We are wrapping up the first third of this 2019-2020 season this weekend with the Premier League entering Match Day 13.
Players are coming back from international duty last week, but still major events happened in the Premier league with Tottenham (somewhat surprisingly) sacking their manager Mauricio Pochettino and bringing in former Chelsea, Inter, and Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho. With that lets get into some of the top things to watch out for this weekend in the Premier League.
The Jose Mourinho experiment at Tottenham begins: Just how will it look?
As mentioned, Tottenham Hotspurs have a new manager, the always controversial Jose Mourinho. This hire has been highly criticized even though Mourinho has more trophies in this closet than Spurs do in their entire history.
Mourinho is a former Premier League and Champions League winner, there is no question about his ability to manage a game and can get the most out of his players at points, but the concerns are still overwhelming to some. He seems to be someone whose message wears thin pretty fast to his team’s players even if his teams find success earlier on in his tenure. He can be highly critical of his players (just ask Luke Shaw and Paul Pogba) and he is known for being a big spender in the transfer market, but Spurs traditionally do not spend money in the transfer windows.
It is going to be an extremely intriguing relationship Mourinho and Spurs, the best way to describe it is when you see that girl dating that guy with the bad boy image because she constantly tells herself that she can fix him.
Either it’s going to end in beautiful bliss or dumpster fire leaving Spurs off worse than what they were before they hired him.
What kind of response will we see from the Spurs?
There is no denying that Spurs Premier League form for the calendar year has been dreadful. Tottenham has not won a Premier League game on the road since January 20th and has only managed to get a tie in three matches on the road since that point. They currently sit at 14th in the table, and despite their run to the Champions League final last season, former manager Pochettino was not getting much out of his squad.
Now Mourinho is at the helm; will this be the spark that Spurs need to get themselves back into the fight for a Top 4 finish? Mourinho is a defensive-minded manager, and that is somewhere that Spurs have been incredibly weak at the last few months.
Spurs players like Christian Erikson, Deli Alli, and Lucas Moura have had lackluster beginnings to this season; will Mourinho be able to utilize them better? Will find out Saturday when Spurs take on West Ham in a matchup that will not be the easiest way for Mourinho to begin his campaign as Spurs manager.
Will Chelsea prove they’re in the Top 4 to stay?
It’s hard to believe what I am about to say, but one of the biggest surprises in the first third of this season have been Frank Lampard and his Chelsea team.
This Chelsea team was supposed to be on the outside looking in when it came to finishing in the top four but Lampard has Chelsea playing some good football as of late. USA wonderkid Christian Pulisic is in top form the last few weeks and Tommy Abraham has been a revelation for Chelsea all season. Now Chelsea find themselves in third place and level on points with Leicester who is currently in second, with a trip to the back to back champions of England Manchester City.
City is coming off a disappointing defeat to title rivals Liverpool and will be looking to get back on track with a big win over this Chelsea side. If Chelsea can manage to get a point or even win at the Ethidad stadium it will show that this Lampard led Chelsea team is here to stay in the top four.
Could Liverpool’s trip to Palace be a trap?
The league leaders Liverpool head to London this weekend to take on Crystal Palace after a huge win over Manchester City that put Liverpool nine points ahead of their title rivals City and eight points ahead of second place Leicester.
Liverpool will be going into this game however with some questions when it comes to health to players like Mohammed Salah and Andrew Robertson. Palace’s form has not been as good as it was earlier in the season, but this is a game that before the season started that I thought could be tricky for the Reds. Liverpool also has a big champions league match with Napoli in the middle of next week so it will be interesting to see what starting 11 manager Jurgen Klopp goes with.
This Liverpool team has proven this season that they are mentality monsters so if Palace can manage anything from this game it will be a testament to their side.
Will Manchester United be the best United team on the pitch Sunday?
Sunday Manchester United who currently sit at seventh in the Premier League table travel to Sheffield United who have been the biggest surprise of the season so far. Sheffield is at fifth in the table and just one point ahead of Man United, but with the way The Blades are playing, I believe Sheffield should be favored in this matchup.
Against the big six clubs in English football Sheffield has looked strong beating Arsenal and getting results against Spurs and Chelsea both away from home. Man United is playing better football the past few weeks that has seen them climb up to the top half of the table, but with the way Sheffield defends it might be too hard for United to grab more than a point against The Blades
Predictions
- West Ham v. Tottenham
West Ham 0, Spurs 1 - Arsenal v. Southampton
Arsenal 3, Southampton 1 - Brighton v. Leicester
Brighton 0, Leicester 2 - Bournemouth v. Wolves
Bournemouth 1, Wolves 1 - Crystal Palace v. Liverpool
Palace 1, Liverpool 2 - Everton v. Norwich
Everton 3, Norwich 0 - Watford v. Burnley
Watford 0, Burnley 0 - Man City v. Chelsea
Man City 3, Chelsea 1 - Sheffield United v. Man U
Sheffield U 1, Man U 1 - Aston Villa v. Newcastle
Aston Villa 1, Newcastle 1
Column by Seth Megginson
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