No margin for error for Spurs, Arsenal, United and Liverpool

Saturday, 15 March 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

REUTERS: Two fiercely intense, always passionate, local rivalries with even more spice than usual take centre stage in the Premier League this weekend when Manchester United face Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur play Arsenal. The teams occupy four of the top six positions in the table and none can afford to lose in their pursuit of either the title or a top-four finish and the prospect of Champions League football next season. The other two places in the top six are filled by leaders Chelsea, who travel to Aston Villa, and Manchester City, who are at FA Cup semi-finalists Hull City. A win for Chelsea on Saturday would lift them to 69 points and put them 10 clear of Liverpool and Arsenal who are not in action until Sunday. Manchester City, who were knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona on Wednesday, are nine points behind Chelsea with three matches in hand. Chelsea will have eight games left after this weekend, City 11. Tottenham start the weekend in fifth place on 53 points with United sixth on 48 and with a game in hand on Spurs. Judging by their entwined histories, more than a century of loathing between the fans, dramas and controversies - even before this season’s earlier meetings are taken into account - events at White Hart Lane and Old Trafford are likely to overshadow everything else. Both Spurs and Arsenal have plenty to prove in their third meeting of the season following Arsenal’s 1-0 league win in September and their 2-0 victory in the FA Cup third round at the Emirates in January. Arsenal were knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday when they drew 1-1 at Bayern Munich but lost 3-1 on aggregate and they come to White Hart Lane without 42.1 million-pound record signing Mesut Ozil. The German picked up a hamstring injury in Munich and according to manager Arsene Wenger will be out for several weeks, although he expects Aaron Ramsey to return for the first time since Boxing Day. Arsenal reached the FA Cup semi-finals with a 4-1 victory over Everton last weekend and retain an outside chance of winning the title but their league form has dipped lately with just one win from their last four matches. Spurs, who are also chasing silverware in the Europa League and face Benfica in a round of 16 first leg match at home on Thursday, are looking to bounce back from the disappointment of losing 4-0 to Chelsea last Saturday. Manager Tim Sherwood strongly criticised his players for showing a lack of commitment after they had defender Younes Kaboul sent off and conceded all four goals in the last 30 minutes at Stamford Bridge. Kaboul’s red card was rescinded by the FA so he can play on Sunday and there will be no doubting Spurs’ commitment against Arsenal who will be playing their 999th match under Manager Arsene Wenger. Manchester United and Liverpool get Sunday’s action rolling with a lunchtime kickoff at Old Trafford with United showing signs of improvement after what has been a difficult first season for Manager David Moyes. United, who have not finished outside the top three for 23 seasons, have not been in the top five since mid-November but they have kept clean sheets with two wins and draw in their last three league matches and could close the gap on Spurs to two points if they win and Spurs slip up. “To see Man City doing well, and particularly Liverpool, is really difficult,” United striker Wayne Rooney told Inside United magazine. “It’s not nice when we know we are capable of being up there challenging and we haven’t been doing that this season. “However, it means we have to step up and get back up there because the feeling we’ve had this season is not a nice feeling at all to have. As a group of players and a team we haven’t been good enough this season and we have to put that right.” Liverpool beat United 1-0 at Anfield in the League on 1 September and lost 1-0 to them at Old Trafford in the League Cup three weeks later. They are 11 points ahead of United and are on course to finish higher than them for the first time since 2002. Brendan Rodgers’ side have been playing outstanding attacking football all season which has carried them to second place and, for once, they will start as slight favourites against their arch-rivals. “It’s always a massive game but the difference this time is that Liverpool must be favourites. I can’t remember the last time a Liverpool team went to Old Trafford in that position,” former striker Robbie Fowler told the Liverpool Echo. “On paper it’s a game Liverpool should win. They’re in great form and I am quietly confident Liverpool can get a big result there. People talk about how far United have dropped but I also look at it from the other side - how far Liverpool have come.” With four successive league victories Liverpool will be optimistic they can win at Old Trafford for the first time since a 4-1 success five years ago. Should they do so it would fuel the belief that they can still snatch a long-overdue league title, something they last achieved in 1990.

Another trophy bites the dust as reality bites for City

REUTERS: A few weeks ago, talk of an unprecedented Manchester City quadruple was doing the rounds with Manuel Pellegrini’s side in seemingly unstoppable form on all fronts. After Wednesday’s 2-1 Champions League last 16 defeat in Barcelona, which sealed a 4-1 aggregate loss, the dream of a bumper springtime bounty for City is fading before their eyes. The League Cup they won at Wembley earlier this month with an unconvincing defeat of Sunderland was supposed to be an appetiser for the feast to come. Now, with the Champions League and FA Cup gone and Chelsea storming nine points clear in the Premier League, there is a growing feeling it might be their only silverware this season. That would represent an anti-climax for a City side that earlier this season was being lauded for playing the best football throughout Europe. City’s Abu Dhabi owners have invested hundreds of millions of pounds into turning the once under-achieving club into a major European force but six years after they opened the cash tap there is clearly still a long way to go. Reaching the business end of the Champions League - the quarter-finals and semi-finals as a minimum - is the benchmark for a club with ambitions of continental grandeur. That is why Pellegrini, who did just that with unfashionable Villarreal and Malaga in Spain, was hired to replace Roberto Mancini, who could not even get City out of the group phase of the blue riband competition. At least Pellegrini fared slightly better as City finished runners-up to holders Bayern Munich in their group - beating the German side away before Christmas. The draw for the last 16 was not kind, although with cracks appearing in the once all-conquering Barcelona side City were expected to push the Catalans all the way. As it turned out they bowed out meekly, producing a tame performance at home when losing 2-0 and never seriously threatened a fightback in the Nou Camp, where they had Pablo Zabaleta sent off shortly after Lionel Messi had put Barca ahead on the night to effectively kill the tie. City’s captain Vincent Kompany said after the defeat on Wednesday that City would be stronger next season. But the notion that City are slowly growing into the Champions League as if they were a collection of raw youngsters is beginning to wear a little thin. At this rate they will take another four seasons to make a serious challenge when, in reality, they already have a capable squad that is the envy of any club in the world, barring perhaps Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern. City’s assistant Ruben Cousillas faced the media on Wednesday with Pellegrini suspended by UEFA after criticising the referee in the first leg defeat to Barcelona. He tried to shed a positive light on a disappointing exit, saying the season had already been successful and that their European demise would mean they will now concentrate all their efforts on hauling in Chelsea in the Premier League. They have three games in hand of Jose Mourinho’s side. “We’ve been at the club only for eight months so our project is only in its early stages,” the Argentine said. “We’ve won our first title already. Until last weekend we were the only team playing in all four competitions - something which is very hard to accomplish because of the amount of games you have to play. “We work for a big club, a club which gives us the best tools to work. We know the responsibility we have and we know how important it is to win the Premier League,” he added. “Today the team proved that it’s improving and going back to a good level after a difficult period in February. “We showed that we are alive and we’re going to fight for the Premier League and, like I said, our project is long term.”