster from Derry, would be a contender for Young Player of the Year if he had played more games. He and Sunderland have if not unstoppable momentum, then impressive momentum and that should be enough to carry them through at the Hawthorns.

Wigan are bottom of the table but still only two points adrift and last time out they won at Bolton. They play some lovely football but I don’t think they have enough in their squad to dig themselves out of trouble.
They face a side in Aston Villa who are merely treading water; they don’t seem to have much in the way of heart or substance to them. So if Wigan are going to entertain any hopes of getting out of trouble then this is a game they have to win.

Stoke have fallen away recently; down to 13th but they are still nine points clear of trouble. Their biggest problem is that this game is post a difficult trip to Valencia and I think that will be a factor.
Swansea on the other hand will come into this one nice and fresh. I think this is a good day for Swansea to play Stoke. Also I will give a mention to the Swan’s Joe Allen who is another candidate for Young Player of the Year in my eyes; he has looked immediately at home in the Premier League this season.

Jon Champion is football commentator for ESPN. Watch ESPN’s live and exclusive action from Italy’s Serie A as Inter Milan travel to Napoli on Sunday, 7.15pm.

Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal set to face FA Cup trouble

Jon Champion — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:23:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's FA Cup action. Watch ESPN’s live and exclusive coverage of three FA Cup matches this weekend.

It's the last 16 of the FA Cup this weekend, and it's a very well-balanced draw. Each of the ties includes a Premier League club, yet there's only one all-Premier tie: Sunderland-Arsenal.

FIXTURES (click team name for web-wide club news feed): Sat 18 Feb 12.30pm Chelsea v Birmingham City (Live on ESPN) 3pm Everton v Blackpool; Norwich City v Leicester City; Millwall v Bolton Wanderers 5.15pm Sunderland v Arsenal Sun 19 Feb 12noon Crawley Town v Stoke City (Live on ESPN) 2pm Stevenage v Tottenham Hotspur 4.30pm Liverpool v Brighton & Hove Albion (Live on ESPN)

For me, the two ties that stand out are Crawley-Stoke and Stevenage-Tottenham. Two years ago, they would have been non-league against Premier League.

Stevenage have history in the Cup: as recently as last year they knocked out Newcastle on a memorable day at Broadhall Way. Since then they've lost their manager Graham Westley who built the team, and they have Gary Smith in charge, but they're still very much playing the same way.
Tottenham could be a tougher nut to crack than Newcastle and but it's an intriguing cup tie that will really test the visiting players because Broadhall Way will be packed. The London side are lucky in that they have such strength in depth that they could field a second XI that would still be a match for most Premiership teams, and ultimately I would fancy them to go through. But it really is a fascinating occasion.

From Broadhall Way to Broadfield Stadium, and Crawley-Stoke is another fascinating tie. Having been there last year when they knocked Derby out, I think Crawley are good enough to give Stoke a run for their money – especially as Stoke are on such a bad run.
Crawley boss Steve Evans is a wily old manager and he’s a man that can build a team. Last year, he told me he thought they were a League One side playing in the Conference. Now they're a point off the top of League Two and I think they're good enough to play in the lower half of the Championship.
Crawley have a puncher's chance because Stoke had been on a downward curve in the last two months. It's a blessing in disguise that they've been drawn against Valencia in the Europa League; we've seen how their European adventure has impacted their league form.
Ultimately Stoke's first aim will always be to stay in the Premier League – so they can almost go out valiantly against Valencia, one of the bigger names in Europe, and say “Look, we’ve had a good season in Europe. Now let’s go out and focus on the Premier League.” Having had a taste of Wembley last season, I think for them, the FA Cup now is a priority, but it isn’t for Tottenham.

It seems as though every game is vital for Chelsea's Andre Villas-Boas right now, and Birmingham at home comes into that category. I don't think this is a foregone conclusion by any means: Birmingham beat Chelsea in the league last season and are on a good run – unbeaten in 13 games, they haven’t lost in 2012, and they’ve only conceded 27 goals in 30 Championship matches this season.
Chelsea will struggle to break them down. Fernando Torres isn’t scoring, Daniel Sturridge seems unhappy. Rumour has it that only Jose Bosingwa, David Luiz and Ramires are truly behind the manager and the rest wouldn’t be bothered if there was a managerial change. Birmingham have what it takes to go there and frustrate them so I think it could be another awkward lunchtime for Villas-Boas.

Arsenal go to Sunderland for the second time in a week, this time without Thierry Henry and most of their central defenders, with Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny both picking up injuries during the last two games. For those reasons, I fancy Sunderland to get their revenge after that late Premier League defeat last weekend.
Arsenal are heading in the wrong direction. They're going to struggle to hold on to a top-four place and Sunderland are very mobile under Martin O’Neill. Young James McClean has been an outstanding find and they have Fraizer Campbell back now as well. I fancy them to beat Arsenal – and to be a side nobody will want to play in the last eight.

Liverpool's tie against Brighton is one for the purists, but again anything but a foregone conclusion. Liverpool have drawn so many at home and Brighton, though perhaps lucky to edge past Newcastle in the last round, are a very good team.
I’ve seen them a few times now and they play in a very attractive way under Gus Poyet. They’ve taken Sam Vokes on loan from Wolves and he’s looking very much the part. They won at Anfield in the Fifth Round in 1983, they'll take 6,000 fans there and I just think they’re good enough to really take a few punches at Liverpool.

The most attractive tie of the round could be Everton against Blackpool. Blackpool's replay win in the last round at Sheffield Wednesday was tremendous. They played a mixture of first teams and reserves but they played like Barcelona! Matt Phillips, Kevin Phillips, Lomana LuaLua and Thomas Ince played as an astonishing ‘fab four’.
They'll see this as a way of playing their way back onto the Premier League stage and though Everton have made some good signings in the January transfer window, rather like Brighton and Liverpool the day before, I think the Merseyside club will have a lot to do to knock out Championship opposition.

Bolton will probably just want out of the cup now to focus on their Premier League survival campaign. They tend to have a couple of good results, then three or four really bad ones. And that win against Liverpool, which looked like a turning point, now seems to be a long time ago.
Millwall are an unheralded side. They have a player in Liam Trotter who I really like and he really holds their midfield together. I fancy Millwall to get the result against Bolton. I can’t imagine Owen Coyle is going to play the full first team and we may well see Millwall’s name in the last eight because of that.

Finally, Leicester visit Norwich – but which Norwich? If it's the one that hosted MK Dons in the League Cup and lost 4-1, Leicester will win. If it’s the Premier League Norwich then you have to fancy the home side will have too much for the visitors. Leicester players like David Nugent, Kasper Schmeichel and Matt Mills would all sit quite comfortably in the Premier League, so if Norwich have a bad day Leicester will go through but otherwise I think you’d have to fancy the Canaries as firm favourites.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster of the FA Cup. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage from three FA Cup Fifth Round matches: Chelsea v Birmingham City (Saturday from 11.30am), Crawley Town v Stoke City (Sunday from 11.30am) and Liverpool v Brighton & Hove Albion (Sunday from 3.45pm).

Harry Redknapp's England switch not a forgone conclusion

Jon Champion — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:30:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of Tottenham Hotspur vs Newcastle United live on ESPN from 4:30pm on Saturday...

February 8th 2012 will go down as one of the more extraordinary days in recent history of English football. People of a certain age will remember where they were when Don Revie walked out on England, and there are comparisons to be drawn with the way Capello has done the same.

Perhaps with a bit of persuasion from the FA, the Italian has left a job that had seen him make an awful lot of money, but not necessarily an awful lot of progress.

The front runner to replace Capello is Harry Redknapp, who was found not guilty on tax evasion charges on Wednesday morning to complete this most unique of days. I don’t think he’s the only candidate – Roy Hodgson would love to talk to the FA, as I’m sure Sam Allardyce would, though perhaps operating in the Championship seems too big a leap of a stage.

The top two English managers in the Barclays Premier League, in terms of league position, are Harry Redknapp and Alan Pardew, who meet in front of ESPN cameras at Saturday tea-time as Tottenham host Newcastle.

Pardew has had a few mentions recently, although his back catalogue is not yet sufficiently strong enough to mount a realistic challenge for the job. It will boil down to whether Harry Redknapp wants to do it, and it’s a foregone conclusion that he will.

The England job has become such a poisoned chalice; you look at a man who is enjoying his best success of a lengthy, 30-year career and the last three have brought him unparalleled success. He’s displayed an ability to buy and manage players at a level that he has not been able to operate at before.

Of course, if he goes to the England job, he doesn’t have that luxury to create a team in quite the same way, which is what he has loved doing. I just wonder whether he might look at it and think, “It’s a fantastic honour and I’d loved to be offered it – but I might just turn it down.”

The whole issue could act as something of as a distraction ahead of Saturday’s crucial match, but I think the overriding emotion at White Hart Lane would be one of relief that Harry Redknapp is still available to manage them in the short-term – even that wasn’t a given on Wednesday morning.

You could see the response of the fans to Harry when he walked out in a recent game against Wigan – he even remarked on that in his comments outside court on Wednesday and said it was one of his most emotional experiences in football. I think that’ll be doubled when he walks out on Saturday for two reasons; the court case is over and Spurs fans would want to show Redknapp how much he means to them and how much they want him to stay.

Newcastle are the side that refuse to go away as far as the battle for those top four spots goes, and I love the optimism of Alan Pardew. Many other managers would be tempering expectations, particularly with a fanatical following like the Toon Army, and trying to manager the fact that they probably won’t make the top four. But he is going for it hammer and tongs – he’s saying, “Let’s chase after Chelsea, we’re only a point behind – let’s really go for it!”

Isn’t it refreshing hearing a manager saying that, rather than coming out with managerial speak to try and dampen down expectations? It’s a real change to hear that and I think Alan Pardew has got his mojo back after a spell in the lower divisions.

I liken his success at the moment to a period he had at West Ham where he led them to an FA Cup final and into the upper echelons of the Premier League. This most unlikely marriage – a Londoner and the Toon army – is working out beautifully. It may be stretching the imagination to think they will finish in the top four, but clearly they are going to give it a go.

I was at Stamford Bridge last week to see Chelsea throw away a three goal lead - they’ve now drawn their last three Premier League games and will need to do better when they travel to Everton. In a rather sinister development, Roman Abramovich has taken to turning up at training sessions – he’s done it twice in the last week – which is never usually a good sign for an incumbent manager; it’s usually a sign that their time may be drawing to a close.
To be fair to Andre Villas Boas, he’s missing Didier Drogba and he has a striker in Fernando Torres who still doesn’t know the route to goal. He had a glorious chance to score late on in the game against Manchester United, but decided to take four or five touches rather than hit it first time, which he would have done if he was playing to instinct rather than fear in his mind.
Chelsea will find it difficult at Goodison Park, especially as the last visitors there, Manchester City, left with no points. The injection of new blood in Darron Gibson, Steven Pienaar and Nikita Jelavic has revived and enhanced a flagging, small squad. It’s just two defeats in 12 in all competitions for Everton now, and it’s one of the reasons that David Moyes will probably be one of the names thrown into the mix for Tottenham, should Harry Redknapp move on.

Meanwhile, Sunderland host Arsenal, and I really fancy the home side for this. Arsenal don’t have the best record at the Stadium of Light – they’ve struggled on occasions – and I think Sunderland, if not an unstoppable force at the moment, certainly are a side with as much momentum as any other team in the Premier League right now. At home, in front of a near 50,000 sell-out, I really think it’ll be another win – a fourth in succession in the Premier League – for Sunderland. They’re young, fit and playing for their manager – I don’t think Sunderland fans would have envisaged that four months ago.

Normally the headline game of any weekend, Manchester United vs Liverpool will no doubt be billed as Evra v Suarez, which is something of a shame. This is still the domestic fixture with the harshest edge to it – it’s not a local derby in the strictest terms, but this is the keenest rivalry in English football, and will remain so as long as Dalglish and Ferguson are at the helm of the two clubs.
United showed all the abundant skill and character they have exhibited for the past quarter of a century under their manager to comeback from 3-0 down at Chelsea. Liverpool, meanwhile, showed their limitations against a Tottenham side who were restricted in terms of their selection by a whole host of injuries. Suarez came off the bench, but I’d expect him to start at Old Trafford, and he obviously gives Liverpool a little extra dimension.
But I don’t think there’s enough in Dalglish’s squad for a top four finish, which would be the minimum requirement given the investment that’s been made.

The central figure of Blackburn’s home match against QPR, Chris Samba, could perhaps return. Sidelined because of his dispute with Blackburn, having nearly gone to QPR, he is fighting the Venkys who are unhappy at the way he was trying to engineer a move away from Ewood Park, and decreed that he wouldn’t be sold.
Blackburn conceded seven at Arsenal, and have lost three out of five since their win at Old Trafford on New Years Eve, and are heading in the wrong direction again. QPR having only won one in four under Mark Hughes – Cisse’s suspended and the two sides lacking in confidence. But I’d pick Mark Hughes to win this against his former side.

Bolton have won three of their last eight games, including a memorable victory over Liverpool, but were really meek in going two nil down at Norwich last weekend. But Wigan are the ideal opponents – nine games without a win, losing four of their last five and five points adrift. Doomed, I think, because they just can’t score any goals – only 21 in the whole season. Bolton need to take full advantage.

Fulham against Stoke presents two sides who have enjoyed as comfortable a season as they both would have liked. Fulham were really poor at Manchester City last weekend – it just wasn’t a contested.
However at home they are a different prospect, and Stoke could do with getting something because they’ve lost their last three and have dropped out of the top half. Tony Pulis will have them wound up as there is a sense of injustice over Robert Huth’s sending off, and subsequent unsuccessful appeal.

Swansea and Norwich are two promoted sides who are making a very good fist of things in the Premier League. Tenth against ninth – who would have thought that?
I still think they need three more wins each just to guarantee safety, and I think Norwich will do well to come away with something because of how strong Swansea have been at home.

Moving on to the Black Country derby, West Brom are showing relegation form which is worrying for Roy Hodgson – one win in seven with four defeats in that spell. Wolves enjoyed a valuable win at Loftus Road, but West Brom have tended to get the better of Wolves in recent history. I think both will settle for a draw.

Manchester City at Aston Villa should be another three points for the league leaders – most top sides seem able to leave Villa Park with all three points, which wasn’t the case not so long ago. The growing discord around Villa and Alex McLeish will grow a little louder as I don’t see City having any problems on Sunday.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Tottenham Hotspur vs Newcastle United, Saturday, 4.30pm.

Element of doubt creeps in at City as chasing pack prepare for battle

Jon Champion — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:35:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. ESPN's live and exclusive coverage of Manchester City vs Fulham is entirely free this weekend from 4:30pm on Saturday...

A month ago, Manchester City versus Fulham would have been a foregone conclusion. But now, although you would still heavily favour City to win this weekend, there is that element of doubt creeping in.

In their last nine fixtures, City have won just three and that kind of form seemed inconceivable in mid-autumn. It’s amazing what the loss of Yaya Toure has done; it seems to have removed a whole dimension to their play. He is the one they have really struggled to replace and that’s going to continue to be the case for a couple of weeks, in all likelihood.

Carlos Tevez – who has been virtually been forgotten now - and Mario Balotelli – who serves the third game of a four-match ban – they can do without because they’ve got Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero to cover. But Toure plays a unique role and so they have no replacement for him and boy are they missing him. He can probably name his price if he wants a new contract on his return.

City will be aware that there is a chance they could lose the lead of the Barclay’s Premier League this weekend. Say Fulham manage to eke out a draw, the door is open for Manchester United the following day when they step out at Stamford Bridge against their old rivals Chelsea.

Personally I think that Manchester City will beat Fulham and will still be top of the pile; but I’m glad that it is a race and not a procession because there was a stage of the season when it looked like City were going to run away with things but it certainly isn’t going to be the case.

Manchester United may not be playing brilliantly at present, but under Sir Alex Ferguson they always hang on in there, and whilst they remain there it will sow seeds of doubt in City minds.

Chelsea, their opponents this Sunday, are twelve points off the top and are missing Didier Drogba, who may well be past his best and may well be on the way in the summer, but given that Torres can’t buy a goal for love nor money they could really do with him.

I think if Manchester United are going to have any title pretensions then it is a game that they have to go out and win – that would send out a message to City. Chelsea are ordinary enough this season for United to go there with a degree of confidence.

Sturridge and Mata have done very well, but there are too many who are perhaps over the hill, going down the other side now. I’m thinking particularly of Terry and Lampard and I don’t think Petr Cech is the goalkeeper he once was. So for that reason I think United go there with a really good chance.

They will hope to have Rooney back which will be significant for them, but they do have this problem with the goalkeeper. It may be that Ben Amos gets another chance. The question is whether Sir Alex throws David de Gea back in now that he knows Lindegaard is out for a month on the basis that he paid £17.5 million for him? It is a conundrum that Ferguson has had to deal with many times over his career and he usually gets the answer right.

If Chelsea don’t finish in the top four it will be through their own failings rather than the achievements of others. I see fourth place as being there for the taking for them.

They’re not in the same class as Tottenham - let alone that of Manchester City or United - but equally I don’t see Newcastle, Liverpool or Arsenal being on the same level as Chelsea.

Newcastle are in a slightly false position in sixth place, they’ve done wonderfully well to keep churning out results despite the roadblocks that keep being thrown in their way, but I don’t see them sustaining a top four challenge, even though they should have enough to see off Aston Villa on Sunday.
Yoan Cabaye’s three-match ban is a real problem for Newcastle, Alan Pardew has been railing against various sections of the media for daring to comment that Cabaye committed this foul.
What he’s doing by publicising this is trying to create that siege mentality and it seems to be working, because for all the adversity and the lack of players they are still churning out results. I expect them to get another one this weekend, not least as Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse will return.

Liverpool have suddenly found a rich seam of form. Less than two weeks ago Kenny Dalglish was berating his players for a lacklustre display, absent of heart, at Bolton. If those words were supposed to induce a positive response then they have hit the nail on the head. Since then, three very impressive victories for Liverpool have reinvigorated their season.
It’s going to be a very close and an entertaining game between two very different sides when they face Tottenham on Monday evening. Spurs have match-winners throughout their side, whereas Liverpool are more reliant on the team effort. Tottenham will finish higher in the Premier League, but with home advantage Liverpool will fancy their chances of knocking them out of their stride.

Arsenal hoped to end their losing run with a win at Bolton on Wednesday night, but only chiselled out a very dull 0-0 draw. If they can’t beat Blackburn at home then there really is something seriously wrong, and I expect them to win this one fairly comfortably.

Norwich face Bolton and I wonder how significant come the end of the season their 3-0 defeat at Sunderland on Wednesday night will prove to be. They looked nothing like the silky smooth operators they were in the first two thirds of the season. Nagging in the back of my mind is the fact we’ve seen this same situation with other teams season in season out.
Hull City and Blackpool had really good starts to the season and then fell away dramatically and got ended up bang in the middle of the relegation dogfight. There is still cause for concern at that prospect in Norfolk, though they’ve probably got enough points on the board thus far not to lose too much sleep just yet. They need to find another four wins in fifteen games and a home game with Bolton represents a possibility to get the first.

It’s reaching the point of no return for Mick McCarthy and Wolves. I’m surprised they’re struggling as badly as they are because they’ve got some decent players and a great team spirit but that doesn’t seem to be enough for them. They can’t score consistently, defensively they’re a soft touch and QPR - with a clutch of new players and a new manager in place - may prove to be too strong for them in the bear pit of Loftus Road.

Sunderland travel to Stoke and will feel they have a good chance of getting a result. They’re riding a wave of confidence under Martin O’Neill and Stoke are stuttering ever so slightly. It’s been a huge boost for Sunderland having Frazier Campbell back after 18 months out. He scored a sublime goal against Norwich on Wednesday night, and as long he’s fit enough to start again, it gives Sunderland the spearhead that they lacked when Steve Bruce was in charge.

West Brom seem to have a couple of steps forward and then two or three steps backwards, it’s frustrating for Roy Hodgson, but they should have enough about them to stay in the division.
We’ve said everything that we can say about Swansea’s style of football, a sort of mini-Arsenal. They’ve got a number of unsung players who have only come to our attention this season; in particular Joe Allen, who looks one of the best attacking midfielders in the division. But Swansea away from home are a completely different beast to the side that performs with such conviction and style at the Liberty, so this is a good barometer to see if Brendan Rogers is managing to address their problems.

The Premier League table makes very grim reading for Wigan now, because they’re five points adrift. Fifteen points from 23 games is out and out relegation form in any season. They had their little purple patch in December, but now they’ve gone back to where they were before, losing most of their games, conceding far too many goals.
On Saturday they host Everton, who will be on something of a high having beaten Manchester City and brough in a new striker in Nikica Jelavic. They should build on that by bouncing off the top team and a victory, and going to the bottom team and winning that.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Manchester City vs Fulham, Saturday, 4.30pm. ESPN will be completely free to watch from 3rd February – 6th February on Freeview, Sky, Top Up TV and BT Vision. This means fans will be able to watch Saturday evening's match for free.

Another clash of the titans offers Spurs and Newcastle cup hope

Jon Champion — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's FA Cup fourth round action. Watch ESPN's FA Cup fourth round coverage with Watford vs Tottenham Hotspur on Friday at 7pm, Brighton Hove Albion vs Newcastle United on Saturday at 4.30pm and Arsenal vs Aston Villa on Sunday at 3pm

It’s FA Cup Fourth Round weekend and there are once again some intriguing ties taking place, not least the one at Anfield between those two old rivals, Liverpool and Manchester United.

The good thing from the point of view of the competition as a whole and some of the other sides involved in it is that Manchester City have gone out already, one of Liverpool or Manchester United are going to go out, and Chelsea and Arsenal are still pre-occupied with the Champions League.

Sides like Tottenham and Newcastle are now thinking ‘We’ve got a realistic chance this year.’

The purest cup tie of the weekend probably involves Newcastle, as they travel down to Brighton. It’s beautifully set up for a number of reasons, not least the difference in status between the two.

Newcastle are in great shape, currently sat sixth in the Premier League, while Brighton are currently tenth in the Championship, just two points off a playoff place having only returned to the second tier under manager Gus Poyet last summer.

The beauty of this one is there will be a record crowd at Brighton’s brand new ground, the AMEX Stadium, which is earning rave reviews; it’s one of the very best of the new grounds which have sprung up around the county in recent years. They dug out something like 138 cubic meters of chalk and much of the ground is actually built below ground level, so they have built into the Sussex chalk.

I’m really looking forward to going there and being part of what is going to be a 22,500 sell-out, for a tie which could easily go either way. Brighton play really nice football - they’re rather like Swansea in that they play a brand of expansive football which is very easy on the eye - and adopt the same 4-3-3 shape week after week.

Newcastle have had some very good news this week with Senegal crashing out of the Africa Cup of Nations, meaning strikers Demba Ba and new man Papiss Cisse, are going to be back much sooner than expected, but they won’t be back in time for this weekend.

That means it is the ‘B crew’ for Newcastle in some respects, with midfielder Chieck Tiote also away with the Ivory Coast. They should still have enough to progress, but the beauty of the FA Cup is that you can never be too sure.

Although Newcastle are a very diligent side, they’ll find it tough. Their North East rivals Sunderland lost at Brighton in the League Cup earlier this season, while Liverpool just about squeaked through in the same competition, so I’m expecting Brighton against Newcastle to be, if not the tie of the weekend, then certainly one of them.

Tottenham also travel to face Championship opposition, with Watford hosting the Premier League high-flyers on Friday evening.

The Hornets’ star performer is Marvin Sordell, a prodigious young forward whose ten goals this season have aroused the interest of several Premier League clubs. The rest of the side has been assembled for minimal money, containing players who have either arrived on free transfers or for very small fees, who have been unwanted by other clubs.

They’ve also got a promising goalkeeper in Scott Loach but I don’t know collectively that they’ve got enough to really worry Tottenham, Spurs have got a Premier League game four days afterwards, so it will be in Harry Redknapp’s mind to select a side that will rest most of the key players ahead of their Premier League game and I think he can afford to do that.

I watched Watford fairly closely recently in the run up to this game, and I struggle to see this one being an upset. They’re 18th in the Championship and in truth appear a fairly limited side. Even if Tottenham make a host of changes – which they well might – Watford have probably got enough to hurt them.

There’s been memorable moments between Watford and Tottenham, but unless Watford produce something that I’ve not seen in recent weeks, I think they’ll struggle to add another.

Liverpool versus Manchester United obviously leapt off the page when the Fourth Round draw was made. It’s a repeat of last year’s meeting in the Third Round which was the first game of Kenny Dalglish’s second coming, a game which from his perspective was marred by the sending off of Steven Gerrard.

It’s been a funny old week for Liverpool, berated by their manager for their lackluster performance at Bolton in the league last Saturday, they then played terrifically well against Manchester City in the semi-final of the League Cup on Wednesday evening, booking their first trip to the new Wembley. So they will head into this game on a tide of optimism. Manchester United will have it all on, because I think Liverpool’s performance at Bolton was a one-off.

The FA Cup will still be a high priority for these two teams, particularly for Liverpool because Dalglish is at a stage in his development of the club, where they need to win every trophy they can possibly get their hands on. The League Cup would be a good start in that respect, but the FA Cup would be a more prestigious pot to win.

For Manchester United, I’m not convinced they are going to take the Europa League particularly seriously. In a list of wishful trophies this season, the FA Cup would rank above the Europa League in Sir Alex Ferguson’s mind and for that reason I would expect them to pursue it fairly hard. A lot depends on how the title race goes.

If Manchester City were to surge ahead and Manchester United were not to have a realistic chance of winning the title going into the last six weeks of the season, you’d see them fielding strong sides in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final should they get there.

The Premier League as ever will have an overriding bearing on where the FA Cup comes on most clubs’ priority lists. For the time being I think it’s fairly near the top for both Liverpool and United.

With the Ferdinand–Terry issue really overshadowing Saturday’s meeting between QPR and Chelsea, what we should not forget is that it was actually an invigorating and fascinating Premier League game when the two met in the autumn; QPR’s defeat of their rivals was one of the seismic results of the season so far.

It is hard to see that happening again, but QPR are gradually improving under Mark Hughes. New players arriving are not going to be there this weekend, so I will be surprised if Chelsea do not go through.

The lowest ranked side left in the competition now are Swindon Town, with madcap maverick Paolo Di Canio as manager. Fourth in League Two, they go to Leicester City in a repeat of the 1993 play-off final, when Paul Bodin’s penalty earned Swindon a dramatic 4-3 win and with it a place in the Premier League.

I saw Leicester beat Nottingham Forest comprehensively in their third round replay ten days ago and they just seem to be coming good, they’re getting used to their returning manager Nigel Pearson and his demands and his ways. I think they are going to have a very strong second half to the season, I would expect them to beat Swindon and to be a threat to whoever they play later in the competition. They could be something of a wildcard from the Championship this year, because they do have a squad that is, if not brim-full, then moderately full of Premier League quality.

The other League Two side to mention are Crawley Town, who were one of last year’s heroes with that win over Derby. They go to Nick Barmby’s Hull City and they go there with half a chance given their league form.

At the very least, I think they would expect to get Hull back to the Broadfield Stadium for a replay. Those two League Two sides have got plenty to play for, but with both away from home, the draw could have been kinder to both of them.

But we are guaranteed at least one side from the lower half of the league structure going through, with the all League One meeting between Notts County and Stevenage.

Stevenage made headlines by beating Newcastle last season, while Notts County have been making quiet progress in this season’s competition.

We also have another chance to see Thierry Henry in action as Aston Villa trot out at Arsenal, where the mood will be an interesting one to gauge after last week’s events and the criticism of Wenger’s substitutions.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more. For more information visit espn.co.uk/tv

Spurs and Arsenal out for revenge as title race reaches pivotal stage

Jon Champion — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:57:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch live and exclusive coverage of Bolton Wanderers vs Liverpool live on ESPN from 4:30pm on Saturday...

This is the biggest weekend of this Premier League season so far, with two blockbuster games on Sunday involving the big two from Manchester and north London.

Manchester City against Tottenham is a fascinating game in prospect, not least because City have looked a touch vulnerable of late. They struggled at Wigan on Monday night and they’ve had some poor results over the last month or so. They’ll also be missing two hugely influential players in Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure.

It’s amazing what a difference the absence of those two pillars of their team is making, even given the amount spent on their squad. If Tottenham play to their best, they’re capable of getting a result at Manchester City and what a turnaround that would represent after Manchester City really came of age with that spectacular 5-1 win at White Hart Lane back in August.

At that stage Tottenham had played two, lost two and seemed at sixes and sevens, but since then their form has outstripped everybody else in the Premier League. think this is beautifully set up and I really fancy Tottenham to get something out of the game.

At the beginning of the season if Mancini had a doubt over any of his defensive players, it was probably Joleon Lescott. Now, in the absence of Kompany, Lescott is cast in the role of senior centre back, and its not a role that sits comfortably on his shoulders, even though his form this season has been much improved.

Now he is playing this role whereby he has be the leader alongside young Montenegrin Stefan Savic, who has definitely got a mistake in him, probably at least one a game. He’s still learning the ropes and may turn out to be an outstanding player, but he’s not there yet.

There’s also the issue of neither full back position being completely settled, due to this constant rotation at left back between Clichy and Kolarov - with the odd appearance from Zabaleta - and Micah Richards having been struck down with hamstring trouble in recent weeks.

Obviously Tottenham won’t have Emmanuel Adebayor there to try and exploit that, but they do have Jermaine Defoe, who is straining at the leash to get a chance – this is his big chance to show exactly what he can do, its his big opportunity, he’s a player who generally loves the spotlight and thrives rather than shrinks in it, so I would expect him to be a major factor for Tottenham.

The whole game is beautifully set up and I really fancy Spurs to get something out of it.

Tottenham’s North London rivals Arsenal will be desperate for history not to repeat itself in Sunday’s second headline fixture. On the same seismic weekend that Spurs were dismantled by City at White Hart Lane, Arsenal were embarrassed by that 8-2 defeat away to Manchester United.

The fact Arsenal have a genuine chance of getting something against Manchester United five months on shows the extent of the turnaround, and the fact United have fallen from grace since the glorious early weeks of the season. Nani and Ashley Young creating havoc down the wings, Rooney in prime form and Tom Cleverly anchoring the midfield earning rave reviews all seem like distant memories right now.

Whereas Arsenal have improved steadily - though not to the point that I see them as convincing top four challengers, however - they should have enough in their locker, particularly at the Emirates, to cause Manchester United some problems.

This is a litmus test for Manchester United. They’ll kick off knowing the Manchester City result and if City don’t win the door will be left ajar for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.

The United of old would strive through a half open door, but I’m not convinced this Manchester United is capable of performing with quite such conviction or indeed consistency. We may look back on this weekend as one of the most pivotal in the Premier League title race.

I have to put my cards on the table and say I’m amazed that Norwich are ninth with 26 points, in all probability needing just four more wins in 17 attempts to secure their top flight status. On current form they should sail it.
Having said that, I was speaking to the coaching staffs of Leicester and Nottingham Forest following their cup replay on Tuesday evening, and they were still preaching caution for Norwich City. They cited recent Premier League debut seasons for Hull City and Blackpool, in which the wheels have fallen off after the turn of the new year.
But I don’t see that happening to Norwich. They are a unit that’s performing well; they have enough to stay up despite the skepticism of some of their former Championship colleagues.
On Saturday they host Chelsea, who have suffered more defeats at home than away, so they may be happy to again be away from Stamford Bridge. They’re still missing a regular goalscorer, but were at least boosted by Michael Essien making his first appearance of the season against Sunderland last time out.
He’ll be a huge asset for the final third of the campaign if he is anything like the old Essien – though that’s no small feat after such a serious injury. It’s almost like a new signing, its as if they’ve dipped into the transfer market and bought, not just Gary Cahill, but a new midfielder too.

Everton have so far slipped to 10 defeats in 21 Premier League games – five in 10 at Goodison Park. They appear to be a team going nowhere fast.
I don’t see them in relegation trouble but I do wonder about David Moyes beyond the end of the season, I struggle to see a man with such ambition and drive being content with drifting in mid-table in the Premier League.
In previous years he’s been able to conjure up something which has allowed Everton to punch above their weight, but he and they seems to have been dragged down by the club’s financial problems and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is managing another team at this time next year.
Saturday’s opponents Blackburn know a thing or two about a downbeat atmosphere, and with no Yakubu this weekend due to suspension it could be another tough afternoon for them. Yet two wins in their last three Premier League matches has given them hope again, and the very fact they’re breathing oxygen again rather than being submerged in the rapidly enveloping waves of the bottom three is clearly cause for positivity.
Even so, Blackburn will do well to get anything out of their trip to Merseyside.

Fulham are currently six points clear of the drop zone, but we often talk of a seemingly safe side dropping into trouble, and I think they are a side that should be slightly concerned about that.
Martin Jol, perhaps feeling the heat, has been sniping at his predecessor Mark Hughes, newly installed at QPR, but he would perhaps be best served concentrating on his own team, because Saturday’s opponents Newcastle are back in form. They’ve won three out of their last four and will be hoping desperately that Yohanne Cabaye recovers from the injury that he sustained following a horrible tackle from QPR’s Shaun Derry last weekend.
Newcastle may have felt the bite of the Africa Cup of Nations more than most other Premier League sides – losing Demba Ba, Cheick Tiote and new-signing Papiss Cisse - but they should still fancy themselves against most opponents. They are sixth, level on points with Arsenal and four points behind Chelsea and it is truly astonishing that they are still as high as they are, they are my team of the season so far in terms of defying expectations. What I would expect is for them to go to Fulham and get something.

Across West London, Mark Hughes had some effect on his new side Queens Park Rangers during their cup replay win over MK Dons during the week, but it is the Premier League that matters most. The stats don’t make good reading; six defeats in seven, two months without a win and none at home for a full three months. But Mark Hughes will galvanize them, as well as bring in one or two more players to strengthen in key areas.
This weekend is an important one because their opponents Wigan are one of the few sides below QPR in the table. They pushed City reasonably hard the other night but they’re never going to score many goals, and they’re always going to concede a few, so despite the switch to three central defenders, I predict difficult times ahead for Wigan and Mark Hughes should get his first league win this weekend.

Stoke are very happily installed in eighth place, with those big European games coming up next month against Valencia in the Europa League, a really glamorous occasion.
Tony Pulis will be looking down the table rather than up, with a sizable five-point gap between them and Liverpool, and a number of clubs below queuing up to overtake them. A top half finish is far from guaranteed, particularly with those European commitments looming for them again. But you would fancy them against this weekend’s opposition West Brom, who have slipped from ninth to 15th following three straight defeats.
Roy Hodgson has a bit of a battle on his hands, I don’t see them going down, but I do see them having an uncomfortable flirtation with relegation, which Stoke should hasten this weekend.

Last weekend’s defeat at Chelsea was a bit of a reality check for Sunderland, but they still had chances to win that game. They are much improved under new management but they still don’t possess that cutting edge. We wait to see whether Martin O’Neill buys the striker Steve Bruce longed for before the window closes; the trouble is you don’t get value for money in the January transfer window.
This weekend they host Swansea, who are on a run of one defeat in seven after that memorable win over Arsenal, though their away form isn’t so impressive. They look like having more than enough to stay up but just one win in ten on the road may be a worry.
With that poor away form, combined with Sunderland’s general resurgence under Martin O’Neill, it’s difficult to see beyond Sunderland as winners at the Stadium of Light this time out.

There’s a derby of sorts at Molineux, where Wolves - seven without a win and dumped out of the FA Cup by Birmingham during the week – host Aston Villa.
Although they’re far from a free-scoring side, Wolves do tend to find the net consistently, they’ve scored in 12 of their last 13 league fixtures and in Steven Fletcher they have a striker capable of keeping their heads above water.
There is a camaraderie and team spirit in Mick McCarthy’s squad that isn’t in existence in some of the other struggling teams, and against a Villa side going nowhere that could make all the difference. Alex McLeish has seen his team win twice in 10 matches, they aren’t playing to Darren Bent’s strengths and are not really hurting the opposition very often. This is a big opportunity for Wolves to pick up three much needed home points.

Bolton are the team with the most losses in the Barclays Premier League, with 15 of their 21 games ending in defeat. They suffer from the toxic combination of having the worst defence in the league - 46 goals conceded - and not scoring that many at the other end, though I note with interest they have scored more than Liverpool, which perhaps says more about this weekend’s visitors to the Reebok.
Despite their significant difficulties, Bolton had the best player on the pitch at Old Trafford last weekend in Mark Davies, but one man can’t carry a team, and now they also have to make up for the absence of Gary Cahill, who’s been so important to them in the last three seasons.
Liverpool, even without Suarez, should have too much for Bolton this weekend, and I’ll be fascinated to see what shape of team Kenny Dalglish comes up with, having again flirted with playing three centre backs in a fairly dour 0-0 draw with Stoke last time out. Will he have enough faith in Andy Carroll against a couple of centre backs who are new as partners in David Wheater and Zat Knight? Does he have enough courage and faith to throw him in from the start? Liverpool supporters will hope he does.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Bolton Wanderers v Liverpool, Saturday, 4.30pm. ESPN will be completely free to watch from 3rd February – 6th February on Freeview, Sky, Top Up TV and BT Vision. This means fans will be able to watch, for free, the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester v Fulham, 4th February.

Henry's sense of drama could save Arsenal's season, but are Spurs title contenders?

Jon Champion — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action...

Whatever happens across the weekend in the Barclays Premier League, it will struggle to make quite the same impact as Thierry Henry’s re-introduction to English football on Monday night.

His arrival as a substitute in the FA Cup tie with Leeds transformed what had been one of the worst games of the season into an occasion that everyone now will always remember, and it showed he’s still got that sense of drama and intervention he’s carried with him throughout his prolific career.

He carries that into the Premier League this weekend, with Arsenal traveling to Swansea for the first Premier League appearance of Henry’s second coming. And it promises to be the most attractive fixture of the weekend.

Swansea and Arsenal are two sides for whom the purity of football is paramount and for that reason if I was going to stump up the money to go and watch one particular Premier League game this weekend it would be that at the Liberty Stadium.

Swansea have been very strong at home – losing just the once, to Manchester United – and on the face of it a draw would be a good result for Arsenal. But, given Arsenal’s position just outside the top four, they really need to be going to Swansea and winning if they’re going to have genuine hope of returning to the Champions League next season.

A number of the top sides have still got to go to Swansea, and although they’ll all find it difficult I would expect there will be teams other than Manchester United who will win there, and I would imagine that Arsenal would see themselves as being part of that category.

Across North London, Tottenham’s strong form continues. Wins against West Brom and Everton have moved them level with Manchester United and within three points of the summit.
In fact, with City not playing until Monday, Spurs could be joint top for a couple of days should they win their home game with Wolves on Saturday, though I’m not sure exactly how much that is worth at this stage.
Tremendous credit is due to Tottenham for getting as close to the two Manchester clubs as they have done, but I still struggle to see them as genuine title contenders. I may be forced to eat my words before mid-May, but I still look at their squad and think there isn’t quite the same depth as there is at City and United.
I know they’ve managed to cover for the absence of Scott Parker of late, but if Emmanuel Adebayor or Gareth Bale was injured for a length of time they would miss those players rather more, and I’m not sure that the deputies are quite up to scratch.
Still, they are doing tremendously well, with 14 wins in their last 18 Premier League games since that 5-1 home thrashing by Manchester City and just one goal conceded in their last six Premier League home games, so they are a mighty tough nut to crack.
They have a lot of very difficult fixtures ahead – including trips to Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City. We’ll start to find out a lot more on Sunday week when Manchester City and Tottenham meet at the Etihad Stadium.
As for this weekend’s fixture, I can only really see a home win. Wolves are in the middle of a run of tough games, they just keep on coming, they had Manchester United and Arsenal away in December, they’ve already played Chelsea this month and now it’s Tottenham. They’re pinching the odd point here and there but really only when these really difficult games are out of the way and they can play some teams rather closer to them in the table are we going to know what their fate is likely to be.

While there has been some rather unsettling talk - denied by player and club - that Darren Bent could be leaving Aston Villa for Liverpool, there is at least a new recruit on his way to Villa Park in the form of Robbie Keane
Therefore we have an LA Galaxy loanee match-up on Saturday, with Keane’s new side facing Everton and Landon Donovan. We’ve already seen the value of the two month loan with Henry at Arsenal, and Villa and Everton will be hoping Keane and Donovan can make similar, if not quite such dramatic impacts.
Both clubs could certainly do with a boost. Villa haven’t managed to win back to back games this season, while Everton have managed only two victories in their last seven games in the Premier League. These are two sides not performing to pre-season expectations. Everton have got more excuses then Villa for being underwhelming this season because of Everton’s financial difficulties. Villa I just think are underperforming. I’m told Alex McLeish his players to go out and express themselves, but it doesn’t look that way when they get out on the pitch. They were workman-like and nothing more when I saw them at Bristol Rovers in the FA Cup last weekend and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this game ends all square.

Frustratingly, Blackburn have failed to build on that shock win at Old Trafford, losing at home to Stoke two days later and then going out of the FA Cup at Newcastle. We hear reports two of their better players - Junior Hoilett and Chris Samba - are likely to leave before the end of the transfer window. That will sound the death knell for their Premier League survival hopes, as Samba is immense at the back, while Hoilett is probably their best creative player. If they lose their best players at either end of the pitch, what hope have they got?
Perennially under-fire Steve Kean faces one of his old clubs in Fulham at Ewood Park this weekend. Martin Jol’s team are improving, with just one defeat in seven in all competitions, the 5-0 thrashing at home by Manchester United. But for the most part they are looking reasonably solid, and they have enough in their ranks to stay in the division. They’ll fancy their chances at an unhappy Ewood Park.

Also on Saturday, Chelsea host in-form Sunderland. Chelsea will perhaps be more worried about being just one point ahead of Arsenal than they are about being eight behind Spurs, because the top four is the be all and end all for clubs of Chelsea’s stature.
Their form continues to frustrate their supporters, and now they’ve lost Didier Drogba to the Africa Nations Cup for the time being as well.
Sunderland have chiselled out five wins in their seven games under Martin O’Neill, which tells you what a bit of confidence can do for a squad. Belief has been restored and the players have shown just what a good squad O’Neill has inherited. He’s quite a fortunate man in that regard. He’s gone to the club where the squad probably doesn’t need major surgery, it just needs a cutting edge added to it.

At the moment Liverpool, with the boost of the win in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final, seem to be riding out the absence of Luis Suarez, but I wonder if Saturday’s game with Stoke is where they will start to miss him. The Potters are just the sort of side Liverpool tend to struggle against. Kenny Dalglish’s side will stand up to the physical challenge, no doubt, but Stoke could cause them real difficulties.
Stoke are in good form and Andy Carroll will be meat and drink to Ryan Shawcross and Robert Huth. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stoke get a result, even though their away form isn’t great.

Manchester United, remarkably, are facing up to the possibility of a third consecutive Premier League defeat, something that very rarely happens. What was slightly alarming in the FA Cup victory at Manchester City was the way they lost the initiative and nearly lost the three goal lead against ten men. They’ll have taken less confidence from that game than perhaps they might.
But Bolton are just the sort of opposition United would want to try and get themselves back on track, because Bolton still look a remarkably nervous team, despite winning two of their last four games. There’s enough in the squad for them to survive, but at present it’s almost impossible to see them getting anything at Old Trafford.

West Brom are in one of their lulls. They seem to be a side that goes on runs of either good results or bad results, and they’re in a bad trot at the moment, with one point from their last three games.
They’re still six points clear of the bottom three, but they’ve only won two of their ten games at home and that will be a frustration and a concern for Roy Hodgson.
They’ve got nearly twice as many points away as they have at the Hawthorns, and that’s something that he’ll be working on. One of those away wins came at Carrow Road in September, but it’s this weekend's opponents Norwich who go into the match in better shape, sat in ninth place with just one defeat in their last six Premier League games. It’s tempting to say this is going to be a draw because West Brom are less of a force at home then they are on their travels and Norwich are just looking pretty solid at the moment.

Newcastle finally appear to have found a bit of form again, having suffered a run of two points in six matches. They’re coming off the back of that 3-0 win against Manchester United, so it’s now two wins in their last three.
But the losses of Demba Ba and Chieck Tiote are significant, as is the fact that stories are beginning to circulate suggesting the better players could well be sold. This is the template Mike Ashley has come up with - they buy low, and sell high once they’ve developed players - and unfortunately the likes Ba and Tiote fall into the category of potentially saleable players.
This Sunday they host a Queens Park Rangers side appearing for the first time under a new manager in Mark Hughes, and there is always that new manager honeymoon period affect to consider. It’s two months though since Queens Park Rangers won, and while they go there with a chance of getting something, I would still be surprised if Newcastle don’t win.

The latest round of action ends on Monday evening, when Manchester City make the short trip to Wigan. At the moment we’re left wondering exactly how deep the ‘crisis’ at Manchester City really is.
Monday’s match may offer some answers. They really do seem to be missing Yaya Toure in particular, and will again be without Vincent Kompany thanks to his four match suspension.
And you have the manager complaining that he doesn’t have enough players and please would the board spend some money, which I think to any fair minded neutral individual seems a fairly remarkable state of affairs.
Wigan have got a very good record against Manchester City over the years. The worry for Roberto Martinez is that his team has produced an upsurge in form but that upsurge is only producing draws. They’ve drawn with Liverpool, Chelsea and Stoke, all admirable results but they need to get wins from somewhere. I think it’s beyond the bounds of credibility to think they’re going to beat Manchester City, so I think Wigan’s travails continue.

Jon Champion is football commentator for ESPN. This season, ESPN’s live television football coverage includes the Barclays Premier League, the FA Cup, the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, England U-21 matches, Dutch Eredivisie and international friendly matches.

Tamworth and Fleetwood look to make cup history as an old hero makes a return

Jon Champion — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's FA Cup action. Watch ESPN’s live and exclusive coverage of three FA Cup matches this weekend.

As everybody with any passion for English football will already know, this weekend promises to be a very special one.

FA Cup Third Round weekend is one of the high points of the domestic season – and a day when the inequalities of English football can be celebrated.

The fact that you’ve still got four non-league teams in there, pitching against the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, and all the other giants, makes it a unique competition and one to celebrate.

The headline act is obviously the Manchester derby, at the Etihad Stadium, which comes at an intriguing time with both Manchester City and Manchester United suffering set-backs in their festive Premier League fixtures.

Sunday’s clash shouldn’t have two much baring on what happens in the Premier League title race, and it will just be refreshing to look at this as a one-off knockout game. I can’t imagine it’s going to end 6-1 again, I’m sure United will give a much better account of themselves.

But while that is the game which will dominate the column inches over the weekend, it’s not really reflective of what the FA cup is about. I almost prefer to look at the mismatches in the draw, because those are the one’s that will produce the real genuine cup stories.

It was at this stage last season that Stevenage beat Newcastle, for example. So those are the games that I tend to look at when I look at the draw. There are 32 ties and probably half of them carry that intrigue of the inequality of the two participants, and that’s the joy of the third round of the FA Cup.

Tamworth's top scorer Iyseden Christie will have Everton in his sights

For example, on Saturday Conference National side Tamworth will travel to Goodison Park to face Premier League giants Everton. It will be a great day out for Tamworth, though they’ve had their moments in the sun before, playing what was then second-tier opposition in the form of Norwich and Stoke in 2006 and 2007 under Gary Mills.

While you wouldn’t expect them to get anything from a visit to Goodison Park given the gulf between the two sides, that gap has been bridged a few times in recent seasons. Though Sutton remain the last non-league to beat top flight opposition when they knocked out Coventry in the late eighties, Exeter and Burton Albion both managed to draw with Manchester United as non-league sides in recent memory, so there is hope for these teams.

Tamworth will be hoping to get a draw at Goodison, get them back to The Lamb Ground, get the television cameras there and all the money that comes with it and give them a real going over. But that’s perhaps stretching the imagination, because with Everton you know that they’re going to be at it. David Moyes won’t allow anything else – there’ll be no complacency.

In a way, the non-league sides haven’t been particularly well served by this draw. Tamworth, of course, are on the road - albeit to something of a glamorous opponent - Salisbury travel to Sheffield United and Wrexham make the trip to Brighton’s Amex Stadium, which is a particularly difficult place to have to go to.

There’s only Fleetwood Town of the non-leaguers who have actually been drawn at home, and they pulled out something of a plum with a local derby against Blackpool.

It’s an intriguing tie, and not only because they are near-neighbours, separated by seven miles on the Fylde coast.

Micky Melon, the Fleetwood manager, is a former Blackpool player and a very close friend of Blackpool boss, Ian Holloway. The man that owns, and has bank-rolled, Fleetwood’s rise so far is a chap called Andy Pilley, who only bought the club having tried and failed to buy Blackpool. Pilley is close friends with former Blackpool star Charlie Adam, who is a regular at Fleetwood’s matches and should be in attendance on Saturday - so there are lots of links between the clubs.

It’s a parochial occasion, but it’s a fascinating occasion, and is perhaps the tie that best epitomises what the FA Cup is about in this year’s third round draw.

It’s a big gap between the Conference and a side going pretty well in the Championship, but Fleetwood are this season’s Crawley Town - a non-league side in name only.

Jamie McGuire & Jamie Vardy celebrate Fleetwood's win over Yeovil

This is thanks to the money invested and the quality of the players at their disposal. They’ve got a player called Jamie Vardy, who has been the subject of interest from a host of Football League clubs and large transfer fees have been mooted for a move for him. I think that he will stay with Fleetwood while they are still in the cup.

They’ve also got Richard Brodie, who was playing for Crawley last year, and guys like Jamie Milligan, who 12 years ago was playing in midfield for Everton in the Premier League, and also had a shirt spell with Blackpool. So they’re not without experience, they’re not your normal non-league side, and I expect them to make life pretty difficult for Blackpool at what will be a sell out at the Highbury Stadium.

And I can also tell you from personal experience that Fleetwood boast the best chip shop I have come across outside a football ground, so that’s another reason for going to that one.

Tony Pulis will take his Stoke side – FA Cup finalists last year, of course – to one of his former clubs, Gillingham. There’s a bit of feeling - there often is where Paul Scally, the Gillingham chairman, is concerned.

Pulis and he didn’t part company on the best of terms, but I would expect Stoke to go and do a very professional job at Gillingham. I saw Gillingham play at Macclesfield about a month ago, and they looked rather impressive. A glance down their team-sheet reflects the fact they’ve spent a fair bit of money – by League Two standards - assembling a decent team.

Many good sides have stumbled at Priestfield in previous years, and I think they’ll give Stoke a good game, but I think that Stoke, a lot like Everton, are another honest team. They’re not going to be lulled into a false sense of security, the likes of Jon Walters and Rory Delap, have forged their careers in the lower divisions and then worked upwards. I think you’ve got honest professionals who are unlikely to be ‘hoodwinked’ by the pitfalls that may lie in store.

MK Dons against Queens Park Rangers is an interesting tie in that, were the League One side to beat the Premier League new boys, it perhaps wouldn’t be classed as an upset. I would expect MK Dons – a side going well in their division - to beat what will almost certainly be a QPR reserve side, if their League Cup selection policy of earlier in the season is anything to go by. In that competition the Rs were knocked out at home against Rochdale, and Neil Warnock came out publicly and said he was very pleased to have that off their agenda - the same may well go for this. So, in actual fact, MK Dons should perhaps be favourites.

If I was looking for a really entertaining cup tie I would be looking more at games like Swindon versus Wigan.

Swindon will be a good place to be on Saturday; they’ll be a good crowd at the County Ground. Paulo Di Canio has brought some effervescence of his own personality to Swindon Town - gates are rising and expectation levels are high.

Di Canio will hope to leave another mark on the cup - this time with Swindon

Wigan are probably the least attractive team that you could draw, but nonetheless they are a top flight scalp and I wouldn’t be surprised if Swindon take it.

Again, I don’t think Martinez will play the full first team, and even if he did, I think Swindon are good enough to give them a pretty difficult afternoon at the County Ground.

But that’s not the only tie with a good chance of an upset, there’s another at the Moss Road, where League Two Macclesfield host Bolton. The Trotters aren’t in the best shape, despite their midweek win at Goodison, while Macclesfield will be well geed-up by manager Gary Simpson, having battled through a tough second round tie against Chelmsford City – drew away and then won a closely contested replay at Moss Road in bitter conditions just before Christmas.

This will be the two teams’ second meeting of the season - Macclesfield went and gave a very good account of themselves at the Reebok in the League Cup; they led but lost 2-1. And given Bolton’s travails, the fact that Owen Coyle, I don’t think will play his full team - I think it will be mix and match, you’ve got to say that Macclesfield have got half a chance in this game.

Bristol Rovers against Aston Villa on Saturday evening will have an added edge to it. With Rovers sacking their manager Paul Buckle on Tuesday, his assistant Shaun North will take the helm. And what a game for his first dabble as a senior manager, the visit of Aston Villa visit to the Memorial Stadium.

Rovers have a new ground in the pipeline, but it’s three or four years away, so the Memorial Stadium, which is really a rugby ground – that’s how it started it’s life, will be packed to its ten and a half thousand capacity. I went there on a scouting mission on Boxing Day, when they led Plymouth Argyle 2-0 and contrived to lose 2-3 in the ninety-third minute, which contributed to Paul Buckle’s demise.

But what struck me most was that the pitch is a bit of a bog, and whilst they were putting up a tent - a special cover to protect it and makes sure the game goes ahead, I think it may be soft. Aston Villa’s main threat comes through the pace of players like Gabriel Agbonlahor, Darren Bent and Charles N’Zogbia, but it’s going to be like running through treacle for them.

With the Rovers players desperate to make a good impression on their next manager – whoever he may be – and given they also have a great cup tradition, I think Aston Villa could find themselves enduring a particularly awkward evening.

If I could be at any game on Sunday, I would want to be at London Road to watch Peterborough play Sunderland. Sunderland have been rejuvenated under Martin O’Neill, who always takes the FA Cup seriously, while Peterborough, managed by a Ferguson, have some good players and a decent home record. This is one that could well end up going to a replay.

Of the big guns, Chelsea will expect to come through against Portsmouth with relative ease, even though I’m sure Andre Villas-Boas will mix up his team a bit. While Cheltenham's trip to Tottenham will be a terrific day out for a club that has now established itself in the Football League having been in non-league for donkeys’ years. It’s a payday for them as well. I’ve seen them a couple of times this season and they play some really nice football, and are performing well on the road. Tottenham, I think, will put out the sort of side they did in the Europa League, which gives Cheltenham half a chance, though I would expect Spurs to power through in the end.

The action is rounded off by an intriguing tie between Arsenal and Leeds, who met at the xth round stage last season, with the Gunners needing a late penalty from Cesc Fabregas to scrape a replay up at Elland Road, which they eventually won. It’s also a repeat of the 1972 Cup final, which is a historical note rather than a relevant point to this game.

I spent January 2nd at Elland Road, watching Leeds against Burnley to see how they looked and I was wondering whether to hang around at the end to have a chat with Simon Grayson, but at 1-0 down in the 89th minute I decided I would attempt to beat the rush, and left for home.

By the time I had got into my car it was 1-1, and by the time I was on the M1 it was 2-1 to Leeds in the 97th minute. That may well have been a win that has preserved Simon Grayson’s job through to this cup-tie, because I think he would have been on particularly rocky ground with Ken Bates if they’d lost again.

Leeds will meet a much-changed Arsenal side, but the headline could yet be the reappearance of Thierry Henry, wearing the number 12 shirt – the one he always wanted to wear at Arsenal, but he couldn’t get it first time round because Christopher Wreh had it and he had to settle for 14, which he made into an iconic jersey. But I think it will be a wonderfully emotional occasion when Thierry Henry jogs out of the tunnel at The Emirates on Monday night. And while it’s a pretty good cup-tie in its own right, it will be a special occasion for that reason alone.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster of the FA Cup. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage from third round FA Cup matches between Birmingham City v Wolves, 12.30pm and Bristol Rovers v Aston Villa, 5.30pm on Saturday 7th January and Arsenal v Leeds United on Monday 9th January, 7.45pm.

Liverpool face bleak Suarez-less winter as Everton go binary

Jon Champion — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action

It may a festive time of year when many people look forward to their football, but there’s something of a cloud hanging over our national sport with the developments of the past week involving Luis Suarez and John Terry.

Perhaps the most incredible development is this strangely intemperate statement made by Liverpool and their players. You can quite understand a club operating in an ‘all for one and one for all’ style siege mentality, but that appeared a slightly blind response that ignored the realities of the situation. Obviously there will be an appeal to follow and we’ll see what happens with that, but I’m not sure the reaction has done a usually very proud club much credit.

Kenny Dalglish’s side will certainly miss Suarez badly for those eight games if any appeal is unsuccessful, and given he may well face further retribution for his one-fingered gesture at Fulham earlier in the month, it’s possible he could end up missing over a quarter of the Premier League campaign – without wanting to pre-judge whatever punishment may be forthcoming for the second charge.

Some of Liverpool’s results this season – particularly at home – have been a bit underwhelming, and given these latest developments and with Arsenal and Tottenham finding form and Chelsea also in the mix, it’s almost impossible to see Liverpool finishing in the top four.

Liverpool will look to bounce back from a disappointing draw at Wigan when they host Blackburn Rovers on Boxing Day.
Rovers are the basket cases of the Premier League; bottom of the table, five points adrift of safety and two wins from 17 games this season. While the general feeling was that the home defeat by Bolton would be the end of Steve Kean, extraordinarily it hasn’t been and he and Blackburn limp on, and at the moment it seems that they’re limping towards relegation.
Even with all the off-pitch distractions, Liverpool will be far too strong for Blackburn, especially with Suarez currently still available.

Chelsea, of course, will have to wait to learn the fallout of the John Terry situation, but as far as matters on the pitch are concerned, I saw them at Wigan last weekend and they seemed to slip back in to being their struggling early-season selves. They’ll soon lose Didier Drogba to the Africa Cup of Nations, and then we’ll see whether Fernando Torres is really up to taking up the mantle.
On Monday they’ll host Fulham in a West London derby that is often rather engaging. It may not be a rivalry as fierce as, for example, Tottenham against Arsenal, but they are often matches which produce good football, and in recent years Fulham have often seemed to play above themselves.
So even though the Cottagers are coming off the back of a 5-0 home defeat to Manchester United, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see them give Chelsea a really testing afternoon at Stamford Bridge.

Manchester United are probably about where they’d want to be around this time of year, just tucked in behind the leaders ready for a big surge in the second half of the campaign. But there’s a fair bit of balderdash spoken about exactly how well United do in the second half of a season – yes, historically they’ve done well in the second half of a season, but if you look at recent campaigns it’s not actually been the case, so it will be interesting to see how they develop as the season wears on.
Nonetheless, they’ll be happy that it’s Wigan Athletic visiting Old Trafford on Boxing Day. The Latics have ground out two good draws against Chelsea and Liverpool in recent days, but the nature of the modern day points system is such that they would have been better off winning one and losing the other. They are now just one defeat in six and played very well against Chelsea last weekend, but you still watch them and worry that perhaps they aren’t quite pragmatic enough. That could well prove their undoing against the champions.

It’s difficult to see anything other than a Manchester City win away to West Bromwich Albion. That’s despite the Baggies earning an impressive three points at Newcastle in midweek and currently sitting in the top half of the table – where you’d imagine they’d be delighted to be come the end of the season. But the key is that twice as many of their wins have come away than at the Hawthorns – four on their travels and just two at home – and I don’t see that improving against a fairly rampant City.

Bolton battled to a job-preserving win for their manager Owen Coyle at Blackburn on Tuesday evening, and will next face a Newcastle side on something of a slump after their impressive start to the league season. The Magpies have now not won in six and it’s probably just as well that they’ve already got 27 points to their name, as it’s a struggle to see them picking up quite so many points in the second half of the season. They’ll give Bolton an awkward Bank Holiday afternoon, despite being so besieged by injuries, but if Bolton are to have any chance of turning their season round they’ll need to build on that win at Ewood Park, and that means beating Newcastle.

Sunderland have secured two wins in three under their new manager Martin O’Neill, while their festive opposition Everton are having something of a binary season – six of their games have finished 1-0 one way or the other. The Toffees have to take whatever they can get these days, given their financial restraints, so to be 11th place with 20 points to their name isn’t so bad, even though usually by this stage of a season they’d expect to be halfway towards European qualification rather than halfway towards safety.
David Moyes will certainly wish this fixture had come along a month ago when Sunderland, under previous management, were struggling to score and struggling to win games. While O’Neill hasn’t yet been able to change the personnel, what he has done is instil a bit of confidence in the players, and that has shown in their performances thus far.

Overall Stoke will be happy with where they are at present – in eighth place with more European football to look forward to in the New Year. A 3-0 defeat away to Manchester City doesn’t say a great deal about a mid-table side as most sides will lose at the Etihad Stadium this season, and they’ll view Monday night’s fixture at home to Aston Villa as a great opportunity to get three more points on the board, given the visitors look so bereft of confidence.
It pains me to say it but I think Villa are the dullest side to watch in the Premier League at the moment. They rarely seem to be able to light up a game, and it looks like being a long season for their season ticket holders, though I don’t see them struggling against the drop.

Arsenal have won eight of their last 10, though most of those have been against sides they’d expect to beat, and they’ll be expecting that run to continue against Wolves in Tuesday’s rescheduled match, with Mick McCarthy’s side winning just two of their last 15 Premier League games. Arsenal have turned things around very well without ever suggesting their going to unsettle the top two in the table, though the top four looks within their grasp. Wolves will look around the bottom end of the table and see three sides below them they will feel they have a good chance of staying above, and a few above them who they may fancy could slide.

One of those sides could be Swansea, who host fellow Premier League newcomers Queens Park Rangers on Tuesday evening. The Welsh side have now claimed just one win in seven and are 14th in the table, with the points they’ve won largely coming at the Liberty Stadium – they’ve taken 15 from 18 so far this season and against Neil Warnock’s side I’d expect them to make it 18 from 21, with QPR really still needing to strengthen.

Tottenham have always enjoyed going to Norwich and there have been significant links between the two clubs down the years – Norwich’s great team of the early 90s featured several Spurs old boys including John Polston, Ian Crook and current assistant manager Ian Culverhouse.
Those links continue today, with full-back Kyle Naughton on loan at Carrow Road from Tottenham, but he’ll be unavailable for Tuesday’s match due to both a suspension and Premier League rules.
Of all the matches over Christmas, this is perhaps the most attractive, and if I was to lay out £35 for a ticket anywhere on Monday or Tuesday, it would be at Carrow Road.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more. For more information visit espn.co.uk/tv

Man City looking to bounce straight back as United prepare for life without Vidic

Jon Champion — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:14:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's football action. Watch live and exclusive coverage of Wigan v Chelsea live on ESPN from 4:30pm on Saturday

Perhaps the most interesting question we’ll see answered this weekend is how Manchester City react to their first Premier League defeat of the season.

They’ve got another tough game against Arsenal on Sunday, but my expectation is that City will bounce straight back. The defeat at Chelsea will have just concentrated the mind a little - if that were needed - and they’ll come back strongly against Arsenal - this could be the end of Arsenal’s lengthy unbeaten run of seven wins and a draw in their last eight games.

City were slightly unfortunate at Chelsea in that they dominated for the first half hour, before letting it slip. Obviously the sending off of Gael Clichy didn’t help them, but it offers hope to other teams in the Premier League title race that there are one or two signs of fallibility still at Manchester City. For all the wonderful football they’ve been playing and the swagger that they’ve shown, they can be beaten, and we now know that – it was important that someone showed it at some stage prior to Christmas, and Chelsea, in that sense, have done the rest of the Premier League a bit of a favour.

However you could also argue that, in a sense, the monkey is off City’s back now – it sounds strange to say that a defeat in some cases can be beneficial, but not being constantly conscious of defending an unbeaten record can allow a team to be less inhibited as the season goes on, so I think over the long term it may even be seen secretly – although they would never acknowledge it publicly – as quite a good thing.

They’ve had a very good start to the season and just had this little reality check, and they’ll be hoping its straight back to business from the Arsenal game onwards.

In the meantime, Manchester United have got the chance to go top, albeit possibly just for a couple of hours, with their match at Queens Park Rangers kicking-off four hours before that of their rivals.

United are doing, really, what we expect them to do, which is to bounce back from the disappointments of the defeat to City and their elimination from the Champions League. If there’s one feature of Ferguson’s quarter of a century in charge it is that phrase of Iain Dowie’s – bouncebackability. If they have a setback they come roaring back and if you look at their medium term results since that 6-1 mauling at Old Trafford, it’s now five wins and a draw in the Premier League, so they’re going reasonably nicely. The swagger of early season is a long distant memory, but Manchester United are still tough nuts to crack.

I’m not sure Alex Ferguson will be quite as upset as perhaps certain sections of the press have been about the loss of Nemanja Vidic, because I’m led to believe he was questioning the Serbian’s future at the club beyond this season anyway. He was wondering whether perhaps we’d seen the best of him and was considering moving him on in the way he decided to sell Jaap Stam when many people regarded him still as being at his peak.

I think a similar situation might well have been developing with Nemanja Vidic, but that’s been taken out of the manager’s hands now because he’s unavailable for the rest of the season. I don’t see that as a major impediment to Manchester United in the rest of their Premier League campaign.

The best game I’ve seen in the Premier League this season was Manchester City’s visit to Loftus Road. QPR gave the league leaders a real examination, and although City ultimately came through in the end to win 3-2, Queens Park Rangers will really try and get at Manchester United in the same way.

But Manchester United are old hands when it comes to going to potentially quite hostile venues like Loftus Road, and I see them coming through with a win this weekend.

Elsewhere, this is also a really important week for Blackburn. Not only have they got West Brom at home on Saturday, they then face companions in distress Bolton at Ewood Park in a local derby on Tuesday. The most striking thing about their last match – the late defeat at Sunderland - was that there was no Plan B. They took the lead but then there was no change of strategy, they were denied what looked a legitimate second goal but they always looked like they were going to concede. There was no attempt to try and solidify the side on the field of play and for that reason they looked vulnerable, and in the end it wasn’t a great surprise that Sunderland managed to breach them not once but twice in the last six minutes. There are also now suggestions of financial difficulties – promptly denied by the club’s owners. It’s difficult to discern fact from fiction with all the contrasting stories emanating from that club at the moment, but what is certain is that they need a home win against West Brom and then they need to follow it up by getting something against Bolton, so it could well be a defining week for Steve Kean.

Everton have lost their last two games a goal to nil against Stoke and at Arsenal. They are lacking a reliable goalscorer. Louis Saha is one of those strikers that goes on a run of scoring, but when he’s not in a sequence, he can be something of a liability. I think he’s a terrific player to watch, his movement is almost feline, but he’s not in a run of goalscoring at the moment and Everton need him to find his scoring boots fairly quickly because they’re back in the lower half of the table again and there will be four or five matches before the returning Landon Donovan will be able to feature.
They’ll be comforted that Sylvain Distin is fit again, but will be concerned by the number of home games they have lost this season - four so far, which is unusually high for an Everton side before Christmas.
This weekend they face Norwich, tenth in the table, four of their five wins have come at home, though, and even though they’ve won two of their last three games, Everton will feel they’re due a win and I think they might just get it against Norwich.

Fulham were dealt a significant blow with the news that Mark Schwarzer is going to be out for six weeks with a back problem. He, once again, has been quite excellent this season and he’s had quite a lot to do. Fulham have only three Premier League win and are coming off the back of a devastating finish to their game against Odense in the Europa League – their 31st game of the season. While they can look with some comfort to the New Year in the knowledge that the games are going to thin out considerably, they will be wary that following the visit of Bolton this weekend, their next two games are against Manchester United and Chelsea. That makes Bolton, if not a must-win, then really a game they could do with winning.
They have every chance of doing so, because Bolton are in poor shape at the moment, with three wins and twelve defeats over the course of the season. I’m surprised that they’re still struggling, because I think they’ve got the players to dig themselves out of trouble, but it’s as if they’re in a little cocoon at the moment and there are questions being asked of Owen Coyle. I know Phil Gartside, the chairman, is fidgeting. He will take council from Eddie Davis, the Isle of Man based businessman who owns the club. Coyle cannot afford many more defeats.

Newcastle, after their terrific start to the season, have taken just one point from their last four games and promptly fallen down to seventh. But the big advantage for them this weekend is the likely return of Fabricio Coloccini in central defence - they had no centre halves last weekend. And even a bigger plus, Cheick Tiote coming back into midfield alongside Cabaye. That makes them very strong in the middle of the park.
They’ve got three fixtures in a row that they would expect to take something from; this Saturday's against Swansea, the visit of West Brom to St. James’ in midweek and then a trip to Bolton on Boxing Day, so it’s an opportunity for them to get back on track and back into the top six which I do think is the very height of their ambition.
As for Swansea – two points from seven away fixtures outlines their Achilles heel – very good at home, pretty mediocre away, so I think a really good opportunity for Newcastle to get back on track.

Wolves against Stoke is something approximating to a local derby, it’s certainly regarded as such by the supporters of both clubs. Wolves are very reliant on Steven Fletcher for goals – he’s back to form and to fitness and has scored three in his last two games, and they’re just about keeping their heads above water with two wins in their last five outings. I think one of the causes of concern for them at this stage is that Wigan seem to have found their feet finally and there are signs of a revival up in that area of Lancashire and Wolves could be one of the victims if Wigan were to pull away from danger, so, the visit of Stoke, on the back of Europa League duty again, could present a good opportunity to get some more points.
But the Potters have won their last three in the Premier League – they’re looking more like the Stoke of early season again, so I predict a very tough afternoon for Wolves.

Finally there are signs of life from Wigan – those wins at Sunderland and West Brom have kick-started their season, yet they’ve not won at home at the DW since August, and that needs to change if there is to be substance to this recovery. Those wins show there is still life in the squad and there is still a will to play for Roberto Martinez – they do like him the players there and admire him – but I can’t see them getting anything against Chelsea this weekend, and I think that will only add to the rather smug sense of satisfaction displayed by Chelsea’s young manager at the moment.
I can’t help but feel that Andre Villas-Boas, while he’s got a lot to offer in management terms, is still feeling is way and learning in terms of his PR, and if he’s trying to win friends and influence people I’m not sure he’s going the right way about it with some of his recent comments. But, three wins in a row, and ultimately he will be judged by results by those on high at Stamford Bridge so he’s in rather better shape than he was a fortnight ago.

A win for Aston Villa last week – a rarity this season - but they now face a sterner test in the form of Liverpool. I just see them as a very ordinary, mid-table side, not much more than that, and I would expect Liverpool to prove as much on Sunday afternoon.
The Reds have suffered just one defeat in thirteen in all competitions, and although they’re tucked in nicely in sixth, they are five points off a Champions League place, and I do honestly think that top four, as a finishing place, is probably beyond Liverpool, which will be a disappointment to the American owners having spent so much money. They are a work in progress, and it may be next season before we see the best of various new signings that Kenny Dalglish has made, but they’ve got every chance of winning at Villa.

Spurs showed why they’re not quite good enough to be in genuine title contention in their defeat at Stoke last time out. I know they were unlucky with a couple of penalty decisions that went the wrong way from their perspective, but Tottenham succumbed where others who are likely to be in the shake-up at the end of the season wouldn’t have done.
As for Sunday's opponents Sunderland, well, the late comeback against Blackburn earned them their first win in seven weeks, in their first game under the enigmatic Martin O’Neill. He can pump the players full of confidence, what he can’t do at this stage is provide goals, because the lack genuine, reliable, Premier League-quality goalscoring strikers. Connor Wickham will be that in years to come, I don’t think the Korean Ji is the answer.
There are one or two talks being in place behind the scenes to see if Asamoah Gyan might be persuaded back from the middle-east for the second half of the season but it’s difficult to see that that will be a particularly happy reunion when he returns to Sunderland bearing in mind the way he departed.
I don’t see Martin O’Neill being able to improve Sunderland’s prospects in the immediate future other than injecting a bit of confidence, which alone won’t be enough at White Hart Lane.

AVB gets ruthless, Wolves fearing Man Utd backlash, Everton set for mundanity

Jon Champion — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:30:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action

At the end of a very interesting week – one that has seen the two top sides in the country crash out of the Champions League – there will be some questions about the standard of the league, and whether indeed it is as good as it declares itself to be.

It’s a very interesting period for both Chelsea and Manchester City, who lock horns on Monday evening. From Chelsea’s point of view, they are safely through but their manager has almost declared war on the press in the past week. He has shown he’s not afraid to leave out established players, with Frank Lampard being the latest, and he is starting to win a few battles and some of senior players have to toe the line more than they were. It looks like he will get a bit more time to impose his will on a squad who are still essentially Jose Mourinho’s players.
With back-to-back 3-0 wins, they come into this game brimming with confidence again; Didier Drogba was back to his brutal self against Valencia in midweek, and Villas Boas is starting to show the first signs of a ruthless streak. That will definitely serve him well in the future, especially in this league.
City’s exit was as acceptable as a Champions League exit can be for a side that has spent as much money as they have, and I think we can excuse them on the grounds that it does take a while to get used to the twin demands of the Premier League and Europe. In took Manchester United the thick end of a decade to really sort out the way to cope with competing in two major competitions. I believe they will really kick on at Stamford Bridge; it’s perhaps unfortunate for Chelsea that after just regaining some confidence they find themselves up against a Manchester City side that have a point to prove. Domestically, they have been outstanding; as well as picking up results, they have scored 48 goals in 14 league games – an average of 3.5. With that in mind, I really fancy Manchester City for this one.

A less noble exit from the Champions League for Manchester United has me fearing for Wolverhampton Wanderers this weekend, as they travel to Old Trafford. They’ll be facing a side on the rebound, with Sir Alex Ferguson’s stern words ringing in their ears as they head out of the tunnel. They’ve only lost three games in all competitions this season, but the perception of their current form is very different after this defeat in Basle, and I think this is still very much a team in transition. Although they started the season really well, it was at a time when the players were fresh and still bedding in, and it is a process that takes time. Perhaps we should look at this season as one where United will not be laden silverware, in which they may well come second to Manchester City in the title race. But again I feel they may look at it and feel they have a chance to come back stronger next year, by which time Phil Jones, Ashley Young and Tom Cleverly (when fit again) will all have a year’s more experience as Manchester United players.
That is important because it does take a while for a player to adjust to the unique demands of playing for United; even the most experienced tend to take a while to settle in, so those in the earlier parts of their career should be allowed a little more time.
Make no mistake about it, they will be embarrassed to be playing in the Europa League in the interim, but long term they will emerge stronger for this. With much to prove in the coming months, I think Wolves are facing United at the wrong time. It’s not a game that will decide Wolves fate, but it will be the ones around them that they need to get something from; they pulled it off last week against Sunderland, and have won two of their last four in the league just to ease the pressure on Mick McCarthy. But I cannot see further than a home win.

The same goes for Arsenal at the Emirates, as they host Everton. The Toffees are good enough to trouble the Gunners, it’s just the difference between the sides is that, while both faced relative crises at the start of the season, Arsenal responded by getting the chequebook out – Everton don’t even have a chequebook! They’ve just had to go with what they’ve got; David Moyes is a master at turning water into wine, but even his powers of transformation are being stretched now. Any steps forward seem to be met with a major step back for them; wins against Wolves and Bolton were met with a home defeat to Stoke. Because of that, I don’t see things changing for them anytime soon. I don’t think they’ll be involved in a relegation battle – they're too good for that – but equally I don’t think there is any way they can qualify for European football, so already, with little more than a third of the season gone, they already know their fate; mundane mediocrity.
Even though Arsenal’s run sees them in fifth, I still doubt they are the genuine article in terms of being Champions League challengers. They have played some fairly compliant opponents of late and I’m not totally sure they are going to last the course in terms of challenging meaningfully for the top four. Another worry for Arsene Wenger was that the defeat against Olympiakos showed he doesn’t have a lot to call on in reserve.

The headline for Sunderland against Blackburn is inevitably Martin O’Neil’s arrival at the Stadium of Light – a rather neat symmetry in that his first game in charge of Sunderland is against the same side that provided his opposition in his last game in charge of Aston Villa, 19 months ago. His main problem as he goes in is that he can’t just magic up a striker, so he will face the same difficulties as Steve Bruce did in the last few weeks of his reign; the side are capable of playing some tremendous football in the first two-thirds of the pitch, but have no one in the final part to get them goals. What he can do is improve the confidence in that group of players; you may not see too much of him during the week at the training ground, but as match-time nears, there are few better than him, and that’s where I think he can make an immediate with Sunderland.
He’ll also feel fortunate that is Blackburn who are visiting the Stadium of Light; there’ll be a big crowd there, full of expectation as they hope to ring in a new era, under new management. Although Blackburn are coming off the back of a win – only their second of the season, thanks to Yakubu’s four goal haul last week – I can’t help but feel that, in the long term, that will prove to be something of a false dawn. They seem spectacularly capable of shooting themselves in the foot, and they appear so unstable off the field at the moment, and I think that transmits itself to what’s going on, on the pitch.
A lot was made of Blackburn fans still lamenting Steve Kean at the end of their win against Swansea last week. While I feel they should have at least acknowledged that they managed to dig out a result, I can see their concerns, but in a sense they are targeting the wrong person by demonstrating against the manager. The most worrying people at Blackburn are those that own the club, because they don’t seem to know what they are doing. There seems no coherent plan for taking the club forward; there has been talk of them mortgaging their future Premier League and television income. I think they ought to be protesting against the Venkys and not against Steve Kean. Although he was appointed by the Venkys, Kean is the man who can affect the players and improve the mood of the fans, as he did last week.

Bolton and Aston Villa are another two sides led by under-pressure managers, with very different chairmen. Alex McLeish is earlier in his reign so perhaps that pressure is rather lighter, and working under the patient Randy Lerner will be in his favour. I’m not sure about the patience of Phil Gartside, but the ultimate arbiter isn’t the chairman at Bolton, but Eddie Davies – the Isle of Man based businessman – who owns Bolton Wanderers, and calls the shots very quietly. He must be concerned because it’s five defeats in six in the Premier League; they’ve lost 11 of their last 14 and have the poorest defence in the league (34 conceded, of which 19 have been at home).
To add to all that, they face the prospect of losing their best defender, Gary Cahill, in January. It’s not looking great, but I think a lot will depend – as long as Coyle is still in post – on what he can do with the money they can get for Cahill. There is already talk of him bringing in Josh McEachran on a loan deal from Chelsea, provided Cahill ends up at Stamford Bridge, which seems to be the likeliest destination now. I do think they’re up against it, but the visit of a Villa side bereft of confidence – they were really poor when I saw them against Manchester United last weekend - could be just the tonic for the Trotters.

West Bromwich Albion have lost two of their last three games at home, but with the visit of Wigan Athletic, and the return of Shane Long and Paul Scharner, they would be disappointed if they did not keep all three points at the Hawthorns. Wigan have only scored 12 goals all season, and after that morale boosting win at Sunderland, they then crashed 4-0 at home to Arsenal, which is rather more typical of their form this season. Their two wins came against QPR and Sunderland, and I suppose West Brom fall into that category of side, but I think they will be a bit too savvy for Wigan, and I’d be surprised if Roberto Martinez’s men were not still propping up the table come the end of the weekend.

After Fulham’s win against Liverpool last Monday, it does seem that Martin Jol’s system is starting to be embraced by the players. I think one of the problems the Fulham players have had is that after having two managers – back to back – in Roy Hodgson and Mark Hughes, who were both fairly strict in terms of what they expected of the players, they have come across Martin Jol who is a lot more off the cuff; someone who encourages the players to make their own decisions based on what they have in front of them. There are signs that they are getting there, but they’ve had so many games already – this weekend’s fixture at the Liberty Stadium will be their 29th of the season – but they’ve only lost one of the last five and are keeping their heads above water despite their backed schedule. The downside for them is that inevitably injuries will play a part in their campaign, given the sheer volume of games that they have played; they are the oldest side in the Premier League, and Danny Murphy is a casualty of that and will be out a number of weeks with an ankle problem.
They’re facing a Swansea side that fascinate me; they are as easy on the eye as any Premier League side. I just wonder whether sides are beginning to work them out. They are very solid at home – their only defeat came against Manchester United – but over the last two or three weeks they have been stifled, firstly by United, and then Villa and Blackburn. If Fulham can do the same then they can expect some sort of success. Then again, Fulham perhaps don't have the players to get in the faces of Swansea – it’ll be an open and entertaining fixture, that’s for sure.

Newcastle will have to show all the resilience that they have shown so far this season if they are going to overcome their injuries to succeed against Norwich this weekend, and beyond. Steven Taylor’s out for the season, Fabricio Coloccini will play no part this weekend and Tiote is still struggling for fitness; three big losses for a squad that is not full of riches, or numbers.
They’ve got their three big games out of the way – in United, City and Chelsea – in which they only took a point, which is hardly surprising, but it is back to normality now, and they’ll need the same early season belief at Carrow Road, where Norwich have proved to be a match for some good sides this season. I think they’ll give Newcastle a run for their money, but a lot depends on what Newcastle can do in central defence. Not only have they lost Taylor and Coloccini, but the natural deputy Mike Williamson is still making his way back from long term injury, so it looks like young Tamas Kadar might have to play alongside James Perch, who is primarily a full-back. Steve Morison and Grant Holt will be relishing the prospect of coming up against those two.

Are Tottenham Hotspur title challengers? I don’t think so – I believe Manchester United should be worried about Spurs, especially if they continue to stutter along. But I struggle to see them overtaking Manchester City over the course of the season. I think we have to accept that Manchester City are a couple of steps ahead of Tottenham, in terms of their development and quality, so I don’t really see them as genuine title challengers, but I would be very surprised if they didn’t finish in the top four.
If they can keep up their recent form – 10 wins out of the last 11 games is outstanding – then there is every chance that they will be pushing for second-place come the end of the season. After all, Spurs will be unlikely to be playing in Europe after Christmas, and City and United will have to embark on those long trips to unknown European destinations in the Europa League. I wonder what Harry Redknapp makes of the competition now...?
Speaking of which, Stoke’s follies in Europe have often been followed by domestic defeat, but after a week’s rest, they’ll be raring to go, and Spurs will have to be wary as Tony Pulis’ men look to kick-start their league campaign at the Britannia Stadium, going into the busy Christmas period.

Liverpool’s unbeaten run of 11 games ended at Fulham, but the biggest problem they face is coping with the loss of Lucas. He has developed into their gatekeeper in midfield, and played a very important role for them in the last two seasons.
Queens Park Rangers – 12th in the table, averaging just over a point per game which will just enough to see them survive – will reinvest in the January transfer window, thanks to Tony Fernandes, and that will strengthen their bid to stay up. Three of their four wins have come away from Loftus Road, but I can’t see them going to Anfield and getting another one because this is a new-look Liverpool side who have started to look comfortable in their own skin. While Kenny Dalglish has spent big over the last year, I think it is safe to say we’ve not seen over £100 million worth of improvement. Even so, you’d be foolish to bet against Liverpool for this one.

AVB & Co. left fearing copycat axings, Arsenal seek to banish bad memory

Jon Champion — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's football action. Watch live and exclusive coverage of Arsenal v Fulham live on ESPN from 4:30pm on Saturday

It took until the last day in November for us to see the first Premier League managerial casualty of the season, which is unusually late.

I’m quite disappointed Steve Bruce has left Sunderland, and it is a dangerous precedent that chairman Ellis Short has set – linking his departure to the fact that the fans were so against him. It’s almost a carte blanche now – any group of supporters can kick up a fuss and feel they can get rid of their manager, which is obviously what’s going on at Blackburn at the moment, though these are two very different situations.

At Blackburn there’s a fair case to suggest that Steve Kean is not leading the team in the right direction. At Sunderland they’ve made major investments over the summer, only to be held back by the lack of a goal-scoring striker which, in a sense, wasn’t entirely Steve Bruce’s fault if you consider how Darren Bent and Asamoah Gyan left the club – both moves appeared to be somewhat out of the blue.

Bruce has been left with two-thirds of a pretty good team, but the fact that they’ve not been able to put the ball in the net has ultimately cost him his job, which is a little harsh.

Now the trigger has been pulled for the first time by a chairman in the Premier League this season, other chairman in the Premier League will perhaps be a little less hesitant than they had been beforehand – nobody wants to be the first to sack their manager, after all.

That means the likes of Mick McCarthy, who’s Wolves team host Sunderland on Sunday, will be feeling just that little bit more nervous than, perhaps they would have been before. Questions are being asked at Wolves – quite rightly, given their form - but, perhaps the fans need to step back and consider where they were five or ten years ago before getting carried away with expectations of the great days returning.

Naturally, if there’s a genuine danger of a team going down then you have to look at the manager, but McCarthy should have enough credit in the bank through his achievements in the past three or four years to earn the chance to turn things round. The visit of managerless Sunderland to Molineux presents ample opportunity for Wolves to get themselves out of a bit of bother.

There has been a lot of talk of Andre Villas-Boas being under pressure of late, but that's true of any Chelsea manager at any given moment, given the expectations of the club’ owner. The Blues have had a run of very ordinary results, have several players out of form and are struggling to settle into the manager’s new system. All of that, combined with Guus Hiddink now being available on the labour marker, is a fairly toxic combination if you’re a 34-year-old in your first really big managerial job - the storm clouds are gathering.
Although, frankly, it’s laughable to suggest that Chelsea should sack Villas-Boas at this stage, no one will dismiss that notion simply because of Abramovich’s track record. We know he stands for no sustained failure. He’ll look at the recent run of results and this is probably the poorest Chelsea team – in terms of their performances, if not on paper – of his time at the club.
The problem at Chelsea at the moment is that the template laid down by Mourinho was so strong, and so successful, that they are still struggling to break away from it. That template relied on players who were just approaching their peak, the like of Frank Lampard, John Terry and Petr Cech. Avram Grant came in and was sensible enough to notice the players were strong personalities and pretty much just continued in the same vain, and the players were reasonably happy with that. Since then it’s gradually started to fall apart a little.
Chelsea face a testing trip to Newcastle on Saturday. The Magpies are growing as a unit and the fact that they’ve bounced back with that draw at Old Trafford after their first league defeat of the season bodes well for them. It will be a very emotional occasion given how popular a player Gary Speed was at St James’ Park, and I think that wave of emotion may carry Newcastle quite a long way.

The other manager under big pressure is, of course, Steve Kean. I don’t really see how he can carry on at Blackburn if they don’t win Saturday’s game against Swansea. It’s got to be a must-win game for Rovers, having 'forfeited' their chance of going further in the League Cup by fielding a shadow team at Cardiff, and what’s more, coming out and admitting it afterwards, which was rather naïve. He’s now placed himself in a position where he has to justify that with a win against Swansea – nothing else will do.
Brendan Rodgers' side look a fairly serene bunch of Swans right now. Their 0-0 draw against Aston Villa wasn’t a great game, unsurpising in the circumstances, but they showed that sides are just beginning to get wise to them. Aston Villa had obviously seen what Manchester United did against Swansea the previous weekend and got into them and got close to them in midfield to try and close down their passing game and I think that’s probably the template that sides will try and follow against Swansea. But, for Steve Kean, we could be approaching end game.

Manchester City versus Norwich City is the biggest gimme of the weekend, which is no disrespect to Norwich. The Canaries played well at Old Trafford and drew at Anfield, so they’ve performed well on the road, but City are five points clear at the top for a reason. Norwich’s only hope is that City’s minds are on that crucial Champions League game with Bayern next week, but it would probably be a stretch towards fantasy to think that’s going to happen.

Queens Park Rangers and West Bromwich Albion have both been a bit in and out so far this season. QPR will strengthen substantially in January – Neil Warnock is hoping for at least four marquee signings in January - and that should be enough to see them safe. West Brom already look like having enough, and Roy Hodgson will be delighted to have brought the experience of Terry burton in to aid him on the training ground – perhaps their best signing of the season. There are enough poorer teams in the Premier League for these two, while they may flirt with it, to avoid actually falling through the trap door.

Harry Redknapp won‘t be too upset by Tottenham's defeat by PAOK in the Europa League. He’s managed to do his keep his Premier League line-up and his Europa League line-up largely separate and he’s been rewarded with the run of nine wins in ten games in the Barclay’s Premier League, and five successive wins, which I expect them to make into six against Bolton on Saturday. Owen Coyle may well be another manager worried that the departure of Steve Bruce from Sunderland could have his own chairman’s trigger finger twitching slightly.

Wigan finally ended their winless run at Sunderland, though I’m not sure how. Wes Brown’s gift in the 93rd minute was the means by which Franco di Santo won the game, but Sunderland had dominated for long periods. It would be nice to think, from Roberto Martinez’s point of view, that this is the turning point, but I find it hard to think that that’s the case. They’re likely to still be in for a long season of toil and struggle, and that should start with the visit of Arsenal. Although the DW was the scene of the Gunners‘ infamous capitualtion two years ago – they had been 2-0 up before ultimately losing lost 3-2, conceding two goals in and after the 89th minute – the Gunners will need to banish those memories and win this fixture if they are to have any chance of getting back into title contention.

I’ll be at Villa Park for the visit of Manchester United on Saturday evening. Aston Villa have a very small squad and fairly limited ambitions, from what I’ve seen of them this year. They’ll be very happy to be sitting eighth in the Premier League table, but then you look at this enormous gap – this chasm of seven points ahead of them – and you’d have to say they’re confirmed as a mid-table outfit. They don’t concede too many, but they don’t score very many either, and there are already murmurings of discontent.
As for Manchester United, they’ve not won in their last three games in all competitions, three of their last four in the Premier League have been 1-0 in their favour as they’ve gone back to basics. They are functional rather than full of flair right now, and I think that’s what they’ll need to be at Villa because they’ll be hard to break down. They’ve also got an important Champion’s League game on their minds so there may be some compromise in terms of Alex Ferguson’s team selection, but I would imagine Aston Villa will find Manchester United rather too hefty a nut to crack.

Everton also in that group of teams almost certain to finish in mid table, while Sunday’s opponents Stoke have really been derailed this season, largely by the Europa League. This week they’re coming off the back of a home draw against Kiev, but after their last four Europa League group games, they’ve lost, and they’ll do well to avoid that fate at Goodison.

Fulham were surprisingly good at Arsenal for a side that have been desperately searching for some consistent form this season, and could even have won the game. They’ve never won at Arsenal and they came quite close to it, but overall I think it’s four wins in the last eighteen games in all competitions. They have the oldest team in the league and I think it shows – it’s a dangerous combination having the oldest team playing the most games, which they are having starting their season so early at the end of June in the Europa League.
On Monday evening they host Liverpool, who are eleven unbeaten since that 4-0 setback at Tottenham in mid-September. They had the luxury of resting Luis Suarez at Chelsea for their mid-week League Cup quarter-final win, so I would be very surprised if Liverpool don’t emerge from West London with another win.

ESPN will continue its live televised coverage of this season’s FA Cup with two exclusive Second Round matches this weekend: Fleetwood v Yeovil at 7.30pm on Friday 2nd December and Sutton United v Notts County at 5pm on Sunday 4th December.

Liverpool need to get their home in order, Man Utd go back to basics

Jon Champion — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:30:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch live and exclusive coverage of Arsenal v Fulham live on ESPN from 4:30pm on Saturday

We’re now one third of the way into the Premier League season, and we’re getting to the stage where certain teams need to start putting together a run of results if they are to achieve their season objectives.

The stand out game this weekend sees too big spending sides - Liverpool and Manchester City – go head-to-head. It’ll be a tough test for City, even if Liverpool haven’t been fully convincing at home – their better performances have come away from Anfield, which is perhaps unusual.

Liverpool aren’t quite yet getting full value from their significant investment over the summer transfer window, and they are yet to settle and find the level of consistency Kenny Dalglish will be wanting from them. They also still look rather vulnerable at the back and that would certainly appear to be something City could exploit on Sunday afternoon.

City’s defeat in Naples on Tuesday evening means they face an all-or-nothing tie with Bayern Munich in two weeks’ time, and while that huge game will be at the back of their minds in the next couple of domestic fixtures, if anybody has the squad which can cope with those kind of distractions then it’s probably Manchester City. Though as we know, it can take a club a few years to fully get to grips with the twin demands of Premier League and Champions League.

It took Manchester United the best part of a decade to fully master the balancing act, and for all the money they’ve spent, City are still in a relatively early stage of their development. We would often see United in the mid-90s fail to keep things going in Europe but still win the domestic title. It may well be that the same is going to be true of City this season.

Given Liverpool’s stuttering home start – four of their six league games on their own patch have ended as draws – City won’t be the kind of visitors the Reds want or need at the moment, and I’d be surprised if Roberto Mancini’s side weren’t the first side this season to travel to Anfield and win.

Though it may seem unlikely, Chelsea are at risk of losing three consecutive home games as they face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, extraordinary given they not long ago set that incredible record of 86 league games unbeaten at Stamford Bridge.
It’s a whole new experience for Andre Villas-Boas, who last season with Porto only dropped six league points over the course of the entire 30 game season. Suddenly he’s confronted with a flurry of setbacks – three straight defeats in all competitions, still with work to do in their final Champions League group match and currently outside the qualifying positions for next year’s competition in the Premier League.
I’ve seen Chelsea three times in the flesh this season and on each occasion they have set no sort of tempo at all – they’ve been sluggish from the start, content to keep possession rather than take the game to their opponents, which is very unlike the Chelsea we’re used to seeing.
Wolves aren’t playing too badly at present, but with just one win in the last ten they do need to start finding results sooner rather than later. The consolation for them is that there are three sides struggling so badly beneath them in Bolton, Blackburn and Wigan, while the sides above them - Sunderland and Fulham – don’t exactly look likely to pull away. It’s hard to see them getting a result away to Chelsea, but if there’s a good time to go to Stamford Bridge, this is it.

Although they were a tad sloppy in their midweek Champions League draw with Benfica, it remains a fact that Manchester United have lost fewer matches than Manchester City this season, with just the one defeat so far this term, albeit a fairly spectacular one. There’s little to suggest Newcastle will end their wretched record at Old Trafford, despite making a very strong start to their campaign. The Magpies are tough to break down but are never likely to score a bucket load of goals, particularly against the stronger sides. United have gone ‘back to basics’ in the league since that defeat to Manchester City – they’ve looked to lock things down, make sure they don’t concede silly goals or leave themselves too exposed. Their performances may not have been quite so dynamic, but the results have continued to come, and for that reason you’d have to fancy the champions to win again this weekend.

Arsenal have been in superb form of late, but closing the 12 point gap that has opened between themselves and Manchester City – and indeed even the seven on Manchester United – will be a gargantuan task, given the general level of consistency at those two clubs right now.
The other thing to add is that, although 11 wins in 13 matches in all competitions is highly impressive, if you look at the teams they have beaten, only the win at Stamford Bridge really stands out as a particularly impressive victory. When they have played the stronger sides they have generally been beaten – at home to Liverpool and away to Manchester United and Tottenham – and those matches perhaps give a truer indication of where Arsenal are than matches against teams like Bolton and Norwich.
For that reason there may be a reality check in store for them at some stage, though I can’t imagine it would come in Saturday evening’s late kick-off against Fulham, who are likely to turn up, put up a bit of a fight but ultimately roll over.

Spurs also look in tremendous shape at the moment. They have a settled side, are great to watch and are playing some fabulous football – hence their current run of eight wins and a draw in the last nine. There is an element of the cavalier about them, but there are still enough defensively minded players there – including Ledley King, who is enjoying a rare run of matches – to keep the opposition at bay.
It’s hard to see them getting anything other than a win from Saturday’s trip to West Bromwich Albion, who probably won’t have too many problems this season and currently sit in tenth place, but what problems they do have will come against sides like Tottenham.

Norwich versus Queens Park Rangers is, of course, a meeting of two newly-promoted sides, but two sides who have adapted well to life back in the Premier League, currently sat in 11th and ninth place respectively. Norwich, however, are not just one win in six, while QPR have impressed away from home – winning at Everton, Wolves and Stoke – and have Heider Helgusson in the kind of goalscoring form that could help them secure significant points. They’ll be happy with the way things are going and will certainly relish this trip to East Anglia.

Stoke are struggling, and surprisingly so. They’ve lost their last four league matches and have now won just once in their last eight – a run that has seen them slide from fifth to 14th, though come the end of the season I’d still expect them to finish somewhere between. The fixture congestion caused by their involvement in the Europa League is perhaps a convenient excuse for their slump, but while there is likely to be some fatigue it can’t all be down to that. For the first time, Tony Pulis has a few selection dilemmas, and doesn’t have and obvious first XI. Perhaps this lack of consistency in selection has led to a lack of consistency in results.
But they’ll relish facing Blackburn on Saturday, who haven’t kept a clean sheet in 15 matches in all competitions this season and, despite a couple of improved showings in the away draws at QPR and Norwich, still look poor, particularly at the back.

It is certainly a depressing time for the Lancashire clubs at present, with Bolton Wanderers also looking out of sorts having lost seven of their last nine in the Premier League. They’ll be up against an Everton team who should be good enough to secure a result at the Reebok in the current circumstances. The Toffees shot up five places with their win over Wolves last weekend, and although they have displayed a certain inconsistency that hasn’t been a hallmark of David Moyes’ side down the years, they will have been boosted by Marouane Fellaini signing a new long-term contract with the club.

Sunderland’s positive goal difference of +1 is a testament to the fact they concede so few goals – 13 in 12 so far – despite their relatively poor start to the campaign. Their problem, as we’ve said before, is that they don’t score enough goals and that has led to them having to settle for a point rather than three on more than a couple of occasions in recent months – most recently and pertinently against Fulham last weekend when they dominated for long periods but couldn’t get the ball in the net.
On Saturday they’ll face one of the team to score fewer goals in Wigan Athletic, whose chairman Dave Whelan has once again stated there will be no change in manager, and it also seems there’ll be no philosophical change, and if Wigan keep trying to play their way out of the hole they’re in – and they’re already five points adrift of safety – it’s hard to see them escaping.

Swansea play some beautiful football, but there’s not a lot on the end of it. They’re great for two thirds of the pitch, but lacking in the final third. Sunday’s opponents Aston Villa were really poor at Spurs on Monday evening, and it’s hard to imagine Alex McLeish allowing that kind of performance to be repeated. Swansea will have been encouraged by both their own and Villa’s performances last time out, and with their home form likely to be the key to survival, will surely look to target three points here.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more. For more information visit espn.co.uk/tv

Unbeaten Premier pair face-off, United head to Swansea's impenetrable fortress

Jon Champion — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 08:30:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch live and exclusive coverage of Swansea City versus Manchester United live on ESPN from 4:30pm on Saturday

Saturday sees the meeting of the last two remaining unbeaten sides in the Premier League, as Newcastle United travel to Manchester City.

While it’s no surprise to see City flying high, it’s astonishing that Newcastle are still unbeaten at this stage of the season, but of course fantastic from their point of view.

Sadly for them, this will probably be the weekend where we see that record go, not least because two of their most influential players - Cheik Tiote and Yohan Cabaye - are likely to be missing through injury.

It’s a great shame that they should be going into this, their biggest challenge so far, without such key ingredients in their team. They have been crucial to the Magpies' success, though the team's spirit has brought them a long way, and the organisation Alan Pardew has introduced has also been of great benefit.

One would imagine that Manchester City will just be too much for them to cope with, though there is perhaps a slight chance that City could be a touch rusty, with many of their stars strewn across the globe through international week.

This is the start of three games in a row for Newcastle against the top teams in the league, which will give us a much clearer indication of their true potential this season. My feeling still is that they’re probably a top eight side at best rather than a top four or top six side, but even that I think is a substantial improvement on the predictions most of us were making at the start of this season.

The one black mark of late would be the stadium re-naming farce. It just saddens me that the name of such a historic venue can be cheapened in this way by a transient owner.

Next time I commentate on them I certainly have no intention of calling it the Sports Direct Arena, it has always been and will always be St James’ Park.

Saturday also sees two meetings of newly promoted sides and Premier League giants. Firstly, Norwich host Arsenal in what will be a really good football match, because both sides like to play. Norwich are in the top half, and although they may not stay they, they certainly seemed better equipped than many had expected. Arsenal are gradually finding their feet and finding a way of playing again, which is not unlike the way they played when they had really good players rather than just some tolerably good players which is what they’ve got at the moment.
Robin van Persie’s got them out of jail a few times this season, and of course it’s vital to their long-term future that he stays. The Gunners probably have enough to account for Norwich this weekend, and I might not have said that two months ago.

Then, in the later kick-off, Swansea play host to Manchester United in the first live televised Premier League game from Wales.
I was digging back through the records and Manchester United have never won at Swansea. They’ve made eight visits, but Swansea have actually got a very respectable record. Alan Curtis, the assistant manager who’ll be on the bench alongside Brendan Rodgers on Saturday, scored the last time that Swansea beat Manchester United nearly thirty years ago, with a shot that dribbled through the legs of Gary Bailey, I was watching the YouTube clip only this week.
It’ll be a tough one for Manchester United. Swansea have been very strong at home, conceding just the one goal. Goalkeeper Michel Vorm has been a star performer, but I would think Manchester United, with the place they are mentally at the moment, should emerge from South Wales with three points.

Sunday will see a trip to Chelsea for a game that Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish actually does want his club's fans to turn up to, as opposed to the Carling Cup quarter-final that follows ten days afterwards that he’s asked fans not to attend because he’s unhappy with the scheduling of the game.
It’s a game that’ll bring back memories for Dalglish because he scored the goal as player-manager that won the title for Liverpool at Stamford Bridge back in 1986. It’s a good test for Liverpool as well and indeed for Chelsea.
The Blues could be in an interesting position now that Guus Hiddink is back in the work market, having left his job with Turkey. I would have thought that Andre Villas-Boas will just be looking over his shoulder a little bit.
Liverpool may not have entirely convinced us that they’re a top four side, but I think they’re good enough to trouble Chelsea. However my feeling is that Chelsea are the stronger of these two sides and that Liverpool will do well to get anything out of this game.

These are frustrating times for Everton and David Moyes. Ten points from ten games. Just a point above the bottom three. I don’t think anyone sees them staying as low as that in the Premier League table, but it will be a worry.
I hear murmurs Wolves boss Mick McCarthy needs some results fairly quickly, as Steve Morgan the Wolves owner is supposedly getting a little impatient. Wolves had a good result last time out so maybe they’ll be in better shape now, but Saturday’s trip to Goodison Park may be a bit too tricky for them.

Stoke will be very glad to be hosting Queens Park Rangers having not had a Europa League game three days beforehand, because that seems to have detracted from their league form. QPR played really well against Manchester City in their last game, but I think QPR at home at QPR away are two very different sides. They can be formidable at home. I’m not sure they’re going to get that many points on their travels so I would think that Stoke start as favourites this weekend.

Sunderland have another of those managers needing some results fairly sharpish in Steve Bruce. While Fulham seem overwhelmed by the fixtures that are coming their way in the various competitions, they’ve got a relatively small squad so both of them are a long way down the Premier League table than one would imagine that they would feel that they should be.
Fulham I see as sort of a twelfth, thirteenth place sort of a team, while Sunderland should definitely be in the top half given the amount of money they’ve spent, but it’s the same old problem that we refer to week in week out - they haven’t got a goalscorer who’s going to get goals consistently. Having said that, if they are going to have a comfortable season rather than an agonising one, Fulham at home is the sort of game that they really have to win.

West Brom are another inconsistent side, while Saturday’s opponents Bolton have struggled to get out of first gear having had such a retched start to the season. Owen Coyle is another manager who’ll need a few more good results this side of Christmas to keep himself in a job.
Bolton have just put Kevin Davis back into the side and whilst that may seem to be a case of going back to the future, he is their talisman, he does know what he’s doing, defenders are concerned by his very presence which creates more room for his teammates. West Brom at the Hawthorns is always going to be a tough game, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this one ends all square.

Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers are both adrift at the bottom of the Premier League, five and four points away from the safety respectively.
It’s interesting that these two seem to be two of the more secure managers. It seems that Dave Whelan is going to stick with Roberto Martinez come what may, while Steve Kean’s position seems to be cemented at Blackburn.
Despite that, it’s difficult to see where either of these sides are going to get sufficient points to get out of trouble. I can see their meeting on Saturday being a horrible game to watch. The pitch at Wigan is never the best for playing football, anyway, which hinders them because they try and play it nicely. I think it’s, it may be relatively early season but it’s one of those horrible occasions.

The weekend’s action ends at White Hart Lane, where Harry Redknapp will hopefully be back on the touchline for Tottenham as they entertain Aston Villa.
This should be a good game because Tottenham at home are a force to be reckoned with. Aston Villa are a fairly obdurate unit under Alex McLeish, there’s no thrills to them but I think Tottenham will have a real go.
I’d be surprised if it’s anything other than a home win. Aston Villa currently look like mere inhabitants of mid-table without any real European aspirations; they’re not going to be in trouble, but they’re not going to set anyone’s pulse racing during the course of the season. That makes them ideal cannon fodder for Tottenham if they’re at their best.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more. For more information visit espn.co.uk/tv

Prem Preview: Miserly Magpies, lackadaisical Liverpool and tremendous Tottenham

Jon Champion — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 08:30:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch live and exclusive coverage of QPR vs Manchester City live on ESPN from 4:30pm on Saturday

You’d have no difficulty identifying the surprise package of the Premier League season so far. Newcastle United sit in third place after ten matches, having made their best start to a season since Sir Bobby Robson’s tenure as manager.
It’s helped that they’ve not had to change their team much, it will be interesting to see what happens when injuries and suspensions begin to bite.
Their fixture list to date has perhaps been a little kind, but they’ve got a trio of games against the current top three coming up, and that will give a truer indication of exactly how good this team can be. Even so, to be ten games into the season and still be one of only two unbeaten teams is a notable achievement.
Their success has been based on the most miserly defence in the Premier League, but the impact of the new boys – particularly Yohan Cabaye and Demba Ba – has been both substantial and instantaneous, and perhaps some of their opponents have underestimated them somewhat.
This Saturday they welcome Everton, who at the start of the season you would probably have tipped as the most likely team to trouble last season’s top six. That might still happen, but, Newcastle’s progress is such that they’re looking in better shape than Everton right now.
The Toffees’ limitations were shown up against Chelsea and Manchester United, and while a top half finish certainly isn’t beyond them, they are having to adjust their sights because of the strangulation being applied by the lack of money at the club. It’s clearly taking effect and I think David Moyes may privately acknowledge that, though publicly he can’t come out and say quite as clearly.
For once, these aren’t the kind of problems being suffered at St James’ Park. There’s a great sense of togetherness, and the thing that strikes me as encouraging about Newcastle than anything else is that they genuinely are a team rather than a disparate group of players.

If Newcastle have been the hares of the early stages of the Premier League race, Aston Villa have been the tortoises.
They don’t play particularly expansive football - they are cautious above all else. Norwich may be in a position to exploit that, they are just one point above Villa at the moment. They made that comeback from 3-1 down against Blackburn last weekend and their run of results is reasonably impressive right now. If Norwich can go to Liverpool and draw then surely their ambitions must be at least that at Villa Park?

Arsenal look like being back in business, with eight wins in their last 10 in all competitions, though they were disappointing against Marseille in the week when they were relatively toothless.
I suppose they may have paid a price for not starting Robin van Persie, though equally they would pay a price if they did start him every week, given his history with injury.
That is a sensible policy from Arsene Wenger to keep his star man out of the firing line on occasions. Park Chu-Young had a rather disappointing night, and didn’t really fill the boots of Van Persie in the way Wenger would have wanted, and you still feel in this Arsenal team, despite the recent results, have some shortcomings.
Clearly there are currently positions within the side that are filled by players who are nowhere near the normal Arsenal standard, so while things have picked up, they still have a way to go.
Having said that, they’re facing a West Brom side who were extremely poor against Liverpool last weekend. They were a really long way below the levels they had set earlier in the season. Plus there’ll be no Shane Long, which means they have no-one to chase and harry opposition defenders. With home advantage, Arsenal should be looking for another win to push them towards the top six.

Hold the front page; Blackburn are not bottom! It may not last for much longer, but they have managed to climb off the foot of the Premier League. The build-up to the weekend fixture with Chelsea has been overshadowed on two counts; on Chelsea’s side by the John Terry situation and on Blackburn’s by the banning of banners within the ground.
Blackburn’s recent record shows just three defeats in their last nine games in all competitions, but that includes just the one Premier League win. I don’t see them making rapid strides forward, I see gradual improvement but they are going to need more than that because they are cut adrift. They are only two points from safety at this stage, but there’s no reason to be any less worried for them as we were at the start of the season.
Chelsea come in to the game off the back of two Premier League defeats in a row, a rarity for them. People talk about them as genuine title contenders, but they are already nine points off the pace – that’s an awful lot of ground to make up, even at this stage in the season.

Liverpool are now seven unbeaten, with Suarez catching the eye, week in week out, though I’ve found some of their recent performances to be rather tired, uninspiring and lacking that bit of fire.
The game at West Brom is case in point, though perhaps we should give the Reds the benefit of the doubt, as West Brom were so poor that Liverpool didn’t have to play well. What I did think we saw last week was a bit of a glimpse of Liverpool’s medium-term future, it was a rare occasion where they took to the field without either Steven Gerrard or Jamie Carragher and they coped perfectly well.
On Saturday they will face a spirited challenge from Swansea, who will need to work on their away form, having taken just one point on the road so far. They’ve conceded fourteen goals on their travels and just one at the Liberty Stadium so there’s a disparity there that will leave Brendan Rodgers tearing his hair out, but they have managed to overcome most challenges this season and I am sure they will be working on addressing that. However, I don’t see them getting a win at Anfield, I find that too much of a stretch of the imagination.

Manchester United have responded to their derby demolition with three wins in which they haven’t conceded a goal. They are the only side in the Premier League to have scored in every game in all competitions this season and clearly while they were down in the depths just under two weeks ago, they are gradually picking themselves up.
Knowing Alex Ferguson as we do, we know that he will use that defeat as a spur and a motivation for the rest of the season. He will have said to the players, ‘you must never ever allow yourselves to be humiliated in that fashion again’. So I feel rather sorry for those clubs that Manchester United are going to face in the next few weeks.
Sunderland are next in the firing line, but frustratingly for them, they can’t solve their problems until January. Their problem being the lack of a regular goalscorer, and even then it will be difficult because it is not the best time of year to trade. Their position in the Premier League is summed up by their last six games. They’ve won two, drawn two and lost two - they have a problem with inconsistency.
I don’t see them being dragged into the relegation battle because they have got too many good players. They will rely heavily on the experience of Wes Brown and John O’Shea at Old Trafford, two of the United old boys, and they will hope too that Connor Wickham builds on his first Premier League goal last weekend because he is a genuine talent coming through, it is just a question of whether or not he is ready for regular Premier League starts.

Queens Park Rangers have a better away record than home, which is surprising as Loftus Road is that has always been quite an intimidating place for visiting sides.
However they did show signs of putting that right with the victory over Chelsea. QPR shouldn’t expect the same kind of charity from Saturday evening's visitors Manchester City as they got from their West London rivals – the league leaders come into this game with nine wins and a draw from their 10 Premier League fixtures.
They have also scored 36 goals, and my elementary O level maths tells me that would see them end the season with 137 league goals, should they keep it up. In their games so far they have scored a six, a five, and three fours, so they are into big wins and I think that might get another one at QPR, particularly when you Roberto Mancini was able to rotate his squad for the win at Villarreal on Wednesday evening. However the Italian will first need to recover from the concussion suffered after smashing his head on the roof of the dugout in Spain, of course!

Wolves have taken just one point from seven games, but have a chance to inflict some damage on a potential relegation rival, Wigan, who’s record is zero points from seven games. Wolves are better equipped for the battle than Wigan, it’s almost as if the Latics have put the white flag up, judging by the way that they are approaching matches. They continue to play their pretty football, which on one level is admirable but I’m not sure it is sensible.
Molineux can become quite a poisonous place when things are going badly, they really do turn on their own team, and if Wigan were to score the first goal I could see it turning quite nasty, and that would make it even more difficult for Wolves. But I would expect Mick McCarthy to have his team coming out on the front foot, he will have told them that this is a big opportunity to get their season back on the right track and I would expect them to win.

Sunday’s match between Bolton and Stoke City is of great relevance as the Potters’ 5-0 FA Cup semifinal win over the Trotters back in April seemed to instigate Bolton’s retched recent run.
It was a defeat they don’t seem to have ever recovered from, losing thirteen of their last fifteen games. Owen Coyle wouldn’t claim to be the greatest tactician in the world, but he is one of the better man-managers around yet he is really struggling to get Bolton out of this tail-spin. Stoke are never going to be the most compliant of opponents, though they will be coming back from a 5,000 mile round Europa League trip to Tel-Aviv, and unlike many managers, Tony Pulis insists on playing most of his big names in the competition. Bolton will hope to capitalise on any tiredness, and go full-circle with a win to kick start their season.

Fulham and Tottenham also face the challenge of recovering quickly from their Europa League exploits before they face one-another at Craven Cottage on Sunday. Spurs return from that long, fruitless trip to Rubin Kazan, but of course they sent the a group of youngsters and fringe players, so it won't be as big an issue as it will be to their opponents, who may have won impressively 4-1 at home to Wisla Krakow, but cannot afford to rotate their squad in the same way.
Tottenham will therefore come out all guns blazing, and they are playing some tremendous football at the moment. Neil Warnock, who was in the firing line at White Hart Lane last weekend, said that even he was applauding their third goal. Against Queens Park Rangers they gave a display that suggested that they are very genuine contenders for fourth place and I would expect them to confirm that at Fulham. I think Tottenham have done the right thing by sending the kids to Russia and on Sunday I think they will reap the benefits.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more. For more information visit espn.co.uk/tv

Mancini sheds his straitjacket, but AVB still needs to be kept under control

Jon Champion — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 07:30:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch live and exclusive coverage of West Bromwich Albion versus Liverpool live on ESPN from 4:45pm on Saturday

Firstly, a word on last week's big match – and huge result. I was lucky enough to be at the Manchester United v Manchester City game and I couldn’t quite believe what I was watching. I think that the scoreline was false, in that three of the goals came in the 90th minute or thereafter, but it was clear was that the result was anything but false.
I was surprised at the adventurous way in which City approached the game. Mancini has had them in a straitjacket in previous big games – like last season's derbies, when he seemed content with a draw. He clearly feels confident enough to ask his team to play more expansively – and that's great news for the rest of us; we're going to enjoy watching Man City a whole lot more without that frustration of thinking “There’s so much more that these players could be doing but their manager won’t let them”.
I was also surprised by the way Manchester United capitulated. I’ve rarely seen a United side who didn’t even seem to be trying towards the end, but the way that they conceded a couple of the late goals suggested as much.
The only word of caution I would issue to those saying this is a definite shift in power and that Manchester City are definitely going to win the league, is that we've been here before. There were times 15 years ago when Newcastle were challenging Manchester United; I remember sitting at St. James’ Park watching Phillipe Albert score that outrageous chip in a 5-0 win over Manchester United and people said this is a definite shift in power, Newcastle are going to win the league – and of course they didn’t. History shows that Manchester United will bounce back; I just think it will be rather tougher for them this time because they’re up against a money machine.

And so to this weekend, and I think we can expect to see a few big changes in the Manchester United line up for the game at Everton. I don't think a trip to Goodison is quite as daunting a fixture for them as it has proved to be in previous seasons, and I'd expect them to bounce straight back.
Their ears will still be ringing from what Sir Alex Ferguson has had to say in private, but he has already publicly scapegoated a couple – Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra, and Anderson is also in his sights, which is very rare for a manager that always likes to keep things in-house. It shows the depth of Ferguson’s anger.
David Moyes will be feeling distinctly unfortunate that Everton are next to play United, because it’s rather like being the manager after Ferguson: you'd rather not be next in line. Nobody would want to face United after that derby, especially as Everton played 120 minutes in midweek – a night after United played much of their shadow squad, whereas Everton can't change it round very much. I think it’s all pointing towards Manchester United.

Everton lost in extra time to Chelsea, who this weekend face Arsenal in a game that looks much closer than it might have been a few weeks ago. The Gunners' run of seven wins in eight games hasn't come against any great teams; you can only beat what's in front of you, but this will be a more realistic guide to how much improvement there’s been, and they’ll do well to get anything at Stamford Bridge.
Arsenal are still some way short of being a top four side. I know they’ve risen up to seventh in the league but they are lacking in certain areas and I’m still not convinced about them defensively. Thomas Vermaelen came back but got injured, so he’s a doubt, and he's a big presence they need available.
I just look at the rest of the side and although there are promising signs – Park Chu-Young played very well in the League Cup and looked like a player that could grace the Premier League stage – they're still thin in certain areas and you'd have to fancy Chelsea to beat them at home.
Speaking of Chelsea though, I was really disappointed to see their attitude at QPR last weekend. Some things haven’t changed: they were a petulant bunch under Jose Mourinho and now they seem to be a petulant bunch with a petulant manager as well, judging by the way that Andres Villas-Boas reacted to the referee, who I thought didn’t have a bad game actually.
Building a siege mentality might have worked for Sir Alex Ferguson for 25 years but it doesn’t become Villas-Boas: he’s an intelligent young individual, and he must realise that people can see through his fairly blatant tactics of trying to wind the authorities up over the officials in the hope for more favourable decisions in the future. I think we’ve gone beyond that and I would hope the FA come down fairly hard on him for what he said about the referee.

And so to Manchester City against Wolves part two: a league game in Manchester after the midweek League Cup tie at Molineux. Wolves played really well in Wednesday's first half, and then were swamped; it’s difficult to see anything other than a Manchester City win.
Although they've a big Champions League match at Villarreal on Wednesday, City will be back to something approaching their A-team – and at Molineux their reserves put five past Wolves. True, Mick McCarthy made changes for that game too, but it’s not the sort of fixture that Wolves need at the moment as they try and dig themselves out of a hole of their own making.
There were one or two moments to encourage them in coming from two down against Swansea last weekend, but really their season isn't going to be decided by Manchester City away, it’s going to be the games against the teams around them in the lower reaches of the table – like, perhaps, Swansea, who got a draw at Molineux.
Last week Mick responded in typically forthright fashion to those calling for his head by calling them idiots. It’s always a bad sign when a manager starts having a go a the fans, but Mick’s slightly different in that he’s a no-nonsense Yorkshireman who's not bothered what people think of him.
The person he needs to make sure still has respect for him is Wolves owner Steve Morgan, who’s a fairly sensible individual. I don’t think Mick’s fixture will be judged on what happens against Manchester City. I think it’s the ensuing weeks against the weaker teams that will decide what happens.

I saw Norwich at Liverpool last week and was really impressed. They could have been four down in 20 minutes, but could equally have won the game in the second half, with admirable resilience. The thing that impressed me most about Norwich was their sense of spirit and togetherness: at one point seven of their 11 on the pitch had played non-league football in their career.
That’s the thing that comes across from Norwich: there are no stars, no egos, they're a unit rooted in reality – and for that reason I think they are going to be a tough nut to crack, particularly at Carrow Road. This weekend they host Blackburn; a decent midweek result in the Carling Cup, albeit against a mix-and-match Newcastle team, will boost them, but I'd still fancy Norwich to beat them and increase their misery at the foot of the table.

Sunderland must have been delighted last week at Bolton to finally see some good approach play converted into goals, albeit late ones. I can see them continuing in the same vein at home to Aston Villa. Alex McLeish's side were unfortunate last week with the Chris Herd red card, which arguably changed the course of the game against West Brom and has rightly been rescinded since.
However, it's a mystery how Alan Hutton stayed on the pitch after virtually cutting Shane Long in two. The referee saw it and chose not to issue any card so there was no possibility of retrospective action, and the only poetic justice was when Hutton later clashed heads with a team-mate and had to go off anyway, clutching his head – although Villa could bring on a replacement, and Long had already limped off.
With home advantage I think Sunderland have every reason to hope for three points from the sort of game they need to start to win now if they’re going to rise up the table, and a win would see them leapfrog. They’re still uncomfortably close to the bottom in 14th; I do think they’re better than that but they need to start showing it.

Speaking of which, after losing at home to Sunderland last week Bolton travel to Swansea in what's a bit of a litmus test for them. They seemed to have got their season back on track by winning at Wigan but Owen Coyle has cause for concern at the moment because he seems to be like a jockey cracking the whip and the horse isn’t responding – and that’s worrying for any manager.
If Bolton are going to climb up the table they should be winning at Swansea, and if they don’t then it looks like a season of toil for them down near the bottom. But it won't be easy: Swansea are a different side at the Liberty Stadium with two wins, two draws and no defeats, compared to one away point from 15 with a shedload conceded on their travels.

Wigan also need wins, with still just the one win two months ago, but goodness me Fulham are the sort of visitors they'll welcome. Just a couple of points above them in the table, the Cottagers themselves have only won one game, and that was at home where they are reasonably solid; away, they’ve only managed one goal and one point in four games.
If Wigan are ever going to win a game, then statistics would suggest that this is the one – but you can’t back them with any confidence. Fulham produce the odd good result and quite a lot of bad ones, but Wigan are producing unremittingly disappointing results – and not showing the happy knack they’ve had in the past two or three seasons of winning the important games.
They need to start doing that again soon. I can’t believe they’re going to go on like this so for that reason and because Fulham are so dodgy, particularly away from home, I might stick my neck on the block and predict that Wigan will win this.

In recent memory, West Brom against Liverpool has been an unbelievably one-sided fixture: before last season Liverpool had won nine consecutive times at the Hawthorns. But by last April Roy Hodgson had got a grip of West Brom, having been unceremoniously shown the door by Liverpool; a couple of Chris Brunt penalties meant that the Reds lost, which seemed a hard defeat for Kenny Dalglish to take.
Liverpool are a frustrating outfit in that they play some wonderful football – as in the opening 20 minutes against Norwich last weekend – but their finishing hasn't been up to scratch. It doesn’t help that Andy Carroll isn’t looking like a £35m striker; I don’t expect him to start this week because he was given another chance in the midweek League Cup game at Stoke and again disappointed.
As for Luis Suarez, I’m full of admiration for his football but not for some of his theatrics, which are getting tiresome now. Referees are pretty wise to him: against Norwich, Peter Walton clearly had to be totally convinced that Suarez been fouled before giving him a free kick, because he’d spend so much time on the ground rolling around.
It's a shame because that’s not what goes with the No.7 shirt at Liverpool. The outrageous talent is, but there’s a danger that the good of Suarez will be overshadowed by the bad, and that would be a great pity.
As for this weekend, Liverpool will find it tough at The Hawthorns because after a rather dubious start to the season West Brom have got their act together. They haven't played badly at any stage, they just weren’t getting the results to start with; now they are, and this could well be a third consecutive draw for Liverpool.

On Sunday, Tottenham host QPR for the first time in 16 years. Rangers somehow hung on to beat Chelsea in that ill-tempered game last weekend, but Tottenham are going along fairly serenely at the moment. They were held at Newcastle, but home advantage should be enough. Even though QPR are coming off the back of what Neil Warnock describes as the greatest day of his 31 seasons as a manager, it’s difficult to see them getting back-to-back wins against in-form Tottenham.

Finally, on Monday night it’s Stoke against Newcastle, who will have to see this trip as posing a significant threat to their unbeaten Premier League record. True, in the midweek cup game the Potters lost at home to Liverpool; but with their full first team available at home after four or five days' rest, Stoke are one of the most formidable propositions anywhere in the Premier League. They've only conceded one home league goal all season, to Manchester United.
Newcastle have lost Shola Ameobi but will have to be at their best. It'll be interesting to see how they stand up to Stoke's physical challenge: they’ve beaten some decent footballing sides but apart from the in derby at Sunderland they’ve not really had anyone who’s been in their faces – and that’s what they’ll get at Stoke. For that reason, I can see Newcastle’s unbeaten record going here.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more. For more information visit espn.co.uk/tv

Previews: City look to buck Old Trafford trend by winning Manchester's biggest derby

Jon Champion — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:19:00 GMT

Sir Alex Ferguson has described Sunday’s Manchester derby as the biggest he can remember. There have been a few big ones in the last few seasons, but I would agree with him, especially as the current league table serves as an example of the potential swing in the balance of power in the city that is now England’s undisputed footballing capital.

Manchester United are on a run of 19 consecutive Premier League home wins, a new record that will come under close scrutiny from Manchester City. Over the years they have found a way to beat City at Old Trafford. There was Michael Owen’s late goal and a real arm wrestle in United’s 2-1 win last season.

City are better than they were last year, but their record away to their neighbours is one win in thirty-two since that famous Dennis Law goal in 1974 that sent his old side down.

City will look to last season’s FA Cup semi-final, which they won through a goal from Yaya Toure, as their inspiration and they will look to that rather than league games or the Community Shield, which was a thrilling contest for the neutral but very disappointing for City giving up a 2-0 lead.

We may also have the sub plot of Owen Hargreaves featuring against his former side, which will add extra spice were he to be included on the bench at the club he claimed failed to properly manage his injuries.

United’s last match was of course that draw at Liverpool, a game in which both sides showed a real lack of ambition. United showed too much respect to Liverpool, which was a surprised at that because I’m not convinced that, for all the money Kenny Dalglish has spent, they have shown a tremendous amount of improvement.

They’ve spent an awful lot, something like 10 times as much as Dalglish spent in his entire first spell, which shows how far the game has moved in the last 20 years, and that the cheque book has been opened to a fairly radical extent.

They still lack at the back and I thought Manchester United would have been well placed to exploit that. Jamie Carragher is past his best, Martin Skrtel is not a top four centre back and the right back position has been a problem since Glen Johnson got injured.

They also have the problem of trying to accommodate Andy Carroll alongside Luis Suarez. The more I see of Suarez, the more I think it’s going to be difficult to find anyone to play with him. Their best bet may be to play a 4-2-3-1 with a couple of wide players and Steven Gerrard pushing on from midfield. But where does that leave the £35 million man?

Still, I’d expect Carroll to feature this weekend, I get the sense that Dalglish is very eager to integrate Carroll and play him as much as possible. I think all the press speculation of is he the biggest waste of money ever, knowing Dalglish as we do I think his reaction to that will be to play him whenever he can.

I’ll be at Anfield for Saturday evening’s match against Norwich, and I’m looking forward to it. Norwich have been better than I expected so far this term. They have won three of their last four games and are currently ninth in the table, despite coming in to the season without a recognised Premier League player.

It appears they may be able to get enough point on the board this side of Christmas to give themselves a fighting chance of staying up come May. I had them among my three to go down at the start of the season but I’ve seen enough to consider reassessing.

The impact being made by players like Anthony Pilkington, who has had to work his way up the divisions, gives hope to footballers throughout the Football League that you can make it with a bit of persistence and a bit of talent.

Times are currently a touch more worrying for Wolves, five consecutive defeats have left them just a couple of places above the bottom three, but looking at their squad you’d say they should be higher. They shouldn’t have any long-term problems this season.

They’re having a bad spell, but Mick McCarthy will probably be quite happy to get it out of the way early. Saturday’s opposition, Swansea, should be pretty accommodating opponents, in that they play nice football but away from home are quite meek. Brendan Rodgers’ side have lost all four away games and scored just twice on the road. This is an ideal opportunity for Wolves to get back on track.

Aston Villa will be looking to do the same against West Midlands rivals West Bromwich Albion, and it will be interesting to see how they react to their first real set back of the league season, that thumping at Man City.

A lot of clubs are going to suffer at the hands of Manchester City this term, so they should have dusted themselves off and be ready to go in this Midlands derby.

It seems that Alex McLeish is at times trying to put square pegs in round holes, for example playing Emile Heskey on the right wing last week. Whatever Heskey’s qualities, pace and being able to beat a man are not two of them.

West Brom, meanwhile, are gradually stuttering back to life after initially failing to build on their good performances of the opening two weeks of the season. They put in a good display against Wolves that was typified by the performance of Shane Long, who displayed the kind of front running you only see once or twice in a Premier League season.

I think he is an admirable player in terms of both his technical qualities on the pitch and his character off it. He brings a lot to whichever club he is at and he will prove to be an outstanding signing for West Brom.

You could almost hear the sighs of relief emanating from Bolton after their victory at Wigan, which lifted a bit of pressure and gloom surrounding the club after five straight losses. They’re still in the bottom three, but they won’t stay there. The visit of Sunderland is another opportunity for Owen Coyle’s side to kick on, with a win against the Black Cats enough to see them leapfrog the Wearsiders in the league table.

Sunderland played well in defeat at Arsenal last time out, and will be boosted by the return of Nicklas Bendtner – missing thanks to the terms of his loan deal at the Emirates. The Dane could well be the perfect spear-head for Sunderland, who have a terrific team in many areas but have generally lacked a bit of power up top.

They ended up with the 5ft7 Stephane Sessegnon, and it’s always tough with somebody of that size leading the line. The return of Bendtner as a physical presence will be welcome, and it’s now time for Steve Bruce to produce some results.

Putting some breathing space between themselves and Bolton would be a good start.

Neighbours Newcastle are certainly enjoying Premier League life a lot more at present. Few would have thought they would be one of only three unbeaten sides after eight matches, and they have their axis of power in midfield to thank. Cheick Tiote and Yohan Cabaye have both been in outstanding form and compliment each other perfectly.

I must confess to doing a double-take when I saw Shola Ameobi score that terrific goal against Tottenham last week. He has produced the occasional moment like that over the past decade, and then been poor for the next 10 weeks. Alan Pardew will be hoping that this time he keeps it up, but given he’s the wrong side of 30 that’s probably not too likely.

On Saturday the Magpies will host Wigan, who at the moment are pretty but punchless. There is a school of thought that the Latics are well equipped for a relegation scrap, having been there before. That may well turn out to be correct, but they look at the moment like a side who are going to be in and around the bottom three for the duration.

It’s bizarre to think we’re all so surprised that Arsenal are winning games, but they’ve now been victorious in five of the last six. I’m glad to see it, because I do think Wenger’s ideals have remained admirable and he’s contributed so much to English football, but when you look at the quality of the sides they have beaten, they haven’t been the strongest – even Wednesday’s Champions League opponents Marseille looked rather poor on the night.

Still, there are signs the Gunners are settling down. Mikel Arteta is no Cesc Fabregas and Yossi Benayoun no Samir Nasri, but while Robin van Persie remains they have hope. There are also signs Per Metresacker and Laurent Koscielny are starting to forge an understanding, and with Thomas Vermaelen on the way back too, there are certainly seeds of encouragement.

Next up, the face the side that seem to represent the antithesis in what Arsene Wenger believes in; Stoke City.

Stoke succeed season after season in getting under Arsenal’s skin. While their strength is at home, Arsenal will be very wary when they pitch up at the Emirates.

I think we have come some way when Tony Pulis’ side were first in the Premier League and this fixture would have been billed as ‘Beauty and the Beast’ - Arsenal aren’t as beautiful as they once were and Stoke are now far from beastly, more pragmatic.

Those Gunners players who have been given a good going over by Stoke will be wary. That has been Arsenal’s problem, in terms of mental strength they have not always had what’s required and this will be a good test for them.

For Fulham it seems to be one step forward, two steps back. The fact they have played so many games and started the season so early has not helped them. They haven’t had a particularly settled side, the highly-consistent Aaron Hughes is only just coming back, Bobby Zamora’s not been fully fit all season, Andrew Johnson’s missed a few games too. Skipper Danny Murphy has succumbed to a knee problem and, given he is the man who makes them tick, it’s been a testing time for Martin Jol.

This weekend they face an Everton side that battle well under David Moyes, but they showed their limitations at Chelsea last week.

Usually, if you rank the wage bills of Premier League clubs, it should roughly mirror the league table itself. Since selling the likes of Steven Pienaar and Mikel Arteta, Everton have gone from having the eighth largest wage bill to 14th. I don’t expect them to finish as low as 14th, but I do think they will be lower than last season.

Blackburn are like a car crash in slow motion – everybody can see they’re in trouble but nobody can stop it. I find it difficult to say anything positive, but at least skipper Ryan Nelsen is nearing a return from a knee problem.

They face a Tottenham team who were well held at Newcastle but are on the up after a shaky start to the season with that five-goal demolition by Manchester City. I like the way Harry is managing his squad and uses his personnel to cope with the demands of the Premier League and the Europa League, and I fully expect him to be victorious this weekend.

QPR look better with their new signings, but still not great. They will be nearer the bottom than the top, unless they add significantly again in January. Equally I think they’re more than good enough to pull away from the bottom three, which they would not have been without the injection of Tony Fernandes’ money.

This weekend they’ll face old rivals Chelsea. It’s strange to think that when Ken Bates was chairman at Stamford Bridge, Neil Warnock was offered the manager’s job but turned it down to remain at Notts County – that’s certainly a sign of how times have changed.

Chelsea were impressive in spells against Everton. They didn’t always play at the tempo you’d wish them to, but when they did they were difficult for Everton to cope with.

Juan Mata is arguably the best of the summer signings; he’s made a fantastic impact and breathed now life into an ageing side. I can only see this London derby going one way and it’s not QPR’s.

Premier Preview: Beef, steak and puffed chests

Jon Champion — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:16:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch ESPN’s live and exclusive coverage of Chelsea versus Everton live on ESPN from 4:30pm on Saturday

Gary Neville says that he used to be more up for Manchester United's games against Liverpool than any other fixture in his playing career, which gives you a measure of the magnitude of the occasion.

It all dates back to Alex Ferguson’s arrival in England, and his determination to – to use his later phrase – “knock Liverpool off their perch”. It's something he has now achieved – certainly in terms of league titles, if not in European Cups. Even given Liverpool’s relative fall from grace in recent seasons, you still get the impression that this remains the fixture Fergie rings in red on the calendar. There’s still a big edge to the game.

One or two in the Manchester United camp – particularly Nemanja Vidic – will be pleased that Fernando Torres is no longer a Liverpool player, because he used to torment them in this fixture. Liverpool have a decent record against United at Anfield in recent years; United were tested at Stoke and I think they’ll have a tough job on their hands this Saturday lunchtime as well.

However, Liverpool still concern me – they’ve spent £100 million on players, but they look well short of a side that has seen that kind of investment. Going forward they have the potential to be excellent with Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll – even though the two have clear difficulties playing together – but defensively they have issues that they really need to address.

There’s also the issue of Wayne Rooney, off the back of his England red card. The atmosphere will be electric, so he’ll need to do his best to focus on the game, and not on the inevitable barrage of abuse from the crowd.

While Manchester City will be favourites for the visit of Aston Villa, Roberto Mancini’s men will have to be wary of the in-form Gabriel Agbonlahor. He has been a slow-burner, touted as one to watch for the past five or so seasons now, but isn’t it great to see a local boy make it to the Villa first team and have such an impact now? He seems much happier under Alex McLeish than Gerard Houllier’s management, and that’s apparent from the displays on the pitch.

I was amused by the story this week of James Collins, who has a foot problem, and is having to play with a slab of steak in his boot! It seems to hark back to the 1940s and 1950s where players didn’t want to miss a single game – it’s actually quite heartening to still see that kind of commitment from players. It also reflects the approach of the manager as well; McLeish is a no-nonsense individual, and he demands the same from his players.

City still have the Carlos Tevez affair swirling around them, and it’s not going to go away until the Argentinian leaves the club. The whole affair is an indictment of much of modern football and the way it’s run – I don’t think anyone emerges from this with a lot of credit. It’ll also be interesting to see how they balance the demands of the Premier League and Champions League: City host Villarreal Tuesday, after losing to Bayern Munich last time, and it’ll be interesting to see what team Roberto Mancini puts out on Saturday.

At the other end of the table, Wigan host Bolton. It’s too early to call this a relegation six-pointer, because Bolton’s position is a slightly false one. Their opening fixtures have been horrendous; whoever it is that has a grudge against them and works with the Premier League fixtures computer has done a very good job!

They’ve played all the big guns, and I suppose you could say that they have got them out the way, but I would expect them to rise slowly. It’s always difficult to pick yourself up after having taken a battering in the opening games, but I'd expect them to move through the gears, if not smoothly, then reasonably effectively in the coming months. I don’t expect them to be bottom, or even in the bottom three.

However, I don’t see Wigan being very far from trouble: with one win in seven, their basic problem is that they don’t score many goals, even if they do play some nice football.

One Premier League manager said to me last week that he thinks that Roberto Martinez’s side will be OK, simply because they have the experience of being in this position before. It’s an interesting take, and he may well be right, but I just think there is a danger that they could be playing with fire once too often.

Wigan's issue is that they don’t sit comfortably in the league because of the size of their club, the modest size of their support and the fact that one man has to bankroll them. I have a lot of respect for those involved in keeping the club in the Premier League, but I do think it’ll prove to be an unequal struggle.

Chelsea versus Everton is intriguing, not least because the visitors have the best record of any team against Chelsea in the Abramovich era. Everton’s approach doesn’t suit Chelsea – I’m full of admiration for Moyes for the energy and attitude he’s instilled into that side, in difficult circumstances. They were unlucky against Liverpool, but I think they tend to puff out their chests when they come up against the top sides, and I expect them to cause Chelsea a few problems.

Who’d have thought that Arsenal against Sunderland would be 15th against 16th? And it doesn’t look like things will be settling down for either side anytime soon. I like what Steve Bruce is trying to do with Sunderland, but their issue is in the final third, where they have no one who is consistently going to put the ball in the net.

Although they’ll miss Nicklas Bendtner (who is ineligible under the agreements of his loan), I don’t think he is that man, and they’ll have to turn to either Connor Wickham or Ji Dong-Won – both of whom are inexperienced at this level. Arsenal will gradually improve, maybe not to the extent of finishing in the Champions League places, but I can’t see why they won’t end up in the top seven. I do think it’ll be a stop-start campaign for them and that will be very frustrating for their fans, who aren’t used to such inconsistency either on or off the pitch.

Talking of surprises, Newcastle have had an impressive start to the season, but it's still early. They’ll be delighted to be in fourth place and one of only four unbeaten sides, but an improving Tottenham represent their first real challenge. It’ll be a good examination for both teams, as it’ll tell as much about Spurs’ renaissance is genuine – after their early season set-back against Manchester City – and it’ll also tell us just how much they can expect from the season.

If Newcastle can come out of this game victorious, then they can realistically look at a top-eight finish. If they lose – which in my view seems the most likely option – then they shouldn’t be too disheartened; in Yohan Cabaye they have a midfielder who could end up being one of the players of the season.

Blackburn's visit to QPR matches two clubs in transition. Under Tony Fernandes QPR should be looking to slowly move up the table, despite the odd hiccup. There’s still work to be done there, and Neil Warnock is looking to bring in a few new faces to the club – Sebastian Bassong of Tottenham being one of them. I don’t think QPR should worry about relegation, but that’s not to say that they’ll have it all their own way.

Unfortunately I don’t think it’ll be a happy ending for Blackburn – their trip to India has merely emphasised their problems rather than sorted them out. I’m not sure how long Steve Kean can continue, because there’s so much unhappiness and antagonism towards him. Couple that with naïve owners and it’s a dangerous combination that could well lead to Rovers' demise.

Two sides also tipped for the drop are Norwich and Swansea. While they're currently ninth and tenth respectively, I’m not really convinced that either side are equipped to stay up; history shows that if promoted sides are going to make a real fist of it, then it tends to be in the first half of the season. Both have had decent starts, but when you look at Hull and Blackpool in recent years, they had flying starts and still struggled badly in the second half of the season.

At the moment, both have eight points and they’ll be wondering where the other 32 will come from. I like the approach of both; I feel that Swansea play the more refined football, but Paul Lambert is an innovative coach. But ultimately, I feel both will struggle despite sitting comfortably in a rather embryonic league table.

Two of England’s Europa League representatives do battle at the Britannia Stadium, as Stoke host Fulham. I’m surprised that both have been as solid as they have. Stoke really amaze me in that they have managed to maintain a decent run in the Premier League – albeit with the odd blip – but their form in Europe has been fantastic. To go to Kiev and nearly win the game was a terrific effort, as was the defeat they inflicted on Besiktas at home. Tony Pulis now has a squad that’s broad enough in terms of numbers and deep enough in terms of quality to compete on both fronts.

Fulham, on the other hand, seemed to be suffering in the league because of their endeavours in Europe, and it was only really a fortnight ago in their 6-0 win over QPR that we got a glimpse of what they’re really capable of. I think they’ve still got the experience from their run to the final under Roy Hodgson two years ago that will keep them going in both competitions.

Speaking of Roy Hodgson, I’m surprised that his West Brom side have struggled somewhat, after a decent campaign last year. They had a difficult start with Manchester United and then Chelsea, but played very well in those matches (despite losing both). A month ago Wolves might have been fancying their chances at the Hawthorns, but they’ve lost four on the bounce.

I know Mick McCarthy has been frustrated with some of the goals they've given away, but he has instilled a strong mentality in that side. The loss of Peter Odemwingie would be a blow to many Premier League sides but Shane Long seems unperturbed by the step up from the Championship.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more. For more information visit espn.co.uk/tv http://espn.co.uk/tv

Spurs and Everton hope to swing balance as Prem welcomes 'quiet' derby

Jon Champion — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:48:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action, as a few old rivals prepare to go head-to-head...

It’s derby weekend in the Premier League. We’ve got three interesting looking local clashes, each of which has something different to offer.

First up is Everton versus Liverpool, perhaps the fiercest fixture on the Premier League calendar – there have been more red cards in this particular match up than any other.

Although there have been some memorable league encounters between the sides, it’s been in the FA Cup that we’ve seen the most compelling meetings of recent times.

The best Merseyside derby I’ve seen was the 4-4 draw in the FA Cup of 1991 which precipitated the end of Kenny Dalglish’s first spell in charge of Liverpool. The Reds lost the lead four times that night and it was one of the most extraordinary derby matches I’ve ever witnessed.

There have also been those all-Merseyside FA Cup finals and, more recently, Dan Gosling’s 118th minute winner which helped pave the way to Wembley for Everton in 2009.

There are all sort of reasons for enmity between the two parties, but it is a unique derby for me in that my experience of it is that it doesn’t just divide a city, it divides families.

There could be some awkward moments around dinnertables on Merseyside

Whereas in most derby matches you tend to find that a family is either entirely one team or the other, on Merseyside you will find brothers who support different teams. You also tend to get a fair few players that grew up supporting one side playing for the other, which is always an interesting quirk.

I rather fancy Everton coming into this game. It may not be a fashionable thing to say, but we’ve seen a couple of wobbles from Liverpool, while Everton pushed Manchester City all the way last week - albeit it quite a defensive fashion.

Everton won last season’s corresponding fixture very comfortably. The score that day may have only been 2-0 but the Toffees' superiority was greater than that might suggest. It was certainly one of the darker days of the Roy Hodgson era at Liverpool.

Of course, I wouldn’t expect it to be as one-sided as it was last year, but I think Everton have got a really good chance of kick-starting their season with a derby win.

Arsenal will be looking for a similar spark as they make the short trip to White Hart Lane for the North London Derby against old foes Tottenham - always a high-octane match and a proper occasion.

Often football in London can lack passion, you go to Chelsea quite often and there are lots of people that if they weren’t at the match would be at the opera applauding politely because a Premier League football match is a fashionable thing to be seen at.

But I think when you go to Tottenham against Arsenal - especially at White Hart Lane, which is still a very old fashioned arena in the very best way - you’ve got the earthiness of a derby despite it being in the capital.

The balance appears to finally have swung and for the first time in a generation Tottenham go into a derby in a better state than the Gunners.

The last time one could have said that would probably have been in the late ‘80s, when Terry Venables and David Pleat both led Tottenham to third place finishes.

Since then, Arsenal have had it all their own way and even when Tottenham have challenged them, generally Arsene Wenger's side have managed to find an answer.

But Tottenham, after coming back from that horrible setback of being beaten 5-1 by Manchester City, have really turned it around and look like a genuine top four side. Arsenal appear to be lowering their expectations all the time, and there seems to be a bit of fear going into this match. So I think this North London Derby is likely to go the way of the hosts.

Rafael van der Vaart scored three goals in derby matches last season

While things will be getting rather raucous up in North London, in the west of the capital, Fulham against Queens Park Rangers looks like being the quiet London derby - the one without quite so much of an edge to it, certainly to the neutral observer.

It’s one of those derbies that perhaps slips beneath the radar because the two sides have fiercer rivalries with Chelsea than eachother. It’s also not a match-up we’ve really seen much down the years. When QPR were enjoying their ‘glory days’, Fulham were in the lower divisions, while Fulham’s resurgence under Mohamed Al Fayed coincided with Rangers’ decline.

I think it’s a derby that’s yet to make a name for itself. Perhaps this is the weekend to start.

Martin Jol’s side seem to take one stride forward and two backwards at the moment, which is a worry for the Dutchman. I get the feeling their relatively small squad has been rather overwhelmed with the amount of games that they’ve been asked to play.

QPR are getting better week-by-week as the new players assimilate, for that reason I think that QPR will go to Fulham full of hope.

The two teams shared a ground seven or eight years ago while Craven Cottage was being re-developed, but I don’t see this being a particularly friendly occasion and I think QPR have a really good chance of getting an away win, and those are very valuable commodities for the sides that are likely to be at the bottom of the Premier League.

It’s been safety first for Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish so far, but a home game against Wigan is perhaps as good a place to start playing more expansive football as any.

There’s no doubt he’s got the personnel to play in a more dynamic fashion, but given his recent past he is desperate to make a good impression on the fans and avoid risking defeats – as a result they’ve drawn too many games.

Wigan are showing all of the weaknesses we knew they would show this season, and they look set be close to the relegation zone again this season, though whether they’re in it or not at the end of the campaign is another matter.

Villa's Charles N'Zogbia will face former side Wigan for the first time

I spoke to one very well-known Premier League manager last week and he believed Wigan would escape because they’ve been in this scrap so frequently in recent seasons. They know how to win the crucial games and it may well come down to that. However those crucial games are perhaps six or seven months away, and at this stage anything they can get at Villa Park would be viewed as a bonus.

Blackburn reverted to type last weekend after their extraordinary win over Arsenal - they were very much second best at Newcastle.

There’s no way they’ll get anything from Manchester City, despite the lingering clouds of the Carlos Tevez affair. Although they beat Arsenal, that was more down to the Gunners’ short-comings than Rovers’ strengths, but I struggle to see them getting anything other than beaten against Manchester City.

We’ve just seen the first couple of examples this season of Manchester United being rather slapdash. Their defending for Peter Crouch’s equalising goal at Stoke last weekend wasn’t too clever, and they then gifted a draw to Basel having effectively won the game in the opening 20 minutes.

Despite that, and Norwich’s back-to-back wins over Bolton and Sunderland, I can’t see beyond a Manchester United win over the Canaries this weekend. I can’t imagine that for the third game running they will be moments of sloppiness permitted by Sir Alex Ferguson. The first match I ever went to was a 5-0 win for United over Norwich at Old Trafford, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar scoreline this time round.

Sunderland are the biggest conundrum of the Premier League so far. You look at their squad and they should be doing far better than they are, and the arrest of Titus Bramble hardly helps the mood.

Visiting the Stadium of Light this weekend will be West Brom seem to have got into a rather nasty losing habit. I expected them to be doing rather better having seen them play well in defeat to Manchester United and Chelsea, but losing is a hard habit to kick

The pressure is back on Sunderland, and given their last home performance - that emphatic 4-0 win over Stoke – I can envisage them return to winning ways against the Baggies.

Alan Pardew will be delighted with his side's start to the campaign

Wolves have been disappointing in the last couple of weeks, while Saturday's opponents Newcastle are looking more and more solid with each passing match. The Magpies aren’t going to make anyone leap out of their seat in excitement, but they’ve been quietly impressive.

With Yoann Cabaye and Chiek Tiote in midfield, the engine room of the team is particularly strong and that’s making up for the shortcomings in other areas. They also look well drilled at the back, and it seems Alan Pardew may have turned a sow’s ear in to a silk purse.

It’ll be a similar story at the Reebok - Bolton seem to be going backwards, while Chelsea, despite giving away a late goal in the Champions League, are improving and will expect to win again.

The Blues are just beginning to settle a bit under Villas-Boas. Juan Mata is fitting in well and Fernando Torres – despite his dismissal last week - has shown some signs of form.

Bolton were delighted to have Stuart Holden back last week, but now it appears he needs further surgery and will be out of action for a further six months. He arguably is their best and most influential player so it’s a huge blow to their season.

Stoke were terrific against Manchester United last weekend. There’s great steel to this Stoke side, which is admirable, and although Swansea will play some pretty football and weave some patterns that are nice on the eye, I find it difficult to see beyond Stoke’s pragmatic approach in this game.

It’s just a question whether the Europa League has an affect to Stoke. They won’t have endured a lengthy midweek journey like they did to Kiev and back last time out, but some of their energy and vigor may still be sapped.

But I think they’ve learnt from that trip to Kiev and I think Stoke could kick on at Swansea.

ESPN broadcasts live and exclusive coverage of the Barclays Premier League. For more information visit espn.co.uk/tv

Fergie's biggest task, Lamps' new role & Arsenal's glass defence

Jon Champion — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:54:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch ESPN’s live and exclusive coverage of Stoke City versus Manchester United live from 4:45pm on Saturday

Last weekend’s summit meeting between Manchester United and Chelsea reiterated what most mutual observers were thinking in early weeks of the season: Manchester United’s real rivals are going to be Manchester City, and not Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool or Tottenham.

Chelsea played as well as we’ve seen them so far this season, but even though Manchester United, particularly after half time, appeared to ease into third gear, they were still defeated. That perhaps reiterates the early season impression that Manchester United are very much the team to beat in the Premier League.

Had United been really pressed, if Torres had stuck one of those chances away, then suddenly they would’ve had to kick on again. I think they were holding something back.

The question is, when will Manchester United slip up? I would put an argument forward that Saturday evening’s trip to Stoke City is their most difficult game of the season so far.

Even though the Potters were heavily beaten at Sunderland last weekend, we can dismiss that as an aberration. They certainly looked a touch travel-weary, though Tony Pulis has been very keen not to use the fact they had the to make the long trip back from Kiev just days beforehand as an excuse for a pretty limp and lifeless performance.

Stoke don’t usually produce back to back Premier League displays like that, and the Potters gave Manchester United a good game last year, eventually losing 2-1 thanks to a pair of goals from Javier Hernandez. The Mexican scored that wonderfully dexterous header at the Britannia, which announced the arrival of a special talent to the Premier League stage.

United’s last Premier League away day took them to Bolton, a match which presented Sir Alex Ferguson with a dilemma over which goalkeeper to select, with the suggestion in the media being he was unsure of how David De Gea would cope in the face of Bolton’s physical approach.

Yet the Spaniard played that day, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the newspaper speculation was what cemented in Alex Ferguson’s mind that he is going to play the youngster; nothing would irk the manager more than having his selection policy dictated to him by the press.

This time, with the papers not making as big a commotion, it wouldn’t surprise me too much if, without any fuss, he sticks Anders Lindegaard in for this on the basis that De Gea still looks a bit fragile, which is the last thing you can afford to be against Stoke.

Stoke have every chance of matching their league performance of last season, but the biggest problem could be the fact they are currently fighting on four fronts. For all the strengthening that Stoke have done, they don’t have a particularly large squad of players you could realistically throw into the big games.

They’re probably still choosing from 18 or 19, but you have to put 18 names on the team sheet for a Premier League game. Something has got to give at some stage.

For that reason I temper my expectations for them this season, but I would be very disappointed if they’re not in the top half of the Premier League table. A very good season for them would be top eight.

Manchester City’s home tie with Everton looks a fascinating one, not least as Everton were the last team to beat City, and indeed did the double over them last season. There is an extra determination when Everton face City thanks to that bitter dispute over the transfer of Joleon Lescott. Even over two years on, the way in which Manchester City manoeuvered that summer stings Everton.

David Moyes is not a man to forget easily, and I think he may still use that as motivation when the sides meet, and it would surprise me if they don’t cause Manchester City a fair number of problems again this time around.

After a sluggish start, the Toffees appear to be finding their feet, while City may have the tiniest seed of doubt in the back of their minds after dropping points at Fulham last time out.

So there are a couple of reasons for City to be weary for once, this weekend. I don’t think this will be quite as routine a home win as some observers will suggest.

You wouldn’t have said it a few years ago, but Arsenal’s match with Bolton Wanderers currently looks like a meeting of two fragile teams.

Arsenal can’t wait for the last of the autumn international breaks to pass; off the back of that, Thomas Vermaelen and possibly Jack Wilshere should return to the fold, and Arsene Wenger may well have something approaching a full squad to choose from for the first time this season.

In the meantime they face a Bolton side buoyed by a midweek League Cup win at Aston Villa. Many people dismiss the Carling Cup as an irrelevance for the top Premier League sides, but I think for Bolton it should provide a bit of a boost after a few weeks of frustration in the league.

Not only that, but they also welcomed back Stuart Holden, arguably their best player, after six months on the sidelines. So Bolton go to the Emirates Stadium in pretty good shape. They have a track record of troubling Arsenal in the past and I can see them doing so again.

One of the disappointing features from the opening weeks of the season has been the willingness of certain parties to jump aboard the "Lampard is in decline" bandwagon.

Yes, maybe the legs aren't quite what they were two or three years ago. Maybe the days of him scoring 20-plus goals a season are gone. But I think he is a good enough player to fill a role that Chelsea seem to be struggling to find someone for, which is the defensive midfielder in their 4-3-3 formation.

I think Jon Obi-Mikel has filled that more or less since the departure of Claude Makelele but has been a pale shadow of Makelele, in terms of the way he plays that role. I don’t see anyone else on the books, other that possibly young Josh McEachran, that can play the defensive midfield role to Andre Villas-Boas’ satisfaction.

But Lampard could do it because he reads the game so well. He doesn’t need to be quite as mobile or have that box-to-box energy to play defensive midfield, so I just wonder whether that might be the answer to extend Lampard’s Chelsea career by a couple of seasons.

In terms of the game this weekend against Swansea, I struggle to see anything other than a home win – although the visitors have cause to be a bit more optimistic about life in the Premier League after their 3-0 dismissal of West Brom last week.

Wolves will be hoping for a better weekend after setbacks in their last two home matches, and Mick McCarthy’s side travel to Liverpool this time round.

Questions are still being asked of the Liverpool defence after they shipped four at Tottenham. I don’t know if the two dismissals had much effect on the result; given the way Spurs set off and Liverpool didn’t in the first half, the Reds were always going to get thumped.

Wolves have got enough about them to go to Anfield and cause some problems – as they did last Christmas when their 1-0 win helped hasten the end of Roy Hodgson's employment. The question is, are they strong enough defensively to cope with Luis Suarez? It wouldn’t surprise me if it ends as a draw.

While Liverpool and Wolves will be looking to get things back on track, for Newcastle it’s a case of wanting to stop the season now. They’ve had a far better start than anyone could have possibly imagined, they look a solid unit, though there are still question marks over where the goals are going to come from.

Leon Best is a good understudy to a Premier League striker, but you’d have to question whether he could contribute enough goals over the course of the season.

Newcastle won't lose too many games at home, but may draw a few more than they would like due to that lack of goals. Blackburn, for all the joy of their win over Arsenal last week, are still going to have more downs than ups over the season and as such Newcastle will have to start as favourites for this match.

The poor starts to the season by West Bromwich Albion and Fulham poor starts to the season have come as quite a surprise. Last weekend Fulham fought back for a good point against Manchester City, which they can use as a launching pad to their season, while West Brom will hope their poor performance at Swansea was a one-off. The pair meet at the Hawthorns on Saturday and I’d fancy the home advantage could be a telling factor.

Wigan Athletic’s season took a significant blow when Hugo Rodallega picked up an injury at Everton last week. They will always struggle to score goals, and they'd usually expect him to contribute between 10 and 15.

Saturday’s opponents Tottenham, meanwhile, appeared to have no difficulty finding the net in an irresistible display against Liverpool. Spurs have taken a while to find their stride, but they looked a top-four side in that demolition, and I expect them to do so again at the DW Stadium.

Another side who are improving are Queens Park Rangers, who have come on leaps and bounds since Neil Warnock began to assimilate his acquisitions into the side.

Saturday’s opponents Aston Villa will be pretty downcast having lost at home to Bolton with, if not a full strength side, then a strong side. You’d have to say Aston Villa have got a battle on to come away from Loftus Road with anything.

Monday evening’s match sees Steve Bruce take his Sunderland side, who finally have a win to their credit, back to face one of the teams he represented with some distinction as a player, Norwich City.

Nicklas Bendtner was a big plus for Sunderland last week. He looked the part, forced the own goal from Jonathan Woodgate and he led the line with a degree of aggression and conviction, which Sunderland had been lacking in the early weeks of the season while Asamoah Gyan was imitating a Premier League footballer.

Now that he’s gone I think Sunderland can kick on. I would expect them to do so at Norwich, despite the Canaries recording their first win of the season against Bolton. I think we’re going to see better things from Sunderland from here on in.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more.

Tetchiness, tactics and dry-docked flagships

Jon Champion — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:50:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action.

This round of fixtures throws up two matches which could have significant bearing on matters at the top of the Premier League come the end of the season.

Tottenham just about held off the strong late challenge of Liverpool for a Europa League place at the end of last season, but given the way that the two sides have begun this campaign, you’d say Liverpool are the favourites to challenge for a top-four place.

Not being in Europe is inevitably a positive for Liverpool in the challenge for a Champions League spot, but I don’t think Harry Redknapp will let the Europa League get in the way. He has an enormous squad and can therefore play a shadow team in Europe, which shouldn’t really have any affect on their Premier League commitments.

Liverpool showed signs of frailty for the first time this season in their defeat at Stoke last weekend, it was perhaps a bit of a reality check for them.

They’ve bought well in midfield and attacking areas, though they are still perhaps a little weak at the back, where they’re still reliant on an ageing Jamie Carragher and Glen Johnson is once again out injured. While Enrique is a good signing at left back, in central defence and at right back there are still question marks against Liverpool.

Tottenham made real compromises in their selection for their opening Europa League group game, which shows just how crucial Harry Redknapp believes the Liverpool match is to his team’s season. We will see whether that selection was justified when they take to the pitch on Sunday.

It was fascinating to see the first signs of Kenny Dalglish’s old tetchiness resurfacing last week with his comments about referees. He always operated on a reasonably short fuse when it came to things like that during his first spell in charge. Maybe the honeymoon period is coming to an end and he is just beginning to feel the reality of the situation he’s in, where there are great expectations placed upon him by the American owners.

Times have moved on since Kenny’s first spell in charge and the authorities are now framing their disciplinary rules in such a way that managers are discouraged from even making the slightest comment, even positive, about a referee.

There have been the same old suggestions of ‘mind games’, but it’s very unlikely a referee is going to be influenced by those kind of comments – it’s part of their training now. Perhaps Kenny is perhaps trying a tactic that might have worked 20 years ago, but won't wash now.

It’s the first of many "Champions League play-offs" over the course of the season as we wait to see who emerges as the real threat to Arsenal’s position in the Champions League.

Having rested so many of their players in midweek, and given they also have home advantage, Tottenham should win this one. After the defeat at Stoke, there will be one or two questions in some Liverpool minds that weren’t there before.

Sunday’s other big game sees Manchester United host Chelsea, who at this stage seem even further behind the champions than last year. United have really kicked on, they were terrific at Bolton last weekend and Phil Jones looks like an immense signing in every sense of the word.

There are even people round Manchester United comparing Jones to the great Duncan Edwards. That may seem a little premature, but for people like Bobby Charlton to say that shows how highly he is rated. The fact that he set up two of Rooney’s hat-trick goals at Bolton – despite playing at right-back – tells you how much he has to offer this side, quite apart from his silky-smooth defensive qualities.

The gap has widened because Chelsea have not bought as effectively as Manchester United. They also don't have the same powers of regeneration, as their youth scheme is nowhere near as productive as United’s.

Andre Villas-Boas will have a dilemma over whether or not to play Fernando Torres. He perhaps shouldn’t, given his form and that of his striking rivals. With Didier Drogba still recovering from his bang on the head against Norwich, the best bet would look like being Nicolas Anelka as the main striker with Daniel Sturridge and Juan Mata either side of him.

However, there is pressure from Abramovich to play the flagship signing, as Ancelotti found at the end of last season. I suspect Villas-Boas will be feeling the same heat.

Although it will be an important game in the title race, it’s far too early for talk of psychological blows. There will be several of these heavyweight ties over the season, so there’ll be plenty of chances to make up ground, though at this stage I’d still put Chelsea behind the two Manchester sides.

Manchester City made their Champions League bow this week and, though dropping points may have been blow to their pride and confidence, what better fixture to get back on track than Fulham away?

The Cottagers are struggling for Premier League points and goals at present. City will find them quite accommodating opposition, and the fact is that they could put out two, maybe even three different teams for this fixture and win, given the poor form of Fulham right now.

The wider issue for City is how they cope with the twin demands of Champions League and Premier League – the age-old dilemma of teams new to Europe’s premier competition. It took Manchester United six or seven years to get used to it and juggle the two.

Arsenal will also be happy with their post-Champions League fixture – a trip to Blackburn. Despite their debilitating injury list, Arsenal are starting to get one or two players back from suspension. That includes one of the bright sparks in a season of gloom, Gervinho, who is available after serving a three-match ban. They go to Ewood Park as strong favourites.

Two teams enjoying a rather more leisurely paddle than many expected are Aston Villa and Newcastle, who do battle at Villa Park on Saturday. The fixture will pit Shay Given, who is impressing in goal for his new club, against the side he served so well for so long.

Newcastle have looked surprisingly solid this season, which is just as well given they’re not going to score many goals. Alan Pardew would’ve bitten your hand off two months back had you offered him a spot in the top four after four games.

Villa, meanwhile, are settling nicely under Alex McLeish. They should be pretty strong at home, but I think they may struggle to break Newcastle down. They do seem to be a side steadily improving though, which should encourage both the manager and the fans.

Less happy will be fans of Bolton, who saw their side dismantled by Manchester United last weekend – and Norwich at home is just the sort of fixture they need after that.

The Canaries currently look like a side slightly out of their depth. I admire the way they play but I don’t see someone like Grant Holt, a terrific Football League striker for the best part of a decade, scoring the goals to keep them in the Premier League. Equally I don’t see many goals coming from midfield. I would say Bolton have the perfect opportunity to get back on track this weekend.

Everton are publicly going through great angst at the limitations of their squad and the fact they had to sell Mikel Arteta. Still, there's enough quality there that they were able to leave out their captain Phil Neville for last weekend’s game against Villa.

Clearly things are not too bad and there was a lot of spirit shown by Everton in that 2-2 draw. I would expect them to win this weekend against a Wigan side who, although exciting going forward, are always vulnerable defensively.

Swansea may not be vulnerable at the back, but at the other end it’s four games, no goals. That perhaps highlights the difference between the Premier League and the Championship. They have a prolific Championship scorer in Danny Graham, but he’s hardly had a sniff at goal this season.

Brendan Rodgers' team might not have expected much from trips to Man City and Arsenal but they've also drawn blanks at home to Wigan and Sunderland. This time they welcome a West Brom team buoyed by their first win last weekend, and Roy Hodgson's men should be capable of bagging another three points. I think at the moment Swansea are right behind the eight ball.

Mick McCarthy will hope his Wolves side react well following their first setback after being beaten by Tottenham last weekend. If there is an arch pragmatist in the Premier League it’s probably McCarthy, who takes a deliciously realistic approach to games.

I’m sure he’s got Saturday’s fixture with QPR ringed in red on his calendar as one to go for the three points. Neil Warnock is still bedding in new signings; they look competitive now and I’m sure they will be over the coming months, whereas a few weeks ago they seem destined to go straight back down, but they don’t have enough to trouble Wolves unduly.

With Sunderland it never rains but it pours. They seemed to have found arguably the most temperamental footballer English football has seen for a while in Asamoah Gyan, who basically made it impossible for himself on Wearside because of his attitude. In Gyan's absence Bruce needs goals and he needs Nicklas Bendtner to come good. We’re all getting a bit sick of hearing the Dane tell us what a great player he is – it’s time to prove it.

The problem for Stoke ahead of Sunday’s trip to the Stadium of Light is that they’ll be making the lengthy trip back from Kiev beforehand. Tony Pulis has seen most things in a lengthy managerial career but this is a new challenge for him and his team.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more.

Wenger's panic, Redknapp's inferno & Barton's immediate reunion

Jon Champion — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:20:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch ESPN’s live and exclusive coverage of Bolton versus Manchester United live on ESPN from 4:45pm on Saturday

Now the dust has settled on the summer’s transfer activity, we know what we're dealing with for the next four months and can take more realistic stock of where clubs stand in the Premier League.
There was some good business, some moderate business and some panic business, and I'd probably put Arsenal’s in the third category.
The sides who have done best over the summer have generally been those who have done their business early, such as Manchester United and Wolves. The uncertainty of not having your squad in place at the start of the season, and indeed for pre-season, doesn’t aid cohesion.

At Arsenal more than anywhere else we’ve seen the problems an unsettled summer can cause a manager. It’s a period where the tone for a season can be set and the tone at Arsenal is certainly not what they would have wanted.
The players they have brought in had all been available – for the right price – for a while, so if Arsene Wenger had been really keen to sign them, he would have done so far earlier. The fact he signed them with minutes to spare suggests they were moves born, if not of desperation, then at least of severe concern.
Saturday’s match with Swansea is a very important game for Arsenal, following that 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford. From Swansea’s perspective it’s a very good time to be visiting The Emirates, if there is such a thing. I’d still expect Arsenal to win the game, but the manner of the performance is just as important. Obviously a win is a must but it needs to be a good win, not a scrappy one.
If Swansea play the sort of game they have in their first three games they could come unstuck. They have to be careful, as even though Arsenal have got problems, Swansea still wouldn’t have one player in a combined XI – and this is where Brendan Rodgers needs to show a pragmatic edge.

You have to feel for Everton's David Moyes. Just as all the speculation surrounding the future of Phil Jagielka had died down, his most creative player – Mikel Arteta – was sold to satisfy the bank.
He’ll be a significant loss. Another window has passed without Everton spending a penny on a new signing, despite losing a key player.
Regardless, I still expect them to finish in the top half. A siege mentality is developing among the coaching staff as they realise they are operating in very difficult circumstances. Aston Villa are still settling down under Alex McLeish and Everton will be keen to show what they are about. I fancy the Toffees to win.

Manchester City versus Wigan is a mismatch – the two sides may be in the same league, but they're from different worlds. Wigan have started the season well but to get anything at Eastlands would be an extraordinary bonus.
In years to come we may look back at City's stunning performance last time out at Tottenham as a crucial moment in their development – the moment when they really arrived as genuine title challengers.

Also evolving are Stoke, who have gone from a fairly unrefined outfit to one playing with two flying wingers. Even though Peter Crouch is a giant, he's shown with England that he's a footballer too. I think he'll fit in quite well – they certainly needed another striker.
They welcome Liverpool on Saturday in a replay of what was a key game last year. Stoke won to prove they're a genuine Premier League force, while Liverpool's problems under Roy Hodgson really came to the fore.
What a difference eight or nine months can make. Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool have beaten Bolton and an out-of-sorts Arsenal, and going to Stoke is arguably the biggest test of their season so far.
Stoke fans will be buzzing at the thought of their new signings, and there will be a lot of questions asked about Liverpool this weekend, as although they are very good going forward they are little shaky at the back.

Sunderland perhaps have the opposite problem. Steve Bruce has 80% of a very good team, but what he lacks is a goalscorer. What he lacks is Darren Bent. With Asamoah Gyan sustaining an injury on international duty and Conor Wickham seemingly not quite yet ready for the Premier League, there could be some particularly frustrating afternoons ahead for the Black Cats.
Saturday’s opponents Chelsea are still clicking into gear. Juan Mata and Raul Meireles will add a creative spark, but it will be interesting to see the exact impact of the new coach, Andre Villas-Boas. What we have seen so far has been very much in the Mourinho model.
Sunderland away might be a tricky game for Chelsea, but it'd be harder if the Wearsiders had somebody to convert the chances they'll undoubtedly create.

Wolves will now see a home match with Tottenham as the sort they can win. All doesn’t seem well at Tottenham, not helped by the fractured relationship between the chairman and the manager over the Luka Modric saga.
It'll be interesting to see what happens when Emmanuel Adebayor is added to the mix. Redknapp is currently trying to put out a few fires; if the Togolese striker shows his bad side, the Spurs boss will be left facing a raging inferno.
A trip to Molineux is not one you look forward to when you’re out of form and have those kind of distractions, and Tottenham will go there rather nervously.

I'm expecting Bolton against Manchester United to be a good game: Wanderers gave Manchester City a run for their considerable money before going down three goals to two. Bolton's advantage is the Champions League: Sir Alex Ferguson's side are off to Benfica on Wednesday so there may be some sort of compromise in his team selection.
Sir Alex named unchanged sides for back-to-back Premier League games against Spurs and Arsenal but I don’t think that will happen for a third game in a row. That can only help Bolton, who now have a bit of specialist against Manchester United in David Ngog.
Ngog had a good goalscoring record against United with Liverpool and has got a point to prove. I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts in place of Ivan Klasnic; even though the Croatian has scored in all three games so far, perhaps Klasnic’s lack of work ethic may mean Owen Coyle prefers Ngog and Kevin Davies up front from now on.
Coyle has also borrowed Dedrick Boyata from Manchester City and Gael Kakuta from Chelsea. Boyata should play every week with Kakuta more likely to come off the bench, but leading managers clearly trust Coyle to develop their players. After Jack Wilshere and Daniel Sturridge accelerated their development at Bolton, word has gone round that the Reebok Stadium is a good place to send a talented young player who may not get a game at your club but needs Premier League experience.
A United victory is a sensible view but Bolton led twice in this fixture last year before being pegged back for a 2-2 draw and I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends as a draw again. With Manchester United and Manchester City going toe to toe – City putting in a strong performance, United trying to trump it – there has to be a stumble somewhere.

Worrying times for West Brom: they've played well without getting a single point, which is a bad sign. Their performances are encouraging but you need a bit of luck and a cutting edge, and they've shown neither.
Having said that, at Norwich they'll be allowed to play their football and I quite fancy them at Carrow Road. It's the sort of game Norwich must aim to win if they want to stay up, but Roy Hodgson will have his team really up for it: I think they feel a sense of injustice after Stoke’s 94th-minute winner in their last game when Ryan Shotton kicked the ball out of Ben Foster’s hands. There's a good chance West Brom will pick up their first points of the season.

The most surprising transfer of the window was Scott Dann joining Blackburn, given their current position and off-field problems and his other suitors apparently including Arsenal. He's an excellent signing for Rovers, who have also kept Chris Samba and now have encouraging strength in depth at centre-back with Ryan Nelsen and the promising young Scotsman Grant Hanley.
Steve Kean now needs a few signings that have been on the fringes, like Ruben Rochina and Mauro Formica, to come through and show what they're made of – and for Jason Roberts to score consistently, which he hasn't done for a number of years.
On Sunday Blackburn face reasonably struggling opponents in Fulham, who seem overwhelmed with the amount of games they have had to play due to the Europa League qualifiers. Both sides need their lading men to stand up and be counted because the season's outlook for the losers of this game will look pretty bleak.

As his new side QPR host his last employers Newcastle, can Joey Barton keep his head? In the build-up he'll dominate the headlines, which is what he loves, but there's a lot more to this fixture – the first game for Newcastle since the apparent confirmation that Mike Ashley is not going to splash the cash.
Andy Carroll left on deadline day in January but no big-name strikers have replaced him during the summer. I feel for Alan Pardew because I think he is being hung out to dry there by an uncommunicative owner and MD who have promised the club lots but returned nothing. Davide Santon is a good signing but will hardly set pulses racing, so it has been low-key for Newcastle – not what they are used to, and not how they like it.
By contrast, under new ownership QPR have made some eye-catching acquisitions like Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Anton Ferdinand. My opinion of QPR has changed: with their old squad under the old ownership they were nailed-on to go down, but they've given themselves a fighting chance – and if they're in contention to stay in the Premier League with the squad they've got, they'll spend again. Neil Warnock has more reasons to be cheerful than a few weeks ago.
Despite the lack of a marquee signing, I like what Alan Pardew has done to get Newcastle's players pulling together. But QPR with Barton will be more of a force: a midfield enforcer might give Adel Taarabt – a game-changer, like Charlie Adam for Blackpool last year – the freedom he needs to create chances in the Premier League.
That said, it'll be interesting to see how Taarabt and Barton get along because you have two top dogs, two legends in their own lunchtime and two players who have got things to offer but are perhaps not as good as they think they are.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more.

United's evolution and City's revolution helping Manchester set early pace

Jon Champion — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:30:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action, as Week Three throws up a Mancester vs North London double header. Watch ESPN’s live and exclusive coverage of Tottenham vs Man City on Sunday 28 August from 12:45pm

This weekend will be dominated by two clashes between Manchester against North London, and will give us another chance to try and gauge who is the better of the two title-chasing Manchester sides.

Each time one or other takes to the field, there are claims of them being the best in the Premier League, but then the other side play and promptly deliver a performance that trumps that of their rival.

Wes saw this with Manchester United on Monday evening, when they disposed of Tottenham with relative ease the day after Manchester City won at Bolton.

I was really impressed by United’s performance, especially given it was the second youngest Premier League side Sir Alex Ferguson has ever fielded, with an average age of 23 years and 191 days.

I see one or two parallels with the young side of the mid-90s, but I don’t see it being the same story all over again. It’s just another example of Sir Alex Ferguson’s talent for regeneration, which he’s displayed several times over the last 25 seasons.

There’s an air of evolution about Manchester United, whereas Manchester City’s recruitment policy is more revolution.

Manchester City have arguably the tougher task of the two this weekend in traveling to a Tottenham side against whom they have a wretched record – winning just four of 28 in the Premier League.

But this is the new City, and their biggest problem at the moment seems to be if and how they can accommodate all the stellar players that are arriving at the club.

They have two strong players for every position. I think the safest at the moment, in terms of nailing down a permanent first-team place, is David Silva – who has been superb this season, and indeed was last season too. The next safest, on the evidence of this season, has to be Edin Dzeko. He’s fairly unique at City in that he’s a big line-leading striker, and there isn’t so much competition for that role at the club.

At the moment it seems the likes of James Milner, Adam Johnson and – if he stays - Carlos Tevez may be struggling for a start. You could say that competition for places is healthy – and to a point it is, but it’ll be interesting to see how these huge names who all expect to feature regularly react to being in and out of the team. Whether their first XI is yet strong enough to knock Manchester United off their perch remains to be seen.

City have played well this season, but haven’t quite set the pulse racing in the way that United have. We’re looking for City to step forward in what is certain to be a very tough game at White Hart Lane, and it’ll be fascinating to see how they approach the game.

Roberto Mancini sent his team to White Hart Lane with the handbrake on last season, but there are now one or two suspicions that with the addition of a few new attacking players, they may be a little more flamboyant. That was certainly the case at Bolton last weekend.

We’re still waiting to see whether they continue to play in the manner you might expect of a leading side, or revert to exercising that typically Italian caution.

Caution was certainly something Arsenal needed on their trip to Italy this week, and their win against Udinese not only sealed a berth in this season’s Champions League, but also bought Arsene Wenger and the club some time to deal with the frustrations of the fans.

Wenger has shown that the players he has got – even with injuries to the likes of Jack Wilshere – are still a very good group.

They made a mockery of the notion of a ‘crisis’ at Arsenal. Of course there are causes for concern, but still they have time and money to address them.

I expect Wenger will spend relatively big by his standards over the next few days. The kind of players he is said to be keen on – Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Edin Hazard and Yann M’Vila - won’t come cheap.

The major challenges will lie ahead, the first of which is at Old Trafford on Sunday. Arsenal will be a bit weary after their tense trip to Udine in midweek, while Manchester United have been able to put their feet up since Monday evening.

For that reason Manchester United should have the edge, however much Arsenal have been boosted by that massive win.

There are still issues to be resolved across North London, too. Interesting tensions are developing at Tottenham between the manager and the board. Harry Redknapp’s comments following the defeat at Old Trafford were fairly revealing, he portrayed a certain agitation and frustration with the dealings of his chairman Daniel Levy and the speed with which players are being brought in.

Harry is clearly keen to see some transfer action before the close of the window, and their performance on Monday suggests they could certainly do with a bit of tinkering. Whether Levy will allow him that movement remains to be seen.

Regardless of the quality of the opposition, Spurs have every chance at White Hart Lane. They have a tremendous home record and lost just once at White Hart Lane in the Premier League last term.

They’ll provide a really stern test for Manchester City, but given the way Mancini’s side have started the season with such swashbuckling swagger, they probably start as favourites.

Elsewhere, Aston Villa host Wolves in a managerial meeting of two redoubtable centre-backs who would never take a backwards step. Wolves have made a really impressive start to the season - everything Mick McCarthy touches turns to old gold right now.

It’s nice to see Wolves rewarded for a very sensible approach to team building. They have spent steadily, but there’s no way Steve Morgan is going to endanger the club. He has also pressed the button on stadium redevelopment, so obviously feels they’re in the Premier League for the long haul.

They will certainly be brimming with confidence, while Villa are still finding their feet under Alex McLeish. For that reason I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Saturday’s derby ended all-square.

Like Wolves, Wigan avoided the drop on the final day of last season. On Saturday they travel to QPR for what looks likely to be a significant game at the bottom this time around. QPR had the huge boost of a win at Goodison last weekend, but then came back down to earth with a League Cup defeat at home to Rochdale. The big issue in the coming days for them will be who they can bring in with Tony Fernandes’ money. Wigan, on the other hand, are just trying to hold on to what they’ve got. It appears they may have seen of interest in Hugo Rodallega, while they’re also trying to tie Ben Watson and James McCarthy down to new long term deals.

I think, even this early on in the season, Saturday’s meeting could be a rather tense bottom-of-the-table game, and I’m not sure it’ll be wildly attractive.

At first glance Everton against Blackburn looks like a meeting of a team with money but no sense, and a team with plenty of sense, but no money.

The other difference between the two at the moment is that Everton are a team, while Blackburn still look merely a collection of players. Despite their surprise defeat to QPR last week, I still expect Everton to have a solid season and finish no lower than eighth, starting with a positive result at Ewood Park.

Chelsea were insipid against West Brom last weekend, and Andre Villas-Boas’ team have really seemed to lack creativity. So he’ll be looking for his latest signing Juan Mata make his mark as quick as possible, and of course to sign Luka Modric.

The Blues will this weekend face a Norwich side damaged by a League Cup thumping at home to MK Dons on Tuesday. There were enough of the Canaries’ first team in the side that night to worry Paul Lambert. So although Chelsea were disappointing last week, I’d still expect Norwich to be beaten at Stamford Bridge.

Swansea need to learn that it’s no good looking pretty in the Premier League but losing. So many teams have done that before and paid the price, so they’ll need to find some backbone quickly. If they have any aspirations of staying in the Premier League, they need to win home matches against struggling sides, and Saturday’s meeting with Sunderland falls into that category.

Steve Bruce has brought in a fair few players, but there isn’t a proven goal scorer among them. They’ve got an untried Korean – Ji-Dong Won, an untested youngster in Connor Wickham and Asamoah Gyan, and I wonder how long the latter will be enthused for if he isn’t getting the support. I don’t see a lot of goals in them, which is naturally a worry.

One man who won’t be worried is Kenny Dalglish - everything is going swimmingly for Liverpool at present. At home they look, if not an unstoppable force then certainly a fairly unmovable object. They have started the season very encouragingly and I don’t see much getting in their way right now.

Saturday evening’s opponents Bolton are a solid team and could potentially do better than last season, and were only a Jussi Jaaskelainen error away from a point against Manchester City last week. But I don’t see them having much joy at Anfield, however well they performed against City last time out.

It’s been a fairly non-descript start to the season from Fulham and a particularly good start from Newcastle. The early signs for Alan Pardew’s side are encouraging; they’ve gone about their transfer business quietly, bringing in the likes of Yoann Cabeye from Lille, and I’d be quietly encouraged – if not shouting from the rooftops – were I a Newcastle fan at this stage. They’ll certainly be expecting to win a home game against Fulham.

West Brom have been probably the unluckiest team in the Premier League so far this season – they’ve put in two good performances against Chelsea and Manchester United, yet taken no points. But there are plenty of good signs for them, most notably Shane Long, who looks a very good player and will continue to hassle and harry defenders all season long. Stoke haven’t moved on that much since last season, but are still a much more refined team than the one that first arrived in the Premier League three years ago.

This will be a very hard-fought Midlands derby and I wouldn’t be surprised if this ended as a draw.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more.

The under-rated classic and the inevitable disaster

Jon Champion — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:30:00 GMT

ESPN commentator Jon Champion is back to preview the Premier League's weekend games...

I said last week that the shape of many squads could be very different come the end of August, but in fact precious little has happened on the transfer front in the last week. But we’re now approaching the last 10 days of the window and I think we can expect some more frantic activity.

I get the feeling that Luka Modric will probably get his move to Chelsea before the end of the month – it’s just a question of organising the terms of the transfer.

A deal for Modric would be bad news for Spurs – however much money they can bring in – as he’s the arch string-puller, a very special player. My interpretation of Harry Redknapp’s comments is that he’s preparing the ground so the supporters aren’t shocked when Modric goes.

Chelsea certainly need some new blood – that was evident in their performance at Stoke last weekend. It was supposed to be the ‘new Chelsea’, but it looked very much like the old Chelsea – both in terms of personnel and formation.

I’ll be at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening to see a repeat of the fixture I covered on the opening day of last season – Chelsea against West Bromwich Albion. Then, Roberto Di Matteo made his debut as a Premier League manager with West Brom as Chelsea won 6-0; tomorrow he'll be in the home dugout as No.2 to Andre Villas-Boas.

I certainly wouldn’t expect it to be anything like 6-0 again; what Roy Hodgson looks to bring to any club he goes to is structure, discipline and organisation, and although he didn’t have time to apply that at Liverpool, he certainly has managed it very quickly at West Brom.

Villas-Boas didn’t seem to have much of an influence on their game at Stoke, as far as I could tell. I was surprised Fernando Torres played, although he ultimately did pretty well – there were highlights in his hair and highlights in his play. I just felt [Didier] Drogba was the kind of player who could’ve given the Stoke defence a taste of their own medicine.

It’s not a particularly experienced managerial team at Chelsea now. There’s Di Matteo, who’s had brief spells at MK Dons and West Brom; and Steve Holland, who’s not had much first-team experience. It’s a very young ‘brains trust’ on the Chelsea bench and I think how things evolve there could be one of the more fascinating aspects of this Premier League season.

This weekend’s action kicks off with a fixture I’m always amazed doesn’t get more national exposure – Sunderland versus Newcastle. Having been up in the North-East just last week and having experienced the fixture many times in the past, I’d say it was one of the biggest games going.

There were two very dramatic meetings last season – Steve Bruce’s job was hanging by a thread after a 5-1 defeat at St James’ Park, while it took a 94th-minute equaliser from Asamoah Gyan to rescue a point in the reverse fixture. But I think the balance may have swung slightly – Newcastle are still in somewhat of a recruitment phase, trying to fill the gaps at left-back and up front caused by the departures of Jose Enrique and Andy Carroll, while Sunderland made a promising start to the new season last week at Anfield.

Having gone behind and also conceded a penalty, they steadied the ship as the game went on and earned a good point. With just shy of 50,000 people crammed into the Stadium of Light, this will be the occasion of the weekend.

Saturday lunchtime will also see one of the traditional Blue Riband fixtures of the Premier League as Arsenal play host to Kenny Dalglish’s new-look Liverpool. This is a bit of an awkward fixture for the Gunners as it’s sandwiched between the two crucial Champions League play-off matches against Udinese, and their squad is already stretched by injuries to the likes of Jack Wilshere, the departures – imminent or otherwise – of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, and now the three-game suspensions for Gervinho and Alex Song.

Arsenal look vulnerable at the moment and will continue to do so until they get some more players in. Liverpool, with their new recruits, can go to Arsenal with genuine hope of getting something; if they have any aspirations of a top-four finish, this is the kind of match they need to win. Despite it being so early in the season, it could be a very significant day in the battle for Champions League spots.

I said last week I was worried about Blackburn’s prospects this season and, having seen them struggle against Wolves last weekend, I see no reason to change that view. I was amused to see the link with Raul: I can’t see there was ever really much chance of somebody of his stature going to Blackburn in their current state, and it was yet another slap in the face for Venky’s, with the Spaniard joining David Beckham and Ronaldinho in spurning their public advances.

What they need – having selected from a first-team pool of 12 or 13 players last week – is more bodies. It’s not just quality they need, but quantity: their bench last weekend was full of kids. For those reasons they’ll be ideal opponents for Aston Villa in Alex McLeish’s first home game in charge.

Speaking of home debuts, Swansea will make their home bow as a Premier League side when they face former manager Roberto Martinez and his Wigan Athletic team on Saturday. I think Martinez can take a lot of credit for Swansea’s rise, which has been finished off by Brendan Rodgers – he is responsible for establishing the style of football they play and also brought in several of the players still at the club.

Swansea showed at Manchester City, albeit in a heavy defeat, that they can play some really nice football; the question is whether or not they’ll be able to get enough results in doing so to survive. What I do know is that anybody who goes to watch Swansea play will enjoy the experience.

You sense this is one of those fixtures where Wigan may opt for a slightly more pragmatic approach. They’ll have identified Swansea as a team likely to be around them come the end of the season, and will know defeat isn’t an option. I was surprised to see Franco Di Santo – a player with an abysmal goalscoring record in this country – start last week against Norwich, with Hugo Rodallega languishing on the bench. They need to resolve any issues as soon as possible and get the Colombian back in the side: there’s a good reason so many other Premier League sides are keen on snapping him up.

One man who knows a thing or two about deflecting the advances of other clubs towards his players is Everton manager David Moyes, who will see the fact he has been able to keep his squad together thus far this summer as a minor triumph, although I think he’ll endure a nervy 10 or 12 days waiting to see if anybody makes a serious move for Phil Jagielka.

Sadly, I think that’s where Everton are at the moment: despite all the good work Moyes has done over the last decade, they're a selling club, however much the fans are crying out for big signings.

Fans of Saturday’s opponents Queens Park Rangers have also been desperate to see their club add a few new faces, and I’m sure Neil Warnock will be delighted to hear that new money is coming in, with Tony Fernandes buying a 66 percent stake in the club.

They were reminded of the harsh nature of the Premier League by their 4-0 defeat to Bolton. Things that they would have gotten away with in the Championship, they didn’t get away with against Bolton and Warnock will be keen to add to his squad quickly.

On Sunday, Norwich will be in for a difficult time against the Premier League's arch pragmatists, Stoke. I saw the Canaries in their opening game at Wigan last weekend and thought they were decidedly dodgy at centre-back, with Ritchie De Laet and Zak Whitbread both seeming to have mistakes in them, which is always a worry.

Wolves will be strong at Molineux throughout the season and, although Fulham are a solid side, I’d fancy Mick McCarthy’s side to get another win in their first home match of the campaign.

It’s difficult to go against Manchester City at the moment, even though Sunday’s opponents Bolton Wanderers had a great result last weekend. Sergio Aguero was of course sensational when he came on against Swansea. I’m not convinced he’ll be quite enough to fully close the gap on Manchester United, although I’m sure he’ll light up the Premier League this season.

Tottenham may be glad they can wait until Monday to travel to Old Trafford, as something catastrophic always seems to happen to Tottenham whenever they go to Manchester United. There’s been Pedro Mendes having a goal ruled out despite the ball being well over the line, the outrageous penalty decision that resulted from Michael Carrick taking a tumble in the area a couple of seasons back, and last season’s farce with Heurelho Gomes stopping play and allowing Nani to score that very controversial goal.

In all of those games Spurs have started well and come undone, and Harry Redknapp will go with his tin hat on, especially given the fact they’re already depleted by injuries and in the throes of trying to strengthen the squad.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more. Watch ESPN’s live and exclusive coverage of Chelsea v West Bromwich on Saturday from 4.45pm.

Same old problems for Arsenal and Newcastle as new season looms large

Jon Champion — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:40:00 GMT

ESPN commentator Jon Champion kicks off a season of Premier League preview blogs, starting with the intriguing clash at St James’ Park, where he’ll be on the mic on Saturday evening…

Newcastle United vs Arsenal - Saturday, 5:30pm

This is a meeting of two sides emerging from a very turbulent pre-season.

Arsenal have suffered from the uncertainly surrounding the futures of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, while there’s also the continuing lack of a commanding central defender – so many names have been bandied about; Gary Cahill, Christopher Samba, Phil Jagielka, Scott Dann – and yet here we are at the start of the season without any senior defensive acquisition having been made.

Still the question marks remain over whether Arsenal have a soft centre – it’s the same position we’ve been in at the start of the last three or four seasons.

Arsenal must hit the ground running– not just in this match but also when they face Udinese in their Champions League play-off match on Tuesday. They then face Liverpool at home and a trip to Old Trafford, so it could be a very tricky start for a squad that is yet to be fully assembled.

Newcastle’s passionate supporters will once again be very concerned over the direction the club is taking under Mike Ashley.

Things seemed to have settled down a bit on the ownership front last season - thanks to a largely comfortable mid-table finish despite the change of manager - and I think the general feeling was that Ashley was at last starting to enjoy his ownership of the club and was again prepared to back the manager.

But everything that has happened over the summer has seemed to indicate the opposite and that he is seeking to obtain maximum value from the club. They’ve cashed in on the likes of Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan and now by the looks of it Jose Enrique and maybe even Fabricio Coloccini.

Newcastle will just be relieved the season is starting now. They have had a pre-season like no other team. There have been the well publicised problems with Twitter, injuries, a pitch invasion at Darlington, the fact three of their players couldn’t even obtain visas to go on the tour of the United States – it’s been an extraordinary catalogue of mishaps, and that’s being kind.

Yet, as Alan Pardew has rightly pointed out, if Newcastle were to get a result against Arsenal and then at Sunderland on match week two, nobody will remember the problems of the last few weeks.

VERDICT: I’m going to sit on the fence and say a draw. I think Arsenal may be slightly cautious after what happened to them up at St James’ Park last season.

Blackburn v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Saturday, 3pm

I fear for Blackburn this season. The change of ownership and manager has so far seemed disastrous from a distance.

For all the promises of big-name signings, they haven’t materialised. I look at the squad and I wonder whether some of the players really want to be part of it, and I think that’s a dangerous recipe to start a season with.

Had Sam Allardyce still been at the club I wouldn’t hesitate in backing them for a mid-table finish, but now I think all bets are off with regards to what happens to Blackburn this season.

As for Wolves, I don’t see them struggling quite like they have in the last two years. I think the permanent signing of Jamie O’Hara is a good one, while Roger Johnson should also prove a decent acquisition.

Mick McCarthy is really switched on, he knows what he needs, the chairman Steve Morgan has released sufficient funds and I don’t see Wolves having quite such a perilous campaign this year.

VERDICT: I think Wolves will be properly prepared for the new season and I don’t know whether we can say that of Blackburn. So I’d back Wolves here.

Fulham v Aston Villa - Saturday, 3pm

These are two of the Premier League’s solid citizens. I think Fulham finished a little higher than perhaps they deserved last season, but I think they’re always a pretty safe mid-table team. Of course, they’re under new management in the form of Martin Jol, but he’s a course and distance specialist in the Premier League.

It’s hard to see Villa faring much better than last season’s ninth place finish. That’s no slight on Alex McLeish, rather a comment on where Villa are at present Randy Lerner has spent big in the past, but it now appears he’s trying to recoup some of that money and run the club on a slightly more sensible basis. That’s usually reflected in the league table. If they do better than last season they’ll have done very well.

VERDICT: Fulham are already up and running, having played six games in the Europa League, so I’d lean towards a home win.

Liverpool v Sunderland - Saturday, 3pm

I still don’t think Liverpool have really got what it takes to challenge for the title this year, although I think they have bought well this summer. We should, of course, point out that at this stage we’re still two-and-a-half weeks from the end of the transfer window, so it’s very difficult to make longer term predictions and it may be that Liverpool still have a signing or two up their sleeves.

I like what Kenny Dalglish is trying to do – primarily buying British and also young in the case of Jordan Henderson. I’ll be fascinated to see how Charlie Adam goes at Anfield.

I think we’ve almost seen Steve Bruce become the new Harry Redknapp – ten new signings so far , and counting - he obviously felt that major changes were needed despite finishing in 10th last season.

He may have felt owner Ellis Shorts’ breath on his neck last season when all the injuries occurred and they had difficulty putting any kind of run together run the second half of the season – which left them looking over their shoulders at one stage, having earlier looked to be challenging for Europe.

Sunderland should be a reasonably solid unit this year, although they’ll need to improve on 10th place to keep the owner happy.

VERDICT: I’d edge towards Liverpool in this one. Partly down to the fact they’ll hold home advantage, but also thanks to the expectation and excitement surrounding their new signings.

Queens Park Rangers v Bolton Wanderers - Saturday, 3pm

I feel sorry for Neil Warnock because I feel he’s been badly let down by the owners at QPR.

He got Sheffield United promoted to the Premier League in 2006 and was then relegated in controversial circumstances – with all the controversy surrounding West Ham and the signings of

Tevez and Mascherano – and now he’s being forced to look for bargain basement signings to keep QPR afloat.

I just don’t see where they’re going to have the quality to compete regularly on the Premier League stage.

I’m also a big fan of Bolton manager Owen Coyle. I think they had a nasty shock with their heavy FA Cup semi-final defeat to Stoke last season and hit the buffers after that, but I’d expect them to have another decent season this time round.

They have injuries and may not fly out of the traps, but I think they’ll be a more than solid mid-table side, aiming for around eighth.

VERDICT: Bolton to win.

Wigan Athletic v Norwich City - Saturday, 3pm

I really like Paul Lambert and the way his teams attempt to play. But they’re in with the big boys now and, while Blackpool made a wonderful attempt of battling the drop while playing good football last season, it’s not very often that a side comes up and makes such a good fist of it.

I’d say Norwich – as well as Swansea - have an awful lot of decent Championship players, plus a couple of wild cards that may or may not be hits in the Premier League, but neither have that ‘x-factor’ Blackpool had in Charlie Adam. For that reason they may well struggle.

Wigan squeaked clear last year – they also play lovely football and this should be a really pleasing game on the eye.

VERDICT: I think this is the hardest of the weekend’s games to call. The enthusiasm of being back in the Premier League could just tip it in Norwich’s favour.

Stoke City v Chelsea - Sunday, 1:30pm

Stoke did brilliantly last year, and of course reached the FA Cup Final. They’ve not done a lot of business so far this summer, but what they have done has been very good.

They’ve brought in a couple of vastly experienced defenders in Matthew Upson and Jonathan Woodgate, not that they were particularly defensive vulnerable anyway. I don’t think they’ve ever going to score a hatful of goals but at the same time I think they’ve evolved from being a very tough, physical unit into a side with two wingers - Matthew Etherington and Jermaine Pennant – who can play some really pleasing football. They’ll always pose a thread and Stoke will always be difficult to beat, particularly at the Britannia Stadium.

Chelsea have quite a difficult task for their opening game. Two years ago Sir Alex Ferguson claimed they were too old, and of course they disproved that by winning the double. But about half way through last season they started to look like they perhaps were too old, and I think this season they will show that they’re definitely too old.

Looking at the signings they have made so far, Romelu Lukaku will be a significant player over time, but he’s only 18. Perhaps this could be a breakthrough season for the likes of Josh McEachran, but if you look at the players who featured in their last pre-season match at Rangers - Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Paulo Ferreira – I feel perhaps they’re the wrong side of the hill at the moment.

Andre Villas-Boas probably needs to do rather more radical surgery on the squad before they can challenge for the title.

VERDICT: I’m going to go for Chelsea, which is no slight on Stoke as I think they’ll have a good season.

West Bromwich Albion v Manchester United - Sunday, 4pm

It’s a good job they no longer call it the Charity Sheild after last week, as there was precious little charity on show, but what a thunderous start to the season!

I was massively impressed with Manchester United, I didn’t think they deserved to go 2-0 down and the way they fought back was tremendous.

I just think that Manchester United have probably bought better than anybody else so far this summer. They’ve also done their business early for the second year running, having signed Javier Hernandez before the World Cup last summer, which proved arguably the signing of last season.

They can definitely say they’re stronger than they were at the start of last year because most of the players who have left are those didn’t play quite as big a part last season – Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and so on.

It will be interesting to see how David de Gea gets on. It was a toss-up between him and Manuel Neuer as to who Manchester United goalkeeper coach Eric Steele recommended as the replacement for Edwin van der Sar and he didn’t have the happiest of days at Wembley. But all good judges say he is the best young keeper in Europe, and I think if that is the case then Manchester United will be champions again.

As far as West Brom’s new signings are concerned, Roy Hodgson will certainly enjoy having Republic of Ireland striker Shane Long in his squad. Having spoken to Reading manager Brain McDermott last season, you get the impression he’s a manager’s dream – I’m told his attitude is always spot on, he’s always the best player at training and he’s just no problem at all to work with.

Having said that, when he was last in the Premier League he didn’t score too many goals, although that was in a struggling Reading team. So I think there are still things to be proven, but I think he’ll be a good acquisition.

VERDICT: Manchester United to start with a win at the Hawthornes.

Manchester City v Swansea City - Monday, 8pm

This, for me, could be a meeting of second from top and second from bottom in the final Premier League table.

I still don’t quite think City are a genuine team quite yet, but I do think they’ll be closer to Manchester United than they were last year, and believe Sergio Aguero is a fantastic signing.

They have some tremendous players in their squad but I don’t quite yet get the sense they’re moulded in the way that Manchester United, or even Arsenal are. They’re also faced with the challenge of combining Champions League and Premier League football. However big your squad, as Tottenham showed last year, it’s a very difficult balancing act to perform.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Swansea back in the top flight. Brendan Rodgers, after a couple of set-backs early in his managerial career, has clearly got everybody pulling in the same direction. They’re this season’s Blackpool in that, for example, they change after training at a local health club and have to shower with members of the public. There’ll be lots of those kind of nice little stories coming out of Swansea this season.

I hope, from their point of view, they can prove a lot of the doubters wrong and can garner enough points to secure a second season.

VERDICT: Swansea will be somewhat of an unknown quantity this season, but I don’t see them getting off to a winning start at Manchester City. Home win.