1. Will Henrikh Mkhitaryan get another chance for Man United?
MOST MANAGERS WOULD not have the luxury of spending £30 million on a player and then telling him he must fight for his place, but then Jose Mourinho is not like most managers and Man United are not like most clubs.
Mourinho looks set to offload one high-profile player, with Bastian Schweinsteiger’s £10 million exit understood to be imminent.
However, the Portuguese coach has rejected suggestions that Henrikh Mkhitaryan will follow Schweinsteiger out the exit door in January, even though his brief Old Trafford career has been distinctly underwhelming thus far.
The 27-year-old came off the bench for the club’s Europa League defeat against Fenerbahce on Thursday, but struggled to make much of an impact in the half hour he had on the field.
It was the Armenia international’s first appearance since the 2-1 defeat to Man City on 10 September, with a combination of injuries and Mourinho’s reluctance to play him keeping the star out of the team in between.
Mourinho’s reaction to Mkhitaryan’s Europa League display was also less than encouraging.
“I’m not thinking about sending him off, but he has to do more — it’s as simple as that,” the United boss said in his post-match media conference.
“We have big expectations at this club, we have lots of players for this position and he has to play better than [Juan] Mata, [Jesse] Lingard and [Anthony] Martial — he has to play better than them and it’s as simple as that.”
It will therefore be interesting to see whether Mkhitaryan — who had more assists than anyone else in the Bundesliga last season (18) — has a part to play away Swansea on Sunday.
United have looked creatively inept more often than not this season though, so they could certainly do with the former Dortmund player getting back to his brilliant best.
2. Can Harry Kane get Tottenham back to winning ways?
It’s probably no accident that Spurs’ six-match winless run in all competitions has coincided with the absence of their star player, Harry Kane.
Tottenham laboured in attack since the injury Kane picked up in the 18 September 1-0 win over Sunderland.
The 23-year-old England international was the Premier League’s top scorer for the 2015-16 campaign with 25 goals, though started off this season in less spectacular fashion, with two goals in seven appearances.
They may have beaten Pep Guardiola’s Man City quite impressively without the injured Kane, but since then, they have scored just three goals in their last six matches.
So given Tottenham’s poor form, Arsenal will be firm favourites ahead of this weekend’s North London Derby. Yet a Spurs win would certainly go some way towards silencing the critics who insist they have no hope of challenging for the title, as it would bring them level on points with the Gunners and likely restore their place in the top four.
3. De Bruyne key for City
Kevin De Bruyne was in typically confident and forthright mood as he spoke to reporters this week.
When asked about his inability to break into the first team at Chelsea as a youngster, the Belgian international explained:
“I’ve no idea and I don’t care (why he never convinced Mourinho that he was good enough to play)… I waited four months, then I said to myself that I wanted to play football every week.
“I couldn’t get the game time I wanted, so leaving was the obvious choice.
“I wanted to start a new chapter, not be loaned out and come back to the exact same situation. It was a really smart move on my part.
“But of all the choices I have made in my career, I don’t regret one of them — even going to Chelsea. It didn’t work out. I wanted to play football and I didn’t, so I left.”
Since moving to City, however, De Bruyne has looked every inch the £55 million player the club paid for — in fact, in today’s inflationary market, that price tag seems like a bargain if anything.
The Etihad outfit look an infinitely better side with the 25-year-old in their team. Their title challenge petered out last year only after he was ruled out for much of the campaign with a serious injury.
There was much made of City’s recent six-game winless run, but significantly, De Bruyne played in only two-and-a-half of those games.
The 4-0 defeat by Barcelona aside, City have yet to lose this season in games in which De Bruyne has featured, and most people will expect that trend to continue when they host Middlesbrough on Saturday, despite Aitor Karanka’s men taking points off Arsenal recently.
4. Big test for Everton
Particularly given their disastrous campaign last year coupled with the loss of bright defensive prospect John Stones, Everton have started the season in relatively encouraging fashion,
They have lost just two of their 10 matches so far, and sit just five points off Premier League leaders Man City.
While their squad depth is arguably less impressive than their fellow top-six sides, they do have a team which contains one of the best strikers in Europe — Romelu Lukaku — while Ronald Koeman has proven himself to be adept at managing at this level in recent times.
Granted, it’s too early to determine whether Everton are truly good enough to deliver on their promise and show the type of form that eluded them for much of last season.
Meanwhile, Chelsea have looked rejuvenated under Antonio Conte following the disastrous defence of their Premier League title last year, and so, should prove a stern test for the Toffees this weekend.
5. Can Watford contain rampant Liverpool?
Watford’s defence have an unenviable task on their hands this weekend.
They travel to Anfield to take on Liverpool, the Premier League’s joint-top scorers with 24 goals.
The Reds have managed eight goals in their last three matches, in addition to hitting five past Hull and four against reigning champions Leicester at home already this season.
The attacking trio of Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mane have been justifiably been hailed as the best in the league by Premier League legend Alan Shearer, given their capacity to regularly torment opposition defences.
And so far this season, only Man United have come to Anfield and avoided defeat, therefore Walter Mazzarri’s side — who sit in an impressive seventh place currently — would be doing very well to match the Red Devils’ feat
Saturday (all games 3pm kick-offs unless stated otherwise)
Bournemouth v Sunderland
Burnley v Crystal Palace
Man City v Middlesbrough
West Ham v Stoke
Chelsea v Everton (5.30pm)
Sunday
Arsenal v Tottenham (12pm)
Hull v Southampton (2.15pm)
Liverpool v Watford (2.15pm)
Swansea v Man United
Leicester v West Brom (4.30pm)
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
