Manchester United v Tottenham in crisis club clash with eyes on City, Diaz and McKenna too

The Barclays Crisis Club heavyweight title is on the line at Old Trafford as Manchester United face Spurs, while Man City face another tough test after the Arsenal battle and Luis Diaz gets the ideal chance to continue his fine goalscoring form.

Game to watch: Manchester United v Tottenham

A game between two teams locked together in mid-table on seven unconvincing points from five unconvincing games, teetering on the crisis club precipice with both managers under severe pressure.

Potentially far more fun for everyone else, then, than the tawdry spectacle served up last weekend when the biggest game of the weekend was between two teams who are really good. How boring. Give us flaws. Give us managers flailing around, trying to assert their credentials by pleading for time to develop younger players or the increasingly passive-aggressive use of the word ‘mate’. That’s Barclays heritage.

The worry for both these teams is that so far this season they have answered precisely none of the questions that existed about them coming into the campaign. United are making all the same mistakes in all the same ways as last season, with little evidence Erik ten Hag is about to hit upon a solution that survives a stress test of more than two or three games, while the inherent vulnerabilities of high-wire Angeball continue to be laid bare, with further questions about whether the ensuing attacking output generated is even really that good or worth it.

Funny thing about Spurs, though: they currently find themselves on a three-game winning run for the first time this year. It is perhaps the least convincing three-game winning run in the history of the sport, but a three-game winning run it nevertheless is.

And while that run may lack for compelling quality, it doesn’t lack for balls. Having scored two late goals to avoid humiliation in the Carabao at Coventry, Spurs were again required to come from a goal down in the Premier League against Brentford. There’s a decent case for saying this was Spurs’ best league performance of 2024, which is itself to damn with faint praise, but there was a purpose and directness to their football in the face of that early setback that had been sorely lacking.

Against Qarabag in the shiny (sh*te) new Europa League they ought to be prioritising, Spurs found themselves not a goal but a man down in the early stages and will have expended more effort and energy than might have been hoped in securing that 3-0 win.

But at least it was a win; United, for their part, could manage only a 1-1 home draw with Twente in the same competition on the back of last weekend’s stalemate against winless Crystal Palace in the league.

It’s a familiar one step forward, two steps back for Ten Hag’s team and this is a huge game now for both sides. Spurs are in urgent need of a result against someone half-decent having lost their last seven ‘big eight’ fixtures in the Premier League. United require some evidence that this season is going to look any different to the last, and a win in a fixture they were lucky to escape with a 2-2 draw last season would be something.

Defeat for either leaves their league season in serious early distress, in all probability already seven points adrift of the top four, and will increase the volume of those already really quite loud questions that have been echoing around since last season.

MORE ON MANCHESTER UNITED FROM F365
👉 Man Utd transfer: Ashworth eyes shock move for ex-Tottenham midfielder in ‘low-cost option’
👉 Ten Hag sack talk returns with Southgate and RVN favourites to be next Man Utd manager

Team to watch: Manchester City

It really shouldn’t be forgotten just how ordinary City looked against Arsenal’s 10 men last weekend. The late drama and swirling noise should not distract from how poor it was, and City must get straight back to business with a dangerous trip to a Newcastle side who have yet to truly convince this season but have proved mighty adept at snaffling plenty of points regardless.

City ought to win, of course, because that’s nearly always the case. An uneasy truce may have been declared between dug-out and boardroom at St James’ Park but it’s clear all is not well after a difficult summer, and the 10 points they won from their first four games flattered them long before last weekend’s sound beating at Fulham.

City have little room for error with all of last season’s top four on their tails again and this is a tougher fixture than Pep Guardiola might have liked to see on the itinerary after the stress and effort of last Sunday.

City do at least have the advantage of going first in the Saturday lunchtime slot rather than having to respond to the efforts of their rivals. Given City face Newcastle and Arsenal, Liverpool and Villa face Leicester, Wolves and Ipswich respectively, that may be just as well.

Manager to watch: Kieran McKenna

It’s been an interesting start to life back in the Premier League for Ipswich. And despite still searching for a first win five games into the season, a largely encouraging one. The only defeats have come against Liverpool and Man City, neither of them humiliating, followed by draws against Fulham, Brighton and Southampton.

There has been nothing to suggest Ipswich are going to be unable to compete in this division under their impressive young manager, but at some point it would be lovely to see that first win ticked off to prove it can be a season of more than just avoiding embarrassment.

The visit of Aston Villa gives McKenna and his side another chance to test themselves against the division’s current elite before a sequence of games around the interlull that look far more likely to provide opportunities for that first win with West Ham, Everton, Brentford and Leicester a run rich with potential if this weekend can be negotiated without too much unpleasantness.

Player to watch: Luis Diaz

A Liverpool team in rich goalscoring form head this weekend to a Wolves side that has already shipped six at home to Chelsea and must fear a repeat dose.

Liverpool, with one notable and costly exception, have made an excellent start to life under Arne Slot and the sheer depth of their attacking talent was in evidence as a much-changed side sauntered to a familiar-sounding 5-1 Carabao victory over poor old West Ham this week.

Slot’s first seven games haven’t perhaps been the toughest set of fixtures imaginable, but they have yielded 18 goals with the obvious prospect of more to come against what is currently the division’s joint-leakiest defence.

And one player in particular who appears to be enjoying the new regime is Luis Diaz. He’s always been an eye-catching part of Liverpool’s attack, but one for whom the numbers haven’t quite matched the visuals.

That’s all changed this season. After scoring 16 goals in 67 Premier League appearances under Jurgen Klopp, it’s currently five in five for the Colombian under Slot. Sure, that may only be half as much as Erling Haaland, but it’s more than anyone else and that feels rather more relevant.

Diaz is in the finest goalscoring form of his Liverpool career, and there’s not many teams you’d rather face while in that form than Wolves right now.

Football League game to watch: Sheffield Wednesday v West Brom

It’s Sky Sports+ for the pick of the weekend’s Championship games as surprise leaders West Brom take their unbeaten record north to Sheffield and a Wednesday team once again deeply embroiled in the relegation picture despite starting the season with a thumping 4-0 win over Plymouth.

It’s been just one point from five subsequent games for Danny Rohl’s side, who finished last season so impressively to beat the drop. West Brom, on the other hand, go from strength to strength. They finished fifth last season but a full 12 points behind fourth-place Southampton and lost in the play-off semi-finals.

They appear to be a different beast this season, though, dropping only two points in six games via a draw with Leeds and boasting the league’s top scorer in Josh Maja.

This is the Baggies’ fourth year in the Championship, their longest such stint since their first relegation from the Premier League back in 2003. They’ve always found yo-yoing back into the top flight relatively straightforward when it’s previously been required, never taking more than two seasons about it and finishing no lower than fourth.

It’s been harder graft this time, but the trend is at least in the right direction after finishes of 10th, ninth and fifth. Early signs suggest a team capable of avoiding any more play-off unpleasantness.

READ NEXT: Six surprising 24/25 Championship early-season standouts include Leeds star, West Brom sensation

European game to watch: Bayern Munich v Bayer Leverkusen

There are two European must-watches really this weekend, with the Madrid derby on Sunday. But that’s already starting to look like a scramble for the minor placings in La Liga given the form of Barcelona, so forced to choose one we’ll take what looks like a crucial early title clash in Germany.

It’s the perennial champs against last season’s upstarts and a game that feels like it carries a similar early yet potentially season-defining heft as last week’s Premier League clash between Man City and Arsenal.

Having, to their eternal shame, lost a domestic game of football already this season, Bayer are on the back foot heading to Munich to face the leaders, who have four wins from four and appear in no mood for f***ing about this time.

A win for Bayern opens up a six-point lead that even this early in the season would appear to be a formidable one, but it’s never quite as straightforward as that with this odds-defying Leverkusen outfit.