Manchester United, Van Nistelrooy have questions to answer against Chelsea as sack race continues
A brave new Manchester United era continues until the next one plods along soon enough. Russell Martin needs a win and so really do Spurs against Villa.
Game to watch â Tottenham vs Aston Villa
In a game between two sides who began the season with their sights set on the top four, both Tottenham and Aston Villa will be looking to bounce back from disappointing results when they meet in north London on Sunday.
There is nothing so reliably consistent in football as Tottenhamâs inconsistency. Once again, Spurs are developing a frustrating habit of following impressive performances with baffling ones.
After smashing Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford at the end of September, they next threw away a two-goal lead at Brighton to lose 3-2.
Then they thumped West Ham 4-1, only to hand Crystal Palace their first win of the season, beaten 1-0 by the Eagles at home last weekend.
If the pattern continues, theyâre due to trounce Aston Villa at home â unless they used up their usual momentum swing in beating an under-strength Manchester City in the EFL Cup on Wednesday night. But you wouldnât bank on it.
In terms of sheer volume of talent, thereâs not much to separate Villa and Spursâ squads. If anything, Tottenham edge it: Villa donât have a player of Son Heung-minâs calibre and not quite as great a wealth of attacking options.
But under Unai Emery, Villa extract every ounce of their potential. Thatâs why the draw with Bournemouth felt like such a drop in their usual standards. They are, after all, they only team to have beaten Bayern Munich so far this season.
Villa currently occupy the last of the precious guaranteed Champions League-qualifying places, in the fourth spot where they finished last term. But Chelsea are only a point behind them. Theyâll be eager to stay ahead of the fast-rising Blues.
Spurs are already five points adrift of the top four. As young as the 2024/25 campaign still is, Sunday feels make-or-break for Ange Postecoglouâs side.
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Team to watch â Manchester United
The Ruud van Nistelrooy era at Old Trafford continues on Sunday with the visit of Chelsea.
It began on Wednesday night when United beat Leicester 5-2 in the EFL Cup, and it seems likely to be extended for another week, with Ruben Amorim and his staff arriving after the next international break.
But Sundayâs game against an increasingly impressive Chelsea side is not so much about who is in the United dugout but who isnât. Concluding a will-they/wonât-they sacking saga as drawn out as the clubâs past unfruitful courtship of Nicolas Gaitan â whom weâre still not certain ever existed â the Red Devils finally parted ways with Erik ten Hag this week.
While we await the arrival of the Dutchmanâs permanent successor, it will be fascinating to watch United now that they are out from under their perma-under-fire former manager.
The players never quite seemed to fully down tools for Ten Hag in the way the United squad did in the last days of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinhoâs reigns; tools were dangerously misused or carelessly misplaced, but never thrown down in protest.
But how much of the ills that have afflicted United over the past 18 months will be solved immediately with Ten Hagâs exit? Can those who were already at the club â Van Nistelrooy, the players â figure out how to plug the gaping holes in their midfield, for example, or will that require Amorimâs tactical surgery? Chelsea will probe for an answer.
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Manager to watch â Russell Martin
Southampton manager Russell Martin has adopted the Vincent Kompany approach to Premier League survival this year, in that he is steadfastly refusing to adapt the expansive tactics that earned promotion last season despite catastrophic results.
That, of course, didnât work for Burnley last term, who were relegated back to the Championship. It did, however, land Kompany the Bayern Munich job. So perhaps if Martin sticks to his guns firmly enough for the rest of the season heâll take over from Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid next summer. Itâs a natural progression.
Saints are still without a win in their nine games back in the top flight. With just one point to their name, they are rock bottom of the table and have scored just six goals. So the intrigue around Southampton now centres on who will be the first to make a change: Martin in his tactics or the club in their manager.
But if there is to be one last acid test for the top-flight viability of Martin-ball, this weekend might provide it. Southampton host 16th-placed Everton at St. Maryâs on Saturday. Although Sean Dycheâs side are unbeaten in their last five games, if Martinâs possession-aspiring, play-out-from-the-back-at-all-costs style canât work against the Toffees, it, he and Southampton wonât be long for the Premier League.
READ: Who will be the next Premier League manager to be sacked?
Player to watch â Chris Wood
Only Erling Haaland (11) and Bryan Mbeumo (eight) have scored more Premier League goals than Chris Wood (seven) so far this term.
The New Zealander has had an itinerate career, encompassing spells with 15 different clubs. Now, though, at 32, he seems to have found a home at Nottingham Forest and he is producing the form of his life.
The 14 league goals he notched for Forest last season equalled a top-flight career high, and he is already halfway to matching that tally, having played less than a third as many games.
Wood scored twice against Leicester â one of his many former clubs â last weekend and on Saturday, in West Ham, faces the fifth-worst defence in the Premier League.
âI just want to keep scoring as many as I can,â Wood said when asked about going head to head with Haaland for the Golden Boot. âHeâs a very formidable man and heâs probably going to score 30 goals this season.â
At this rate, you can put Wood down for 31.
Football League game to watch â Millwall vs Burnley
He might have fallen short as a top-flight manager so far in his career, but Scott Parker knows how to escape from the Championship. Appointed back in July to replace Bayern-bound Kompany, heâs got the Lancashire side positioned neatly in second place, on course for the third promotion of his managerial career.
And heâs done it by reimagining the team Kompany left behind. Faced with many of his best players being sold, Parker has turned Burnley from free-flowing, possession-heavy stylists into resolute counter-attackers. With just five goals conceded from 12 games, they have the best defensive record in the league. And, beaten just once, no team in the second tier has suffered fewer defeats.
In Millwall, they face a side who have impressed this season for their robust structure and the moments of match-winning inspiration the likes of Duncan Watmore and Romain Esse have been able to produce.
At opposite ends of the career spectrum, the journeyed Watmore is delivering on his latent, injury-interrupted potential at the Den this term, with five goals to his name. And 19-year-old Esse has been a thrilling sight at times when cutting inside from the wing. Heâs got three goals to his name.
Neil Harrisâ Lions represent a stern test and a potential banana skin for the Clarets if underestimated. But this is exactly the sort of fixture that a team with Burnleyâs ambitions needs to safely navigate. Either way, weâll have learned something about Parkerâs side by the final whistle.
European game to watch â Borussia Dortmund vs RB Leipzig
RB Leipzig are flying so far this season. Eight games into the Bundesliga campaign, they are keeping pace with Bayern Munich as the only remaining undefeated sides in the German top division, second behind the Harry Kane-powered Bavarians only on goal difference.
They have already beaten last seasonâs champions, Bayer Leverkusen, handing Xabi Alonsoâs men a first domestic defeat in over a year. Belgian forward Lois Openda looks like being the next rising star of the energy-drinks manufacturersâ team to sprout wings and fly away for big money in the near future; unless Benjamin Sesko, the Arsenal-linked Slovenian striker whoâs already scored five goals this term, beats him to it.
But outside of beating Leverkusen away from home, Leipzigâs schedule so far has been relatively soft. And against tougher opposition in the Champions League, theyâve struggled, losing to Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Liverpool.
Their trip to take on seventh-placed Dortmund on Saturday â for which theyâll be without the injured Xavi Simons â will act as a barometer for their title credentials.
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