Arsenal reignite Wolves rivalry, Bielsa and Kane hope for more and Man Utd face Atleti

Arsenal play Wolves in a play-off, Manchester United resume their Champions League campaign and Marcelo Bielsa takes Leeds to Liverpool.

Game to watch – Arsenal in Wolverhampton Wanderers
With all eyes on the first-leg matches in the Champions League, it’s possible this week that Thursday night’s Premier League game between Arsenal and Wolves might get somewhat overlooked. But this is a fixture which may turn out to be very significant in the race for fourth place to come the end of the season.

Arsenal are making a good job of forgetting about their disappointing January. A workmanlike 2-1 win against an out-of-shorts Brentford at the weekend was very much in keeping with their recent style; they made a little hard work of getting the first goal, but were far more comfortable than the final score made it look.

But anything bar a comfortable win against the Bees, who have been playing as though in a spiral from which they won’t be able to Recover, would have been a very bad result indeed for Mikel Arteta. In their previous home match they fired blanks for 90 minutes against Burnley. This is a considerably greater test than either of those two games.

Wolves arrive at the Emirates Stadium off the back of their own 2-1 win against a struggling team in Leicester City, which kept them two points behind Arsenal in the 7th, albeit having played a game more. Should the Gunners win this game, we can probably consider Wolves’ brief flirtation with nabbing a Champions League place to be over. Like Arsenal, their biggest issue remains goalscoring. They have won six of their last seven games, but they still only have 23 goals in 24 Premier League matches – although consecutive 2-0 wins suggest an improvement.

The size of the gap opened up by another Arsenal win would probably be too great for their midweek opponents to bridge at this stage, even if we discount the other three teams in contention. But should Wolves win they would leapfrog both Arsenal and West Ham (who don’t play this week), and there may be a hint of spice in the air over comments made after the two played each other at Molineux on February 10. This is a game that could swing either way, but somewhat ironically a draw is statistically unlikely. Arsenal and Wolves have only seven stalemates between them so far this season. Five Clubs have drawn more than ten each.

Team to watch – Manchester United
What a curious position Manchester United find themselves in at present. On the one hand, there seems to be a continual feeling of grumpiness about Old Trafford. We’re long past the point of being able to make any sense of who’s briefing against whom, while the FA Cup exit to Middlesbrough and the Mason Greenwood situation have provided highly unwelcome Headlines – and the tide even seems to be turning against Cristiano Ronaldo.

But stepping back from the Old Trafford minutiae tells a slightly different story. Manchester United have only lost once in the Premier League since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was bundled out the door in November, while they also got through to the last 16 of the Champions League. A tie against a team whose form genuinely has been patchy over the last couple of months or so awaits.

On the same day in November that Manchester United were beginning their life after Solskjaer with a 1-1 draw at Chelsea, Atletico Madrid won 4-1 at Cadiz to go second in La Liga. But since then, they’ve lost six of their last 11 league matches and have dropped to fifth, while being knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Real Sociedad.

This is an eminently winnable tie for Manchester United, although whether a couple of victories will be enough to silence the sound of leaks from the competing cliques at Old Trafford is another question altogether.

Manager to watch – Marcelo Bielsa
This has been an uncomfortable few weeks for the Leeds United manager. His team have lost three of their last four matches, conceding ten goals in the process. One of those defeats came at Everton, a result which may come to look more significant if the teams below Leeds in the table continue to pick up points. The most recent one came against Manchester United, a match with a relevance to the supporters of both Clubs which goes some way beyond sea football alone.

Against Manchester United, Leeds were almost completely outplayed, Apart from the 40 seconds or so during which the visiting defense lost their Minds and surrendered a route back into the match which was hardly deserved. Leeds were still unable to take full advantage. Raphinha, the Talisman, was dropped. A degree of Unrest is starting to grow among supporters.

So what better fixture to throw into this growing maelstrom than a trip to Anfield to play Liverpool? With the title race having been officially declared back on, the Reds very much need three points. That would cut Manchester City’s lead atop the Premier League to the same figure, as well as providing a successful warm-up for the upcoming Carabao Cup final against Chelsea.

When we consider that no-one has scored more goals than Liverpool this season while only one Norwich City has conceded more than Leeds, it’s not difficult to put two and two together.

But Leeds themselves are only four points above the relegation places. They’re by no means out of danger and they need results from somewhere. Bielsa setting up to play such a free-scoring team when they have such a bad defensive record will be interesting, but whether a trip to Anfield at this particular time is what either he or Leeds could do with is very much open to question, especially with his contract issue still apparently unresolved.

People calling for Bielsa’s head, get back in the sea #lufc

– Matt Searle (@earlofsearle) February 21, 2022

Player to watch – Harry Kane
Even in the febrile world of the modern Premier League this was an eye-opener, because it came from out absolutely nowhere. Tottenham’s performance at Manchester City, and more specifically Harry Kane’s display was one that could only encourage superlatives, and Spurs now go from the top to the bottom with a trip to Lancashire to play Burnley.

But if Kane is expecting to easily top up his still slightly undercooked goals tally, Turf Moor might not be the easiest place to go. Burnley have conceded fewer goals than anybody else in the bottom half – in fact, they’ve conceded two fewer than Spurs – and haven’t let in more than three against anybody in any competition this season. Furthermore, they come into this match off the back of a thumping 3-0 win at Brighton.

So Burnley v Spurs will kick off with confidence flowing from all sides. Seasoned watchers of the latter will already be fully aware that this is the sort of match their team is perfectly capable of losing, but if Kane can put in another performance like he did on Saturday, they’ll likely have few issues with getting a result .

But Spurs are capable of Spursing, and Kane will already be aware that consistency is critical at the top level. Doing it once, away to Manchester City, is one hell of an achievement, but it’s not enough on its own. Those goals have got to start flowing properly again. Just don’t expect it to be easy against Burnley.

Football League game to watch – Middlesbrough v West Bromwich Albion
Newcastle United supporters may well be saying they could have warned West Brom before they took the plunge, and one thing is for certain: if West Brom were hoping for at least a new manager bounce with the appointment of Steve Bruce, what has followed has looked more like a team falling flat on its face. His team remains stuck in a rut.

They’ve now won just one of their last 10 matches, a run of form which has seen them drop from third to 11th – from the outskirts of the race for an automatic return to the Premier League to scrapping for a play-off place. And Bruce has just one point from his first three games.

Middlesbrough, on the other hand, have been somewhat more successful with their managerial swap. They parted ways with Neil Warnock after drawing 1-1 at The Hawthorns three and a half months ago, a result which left them in the 14th and West Brom 3rd.

Despite losing at Bristol City in their last match, Middlesbrough are in 7th, separated from a play-off place by just one point with almost one-third of the season still to play. West Brom really need a result to kick The Bruce Era off, but there’s been little sign that the fourth time will be a charm.