Football in Five

1. Arsenal for quadruple?

What an opportunity for the mighty Gunners?!??! The fixture gods have been very very kind to Arsenal not only with their route to the Champions League final but also the FA Cup draw alongside Man City’s unfavourable fixture list around the Carabao Cup Final. In short it is Arsenal’s to lose for all of the competitions.

So if we start with the Champions League, in short Arsenal will not face any stiff opposition until the Semis when they will potentially come up against Barcelona. They face  Bayer then Bodo or Sporting then potentially Barca. This is a very favourable or what I like to call a piss easy run to the Semis. Next is the Carabao Cup final. The Man City final falls just after the Real Champions league tie (which is previous seasons has run into Extra Time and taken a lot of physical and emotional energy out of City). If I was Arteta, I would play my first 11 against City to get the first trophy in the bag and then push on. April is a tough month for City with Chelsea away before facing the Gunners in the “title decider” mid April after a potential Champions League tie. Man City will drop more points over the remaining 8 games.

Then finally the FA Cup – Arsenal can afford to rotate against Mansfield and hope the big boys take each other out before the next round. If Arsenal can get a home tie in the next round then could potentially the worst Title winners in the last 6/7 years ( in my opinion) end up as Quadruple winners?!?!?! To be honest I don’t believe they can but I look forward to seeing how it all pans out in the weeks to come.

2. Man Utd to appoint Carrick

My sources have confirmed they will appoint Carrick if they qualify for Champions League. Ratcliffe, Wilcox, & Berrada have all been super impressed with Carrick and his coaching staff over the past couple of months with their conduct, overhaul of team morale and most importantly the results. Even after Man Utds loss against Newcastle, the board are looking to appoint Carrick as soon as they qualify for the Champions League before the end of the season.

Alongside Carrick being appointed, Wilcox and Berrada who with Ratcliffe love saving a pound note, Man Utd are close to doing a 1 Yr deal with Maguire and Casemiro with a much reduced contract with performance bonuses added.

So why Carrick or more pertinent why not Carrick. The lack of other credible options is perhaps the biggest reason. Tuchel, and Ancelotti have ruled themselves out, Glasner and Iraoli have both struggled at times this season and favour systems that don’t suit Man Utd. In my opinion they need to take the next step up before being considered the Utd job as they don’t have the history of “knowing the club”. So if they can take over a Spurs or Villa or Everton and get them some success the next natural step will be Utd. Then finally for me the only other viable option is Pochettino and reports are saying he is heading back to the basket case of Spurs so he is also out.

Why not Carrick then? Well quite simply he is doing a great job so far, he is an easy, cheap option, there are no credible viable options as listed above and then finally for me they need to go big in the transfer market this summer as they fight on more fronts next season with Europe and better domestic Cup runs requiring a bigger, better squad. Carrick will be much more moldable with players being given to him rather than appointing a much bigger name who expects a greater say or players that fit purely into that style. Carrick has the best win % of any Man Utd manager so why not indeed.

Man Utd are in big transition and they started this a few seasons back but now need 4/5 top class additions to be able to compete on multiple fronts and playing 2 games a week. Carrick is very safe handstand even if not successful buys Ratcliffe and co time to make Man Utd the number 1 club in England again. In short, he is a nice stepping stone for Man Utd and if and it is a big IF he is successful then it will look like a genius move.

-3. Premier Leagues within a league

Some critics have said that the quality of the Premier League has slipped this year as Pulis ball (set pieces) has taken the league by storm. As the league has become more physical this has lead to a more competitive league where anyone can beat anyone (Wolves beating and drawing against title winners Liverpool and future title winners Arsenal respectively alongside Man City dropping points against the worst Spurs Premier league team and Relegation battlers Forest). As team struggle to build consistency this has created loads of mini leagues within the league which gives the Prem the excitement it needs to sell to the punter. With the remaining 7/8 games for Arsenal and City we have a genuine title run in.

Champions League qualification league with Villa, Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool. Genuinely a great battle to see who achieves and I still believe Villa drop out as the big boys start to grab a bit of form and Villa struggle with injuries and combining the league with Europe.

6 points separate 7th to 14th in the mid table table. With Europa and Conference League qualification to battle for this makes this battle even more exciting than normal. I think Newcastle and Everton will qualify through the league but my opinion changes weekly with this as it is too tight to call but I believe the quality of Newcastle will shine through and Everton under Moyes are proving hard to beat and are starting to master set pieces.

Then we have the relegation league Burnley are Wolves are defo down ( although Wolves run in is all very winnable – 1 more win and j will be writing about Wolves potential greatest escape). Then the battle between Forest, West Ham, Spurs and now Leeds is super exciting as well.

So so so many great little plot stories and twists making this season more exciting than ever despite the overall quality being less.

4. Tottenham get worse

Never thought I would write this but Spurs are going down. Tudor as I predicted has made Spurs a worse team. With the Palace game a most win Tudor decided to remove the expensive Summer and Winter signings with Simons and Gallagher both starting on the bench. The Spurs defence is frankly non existent – Van de Ven and Romero discipline lacking has cost them games alongside a lack of cohesion, fight, creativity & basically quality make Spurs currently the worst team in the league behind yes both Burnley and Wolves.

I predict Spurs will make another change before the season is out as they battle to save their Premier League status and overall financial future. That stadium is going to look great when potentially Lincoln City come visit next season in the Championship .what makes this even more bizarre is that Spurs are still in the Champion League knockout stages. This shows the strength of the Premier League but also how bonkers Spurs season has been as for the second year in a row they struggle in the league but exceed in Europe. Did Spurs actually need to sack Big Ange?

Spurs desperately need Romero & Van de Ven back, with Solanke staying fit- Spurs need to trust Gallagher and Simons rather than play Tel, Muani and Solanke as a front three – these three simply wont work for the remainder of this season.  Kudos will be back in April and hopefully he can give them a lift.

Tudor needs to motivate not set fire to the morale of his squad by slating them in press conferences, he needs to get this new manager bounce sooner rather than later or another 2 defeats in a row will see Spurs press the Redknapp button!


5. Summer Additions – Who do the Top 8 need ?

This summer will see a big year for turnover for the majority of the top 8. I will dissect the top 8 & I will include Newcastle instead of Brentford for the purposes of this.

Lets start with Arsenal, the rumours wont go away with Gordon from Newcastle joining over the summer with Martinelli potentially heading the other way. But who do Arsenal actually need to make them unstoppable. I believe they only need 2 signings max to improve the squad & i would go for Tonali. I believe he is an improvement on Zubimendi and I actually think Left Wing isnt an area for Arsenal to improve Eze, Trossard and Martinelli is quality enough I would actually go for a back up number 9 to replace Jesus and let Merino and Havertz drop deeper and I would go for Esposito from Inter or Endrick from Madrid.

Man City next – again only a couple of signings max. As we have had tons of turnover in the past 18 months and they need stability and time to grow. For me they need a Left Back and a player like DiMarco fits the bill and another centre midfield building on the quality of Nico who i believe has found it tough in the Premier League- i would love City to bring Bellingham home but failing that Bruno Gimaries from Newcastle will do just fine. Man City aren’t far off being world class again.

Man Utd need the biggest upheaval with 5/6 signings needed to be added. Left Back , 2 new centre midfielders, a winger and another centre forward as well as cover for Bruno Fernandes. This summer will see potentially Rashford, Holjund, Sancho, Ugarte, Malacia, Zirkzee, Casemiro & Maguire all leave and need replacing.

Left back cover for Luke Shaw who is not getting any younger and Malacia is not good enough so I would opt for a Leif Davis from Ipswich as decent Premier League quality and back up. Centre midfield need at least 2 and Anderson has to be 1 of them and I would love to see Bellingham be the other however I think that is unrealistic at this stage so I think Wharton will be the other viable option. Would love to see a move for Nusa from Leipzig to see if he can make the step up to the Premier league. And finally I wouldn’t be surprised if Man Utd make a move for Delap from.Chelsea. With these signings I think we would see Utd can build on this seasons progress.

Chelsea maybe going through even more transition as if rumours are believed need to sell a ton before they buy however for these purposes I will just say what they need to add. First things first Goalkeeper is a massive priority- Sanchez is very error prone and if Chelsea can land Maignan from Milan then they will add another 10 points at least. In addition, Chelsea desperately need another Centre Back and again how about bringing Tomori back also from Milan. To go a step further if I was Chelsea I would bring back Jackson from his Bayern loan and this would add another 20 goals to the team. Chelsea with no big losses to the squad would definitely be title contenders.

Villa, where do we start a great first 11 however no real depth so they need to add depth all over the squad however they really need to add another centre midfield – Gallagher when Spurs drop down, Another attacking mid replacing Buendia with McAtee from Forest (a move which clearly hasn’t worked) & some extra wingers Fatuwa from Leicester and if they could snag Troussard or Martinelli on a loan deal they could continue to make waves. Next seasons transfer budget will be wholly dependent on whether they finish in the Champions League.

Liverpool will continue to go through transition as key players get a year older (Van Dijk and Salah im looking at you) even with Jacquet arriving in the summer Liverpool need another experienced Centre Back and if I was in their shoes I would go all out on Schlotterbeck and I would go for Munoz from Palace as a right back to truly replace Alexander-Arnold as this has been a true gap the squad. In midfield and up front Liverpool have more than enough and with the two additions I believe they will be in a good place to challenge again.

Newcastle are due for another big summer and depending on whether Howe is in place will lead to either a massive overhaul or whether they just need to add a few more tweaks. For me, they need to add not sell so if they can add another midfielder Maghnes Akliouche from Monaco to give them much needed creativity and someone like Bouadi from Lille they will move forward and not only build on be squad but pass it forward. I think as they struggle to get into Champions League they will inevitably make progress in the league and be back into the top 5. At a push another centre forward would be great & going for a big number 9 like Delap would be ideal.

Finally Everton! Can they get back in with the big boys, they need shop in the same waters as Villa however if we focus on 3 signings I would love them to make Fernandez from West Ham would do wonders in their midfield. Furthermore, Bobby Thomas from Coventry would fit perfectly in Evertons defence and then finally a Hamer from Sheffield United or push the boat out and grab Kudos from a relegated Spurs and they would again push forward under Moyes.

Lets see how many of these signings happen this summer and I look forward to reviewing this point as the months progress