It is not, perhaps, the biggest of Manchester Derbies in the grand scheme, but it is still a Manchester Derby and the sort of game in which United have been less sh*t than usual this season, while elsewhere there is plenty of scope to learn more about the battle for this season’s European places and what the next couple of weeks might bring for those still engaged in continental action this time around.
Game to watch: Man United v Man City
Here’s the thing about Manchester United. They are, obviously, quite rubbish. They are where they are in the league and there is no grave misfortune about that position.
But there are three distinct category of matches when it comes to United. There are games against the three worst teams in the league; United usually win those. There are games against the four teams they once had serious Premier League rivalries with in happier times; and they do just about okay in those as well, all things considered.
And then there are games against the other 12 Premier League teams, whose own qualities range from ‘Nottingham Forest’ and ‘Newcastle’ all the way to ‘Tottenham Hotspur’ and ‘Wolves’, and in those games United are neither good enough to win despite themselves nor able to summon up some long-dormant muscle memory and pull a performance out of their arse, and thus do very badly indeed.
United have 16 points from a possible 18 against the doomed three, the only blip of any kind there a 1-1 draw at Ipswich in Ruben Amorim’s first game – one overshadowed in the end, of course, by all that Sheerangate unpleasantness.
In six games so far against Arsenal, Liverpool, City and Chelsea United have six points. Which isn’t good, obviously, but it’s better than everything else they’ve done this season suggests it ought to be.
Because in their remaining 18 games against The Rest they have managed a mere 15 points and only four wins.
So what we’re saying here is that with no more games to come against the bottom three, this is in fact the easiest game left for United this season against a Man City side who still absolutely cannot be trusted.
Player to watch: Jakub Kiwior
Set to deputise from the start at Everton for the injured Gabriel Magalhaes with, we assume, Thomas Partey once again pressed into emergency right-back duties in the absence of both Ben White and Jurrien Timber.
With the very greatest of respect to David Moyes’ revitalised and re-energised side, it’s not really Everton that we’re worried about here. Arsenal’s title chances are already beyond remote, but there is also no plausible route where – nor real evidence of – Arsenal’s season collapsing to the point where Champions League qualification becomes any kind of concern. There is no grave peril here, really.
But what we will see is a makeshift defence trying to learn on the job ahead of a far more difficult and far more significant challenge over the 10 days that follow Saturday’s final trip to Goodison Park for Arsenal.
It’s not that Beto and co. will be easy – Virgil van Dijk can attest that it absolutely will not. It’s just that if Kiwior, a player on his way out at Arsenal and whose only two Premier League starts this season came back in December, shows even the slightest hint of frailty here then the omens for what might follow against Real Madrid are… not good at all.
Manager to watch: Arne Slot
And we mean this really quite literally. Maybe it’s just something about Everton and derby days that brings something out of him – sweary angryman at Goodison, bouncing ball of nervous energy at Anfield – but given that his team are now pretty much definitely going to win the league it will be interesting to see if he is a bit more his usual self again for a lower-profile but certainly not easy trip to Fulham.
Slot was not alone in his nervousness against Everton, and there was a distinct chicken-and-egg feel to who was spreading nerves to who among manager, players and fans after a long break without any kind of football and an absurd 25 days without winning a game.
If serenity has returned at Craven Cottage following the resumption of something approaching normal service during the week we can all chalk it up to circumstance and say no more about it. If he’s still a bit manic then it won’t affect this season much now but will give pause for thought about what happens in the very likely event that whatever fight Liverpool find themselves in whatever part of the table next season is somewhat tighter than this year’s.
Team to watch: Nottingham Forest
‘They will regress to the mean soon enough!’ I continue to insist as I slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob.
Forest, meanwhile, march ever onwards towards the Champions League and a shot next season at adding a third star to that shirt. Seems unlikely they will do that, sure, but this time last year Forest cruising through pretty much the entire season in third place also seemed a touch far-fetched.
This weekend represents another huge opportunity for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side to really strengthen their position – especially with the way the fixtures have fallen.
Of their remaining major rivals for the three remaining Big Cup spots below Liverpool and Arsenal, only Brighton are in action before them on Saturday afternoon, and they face an awkward trip to hated rivals Crystal Palace anyway.
Chelsea and Man City both have difficult away games on Sunday, while Newcastle don’t play until Monday. Don’t look up who they’re playing against, it doesn’t matter.
It means if Forest can engineer a win at an Aston Villa side who wouldn’t be human if they don’t have at least half an eye on the midweek date with PSG, they are almost there. They will be 12 points clear of Villa, for one thing, but also for a day at least eight clear of Chelsea and nine better off than Man City.
They will be 10 points clear of sixth place. It will be within touching distance.
READ MORE: How Premier League teams qualify for Champions League and Europa competitions for 25/26
Football League game to watch: Luton v Leeds
One of those games that tend to come around at this time of the season with a really interesting dynamic. Every season there always seem to be teams right at the top of any league who are suddenly stumbling desperately for the finish line, and teams right at the bottom who have suddenly figured it out and in last-ditch desperation start picking up points at a rate far beyond their year-long efforts.
And sometimes, if you’re really lucky, those teams play directly against each other. So here we get second-last against second in the overall table, yet pitting a team with one win in their last five against a team with three wins in their last five.
Suddenly, it’s a far more interesting match in April than it could ever have hoped to be any earlier in the season.
European game to watch: Werder Bremen v Eintracht Frankfurt
With no standout fixture among the crystallising title races in Italy and Spain, while Germany and France have joined England in not really bothering to have such a thing this season, let’s go for something a little different and have a look at the team who over the next couple of weeks are charged with the task of finally, once and for all, putting Ange Postecoglou out of his Tottenham misery.
The sight of him cupping his ears to the Spurs fans at Chelsea, claiming apparent credit for the brilliant strategy of telling Pape Sarr to twat home an equaliser, only for the goal to subsequently be ruled out anyway, really should have been the end. But won’t be.
It would’ve been the most embarrassing way a Spurs managerial reign has ever ended, and they once sacked a manager at half-time.
Instead, he will rumble on until the remote theoretical possibility of winning the Europa League is extinguished, most likely over the next fortnight by the third-best team in Germany.
What’s interesting here, though, is that so clear was Eintracht’s Europa focus ahead of the last-16 games against Ajax that they lost both the Bundesliga games that preceded them, at home, 4-1 to Bayer Leverkusen and more starkly to strugglers Union Berlin.
Should they prevail at Werder Bremen on Saturday, therefore, we can deduce with absolute certainty they are very correctly less worried about Ange’s misery-ridden mess of a team than they were about Jordan Henderson and co. You simply cannot argue with the logic.
