Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Premier League composite — Kevin De Bruyne celebrates scoring against PSG, Leicester City’s Wes Morgan, Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, Timm Klose of Norwich and Newcastle United’s Rafa Benítez. Photograph: Reuters, PA, Rex, AFP/Getty

1) Leicester moving a step closer to title

Sunday’s visit from West Ham United has been billed as a banana skin for Leicester City. But every game is being billed as a banana skin for Leicester and they stubbornly refuse to slip up. You never know – maybe it’s not going to happen. And for all West Ham’s threat, Leicester have good memories of this fixture last season. When Andy King scored a late winner against Sam Allardyce’s West Ham last April (he has more recent form too), the victory kickstarted Leicester’s improbable charge towards survival and, well, you know the rest. The only thing more improbable than Leicester staying up last season is, well, the rest. They’re so close. If everything goes their way, they could wrap up the title next week. It will not be easy. West Ham will be determined to bounce back from the disappointment of losing to Manchester United in the FA Cup on Wednesday; Slaven Bilic’s side were poor for long spells and they are not defending well but they are always dangerous going forward. Yet Leicester will be confident about handling Andy Carroll, with Wes Morgan and Robert Huth in imperious form, and they have won their past three matches against West Ham. JS

2) Is there any chance of a fight from Newcastle?

Regularly cited as a model for how best a football club should be run, these are interesting times for Swansea City. A major cash injection from a pair of American lawyers who made their fortunes in NBA and a hedge fund investment company respectively looks imminent and while Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan have been making the usual reassuring noises, talk is notoriously cheap and only time will tell if their involvement will prove beneficial. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” goes the old adage and while the Swans do appear stuck in something of a mid-table rut, their position is extremely healthy for a team that has been to the financial brink and back in the very recent past. Newcastle fans, by contrast, must envy their Welsh counterparts. Lumbered with an owner they despise, an unpopular chief executive and a team of players with no apparent sense of pride, the only silver lining in the dark cloud hovering over St James’ Park appears in the shape of a Spanish manager who increasingly has about him the haunted air of a man who knows he’s made a terrible mistake. Whether or not Rafa Benítez can get a tune out of the discordant wasters representing Newcastle on a perilously short run-in remains to be seen. After all, it only counts as a relegation “battle” if you put up a fight and one suspects the most significant “thing” Newcastle fans will be “looking out for” on Saturday is the Sunderland win or draw against Norwich in the lunchtime kick-off that might finally stir their own under-achieving rabble into something resembling action. BG

3) De Bruyne to show Chelsea what they let go

A shift and a shimmy bought him a crucial yard of space and what came next was a shot that was struck so perfectly that it almost felt routine, as though Kevin De Bruyne had simply decided that it was time for him to score, like a man waking up from a nap on the beach, stretching and wandering into the sea for a swim, just because he can. Shaped beautifully into the bottom of the left corner with the inside of his right foot from 20 yards, De Bruyne gave Paris Saint-Germain’s Kevin Trapp no chance and the goal that secured Manchester City’s place in their first Champions League semi-final reinforced the impression that Chelsea and José Mourinho acted with undue haste by selling the Belgian to Wolfsburg two years ago. De Bruyne has been remarkable since returning from his serious knee injury, scoring home and away against a strong PSG side who were resounding winners against Chelsea in the last 16, and City would surely still be in the title race if he had stayed fit. Given the levels De Bruyne has reached since leaving Chelsea, it is difficult to comprehend their thought process when they let him join Wolfsburg and even more staggering that they did not insist on a buyback clause. Chelsea’s embarrassment, already hefty enough, will be exacerbated to cringeworthy heights if De Bruyne excels at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening. JS

4) Klose and Koné crucial in crunch Carrow Road clash

Things were looking bright for Norwich when they won 3-1 at the Stadium of Light back in August but the outcome of Saturday’s momentous clash at Carrow Road could be decided mostly by players who have been parachuted into the relegation fight since then. Out of all the signings made by Premier League clubs in January, Timm Klose has probably been the most influential so far. Over the last couple of months it became clear why Norwich paid Wolfsburg £8.5m for him, as he shored up a defence that had been leaking goals at a ruinous rate. Norwich looked on course for their third clean sheet in four matches until the Swiss was injured against Crystal Palace last weekend and if he does not recover by Saturday, then Norwich better hope that Sébastien Bassong is at his best and, further forward, that Steven Naismith does more to justify the money paid for him in January. To do that he will have to get the better of Lamine Koné, who has perhaps been the league’s second most influential January recruit. So far. PD

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Sam Allardyce: Sunderland desperate for points in Norwich match

5) Liverpool must re-energise for gruelling Bournemouth trip

It would be very tempting for Jürgen Klopp to rest his best for Liverpool’s long trip to Bournemouth this weekend. After Thursday night’s extraordinary exploits, Philippe Coutinho and co could probably do with a lazy Sunday on the sofa, rather than another game of Premier League pinball against one of the hardest working teams in the league – only Tottenham have covered more ground than Bournemouth in 2015-16 – especially with a Merseyside derby to follow next Wednesday. Liverpool fans may be dreaming of Europa League success and subsequently, a place in the Champions League next season but should they lose their semi-final later this month and finish where they are at present – eighth – there will be no European football at all at Anfield next season, which would seriously hinder Klopp’s summer recruitment. More lung-busting performances are required at Bournemouth and then against Everton to stay in the hunt for seventh. Liverpool can rest their players next weekend instead – they’re playing Newcastle at home. MB

6) Manchester United to improve their figures against Villa?

Just when you think it is safe to say that Louis van Gaal has strangled and baffled the life out of Manchester United, his team perk up in a way that makes you think he may actually survive at Old Trafford beyond the summer. The win at West Ham was good and United now have a fine opportunity to lift the FA Cup and could still crawl into the top four. Would those results be enough to satisfy United fans in a season in which Van Gaal has had to cope with mass casualties? Probably not, bearing in mind some preposterous decisions by the Dutchman and a style of play that has often been unforgivably boring. And United’s ‘goal for’ column remains damning for Van Gaal, with 39 goals from 32 league games putting them on course for their lowest tally from a campaign since the days when striker Mark Hughes relied on service from Russell Beardsmore and Mike Phelan. So what Van Gaal could really do with now is a home fixture against a side so doggone awful that United could give their goal tally a gigantic boost. Is that you, Aston Villa? PD

Aston Villa’s Eric Black discusses Gabriel Agbonlahor’s fitness

7) Stoke City could return to hurt Pochettino

What looks a reasonably straightforward task for title-chasing Spurs is rendered less so by the knowledge that Mauricio Pochettino has failed to mastermind victory over the Potters in three attempts since taking the helm at White Hart Lane. The teams drew 2-2 in the corresponding fixture at White Hart Lane in August, while Mark Hughes got the better of his opposite number at home and away last season. Spurs have improved immeasurably in the interim, but so have Stoke, who are one of the Premier League’s more upwardly mobile sides. If Leicester have a 10-point lead at the Premier League summit when this game kicks off on Monday night and Stoke are suitably motivated to put in the kind of big performance that is well within the skill-set of their players, the Premier League may well be over as a contest at the final whistle. BG

8) Palace must try to give Gabriel a lesson

Dwight Gayle has returned to the Crystal Palace side in recent weeks but should be left out for the trip to The Emirates even if fit. Because after Arsenal’s ordeal at the hands (head and elbows) of Andy Carroll last week, Palace should deploy the closest thing they have to The Carroll Monster. Welcome back, then, Emmanuel Adebayor. OK, make that Connor Wickham. Or both. Arsène Wenger should stick with Gabriel despite last weekend’s ordeal because he is the future of Arsenal’s central defence – well, he’s closer to it than Per Mertesacker is – and needs to learn to deal regularly with beastly forwards. PD

9) A must-watch at Goodison Park for Hodgson

Everton v Southampton is one clash Roy Hodgson should make sure he sees this weekend. Because this, and Everton’s match at Leicester next month, are the biggest tests that John Stones will face between now and the European Championships. If the defender has not yet learned when to sally elegantly forth with the ball and when to hoof it away, then Shane Long (and then Jamie Vardy) is sure to expose him. Indeed, with the Goodison Park faithless poised to vent their anger at Roberto Martínez, it will be interesting to see whether Ronald Koeman thinks Everton are vulnerable enough to justify redeployment the ultra-attacking four-forward lineup that overwhelmed Newcastle last week. PD

10) Both West Brom and Watford will be distracted

Despite reaching the 40-point mark at Sunderland two weeks ago, West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis left his players in no doubt as to what would be expected of them for the remainder of the season. “I’m delighted for everybody at the football club – supporters, chairman, all the staff and the players. It has been a tough and very unusual season this year,” he trilled, all but drawing a curtain on the campaign and giving his players carte blanche to down tools and start planning whatever staggeringly unimaginative holidays happen to be fashionable with footballers this summer. With their Premier League status also secure, Watford’s players have an FA Cup semi-final to think about, which suggests this could be the first match in Premier League history we see in which a team wearing flip-flops entertain visitors who arrive wrapped in cotton wool. Let’s not kid ourselves, even those with a vested interest in either team won’t be anticipating much ahead of this game beyond some nice weather and a pleasant afternoon out. And why not? The dreariness of safety in mid-April is a state of affairs both sets of fans would happily have settled for had they been offered it at the start of the season. BG

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