Sunday 9th March, 4:30pm
Manchester United @ 4/1
Arsenal @ 39/50
Draw @ 5/2
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From many angles it seems the Premier League’s most significant outcomes have already been determined for this campaign.
Possessing a sizeable lead – and further bolstered by a remarkable Parisian heist on Wednesday night – Liverpool’s summit-hogging division position looks unassailable. Reds’ fans can put the finishing touches to their ‘2024/25 Champions’ face-tattoo designs and start composing celebratory sonnets ahead of the inevitable town centre parade.
And at the foot of the table, the bottom three – Ipswich Town, Leicester City, and Southampton – can begin chiselling their names into their respective relegation tombstones. Only Wolves need to be wary of being dragged down into the Stygian mire.
So, we seem to have our fulsome bread slices prepared, but what about the filling? That is far from confirmed. There is still a lot more umm-ing and shuffling and finger-licking to be done before the final order of this 20-club-sandwich is printed on the menu and filed away in the history books.
‘Suddenly, Arsenal’s goal-oriented future looks robust…’
For starters, two big, tasty teams – one which still boasts a Michelin star, and one whose canteen is in danger of being shut-down by the Food Standards Agency – meet in what could be the most consequential match of Gameweek 28.
Manchester United v Arsenal is a 4:30pm kick-off on Sunday.
But even though these two outfits currently reside in different time-zones in the Premier League table, both have shared the same problem in recent weeks – a striking drought.
Prior to Tuesday night’s Champions League fixture against PSV Eindhoven, Arsenal had failed to score in three of their previous four games. With attackers Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz succumbing to hamstring strains; and Gabriel Jesus nursing ligament damage, it was perhaps unsurprising that impotence would be another ailment requiring urgent medical intervention.
And this goal dearth once again brought into focus Arsenal’s persistent failure to land an elite striker who might prod them towards title glory.
But whatever Arsenal’s club doctor prescribed – chilled oysters, lotus-root chips, bird’s nest soup? – it worked. PSV were thoroughly pancaked on Shrove Tuesday – a record-breaking seven away goals were shared among six libidinous players. Hitherto unseen penetrating bursts from Myles Lewis-Skelly and Declan Rice left the Eindhoven back-line gasping in bewilderment.
One of the scorers, Ethan Nwaneri, is now just one goal away from equalling the record currently held by Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen of most goals scored for a Premier League side in all competitions before turning 18. Suddenly, Arsenal’s goal-oriented future looks robust – they have quickly gone from drought to rout.
Neither Copenhagen nor Manchester is famed for its arid climate, but Rasmus Højlund is currently enduring an isolated drought of biblical proportions – now 19 consecutive games without a goal for the Red Devils following Thursday evening’s draw against Real Sociedad in the Europa League.
A goal difference of -6, with 20 fewer Premier League goals than Tottenham Hotspur (who sit just one place above them in the table) suggests the blame for Manchester United’s paucity of successful strikes does not lie at the blunted feet of just one player. Joshua Zirkzee, despite scoring this week and showing link-up qualities, also does not look like a forward who will be threatening any of Wayne Rooney’s other goal-scoring records any time soon.
But Manchester United have pulled out their best performances this season when a thorough thrashing seemed the most likely outcome. Can this weekend be the occasion to turn famine into feast – do as their opponents did in midweek and go from drought to rout?
Or, perhaps a more likely scenario, particularly now that the pressure is off, do we see an unburdened Arsenal exact some revenge for the FA Cup defeat in January and prove that Wednesday night’s deluge was not just a flash flood?
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