Sunday 8th December, 2024
Spurs @ 2/1
Chelsea @ 23/20
Draw @ 3/1
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As we somehow find ourselves lurching into the final month of 2024, tentative festive season plans are beginning to form. Presents are being purchased, key visits are being scheduled, and that old family recipe of how to prepare a classic stuffing – handed down from generation to generation – is being viewed multiple times on TikTok.
Perhaps more important than all those things, however, is making sure everyone is fully prepared for the gluttonous feast of football that is about to be laid before us in the coming weeks. We’re going to get stuffed! And somewhere deep in the heart of Germany, Jürgen Klopp grimaces and crushes an empty can of Red Bull in his fist, still apoplectic at the prospect of the Premier League’s loaded Christmas calendar.
The first course of Gameweek 15 is a meaty, midday Merseyside Derby. And, based on last weekend’s performances, there was a good chance that a classic stuffing would be heading the menu. Ruben Amorim’s nascent Manchester United cantered away from Everton to win 4-0 at Old Trafford; whereas Liverpool inflicted an extraordinarily one-sided 2-0 victory upon an exasperated Pep Guardiola and his defending champions.
But the midweek results may have caused the sweat to stop cascading down knotted Evertonian brows. Firstly, the hitherto miserly Liverpool defence conceded three goals against a stuttering Newcastle – The Reds still possess the best goal-difference in the division, but vulnerability clearly does exist. And secondly, Everton produced a pre-emptive and rejuvenating stuffing of their own – a 4-0 roasting of fellow relegation-flirters, Wolves.
To what extent will these results have changed expectations going into the 12:30pm kick-off this Saturday? Will normal service simply be resumed? Is there concern that Liverpool are becoming a tiny bit too reliant on Mo Salah?
A supremely motivated Everton will be leaving nothing on the table in what should be an emotional, last ever derby game to be played at Goodison Park.
Is there concern that Liverpool are becoming a tiny bit too reliant on Mo Salah?
Assuming that all Saturday’s action has been properly digested, and that everyone still has some room for more, Sunday’s chef’s table concludes with another filling and potentially spicy derby feast – Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea is a 4:30pm kick-off.
The West London outfit thoroughly cooked Southampton on Wednesday night. The South Coast strugglers found themselves on the wrong end of a rampant, 5-goal Chelsea; who also posted the highest xG (5.29) of any away side on record. The Blues dished out 6 in another away game earlier in the season, have they done enough prep to unleash a similar variety of coarse stuffing against Spurs this weekend?
Because the saucepans are bubbling in North East London too…but not in an exciting, appetising manner. An imminent and supremely damaging kitchen conflagration is a much more likely outcome.
Meek defeat against Bournemouth on Thursday night saw the away fans’ frustration catch fire. There is no need for Ange Postecoglou to wait for his Christmas cards to arrive to know what the fans are thinking – their sage advice was delivered straight to his face, and in block capitals, with lots of exclamation marks at the end.
It’s hard to believe that this is a team that stuffed Manchester City just a couple of weeks ago, but inconsistency is a key, infuriating characteristic of ‘Spursiness’. And regardless of which Tottenham team turns up on Sunday, knives are already being sharpened…
The weekend’s footballing action concludes with yet another mouth-watering, stomach-buckling, high-stakes clash. Jobs are very much on the line in another incarnation of the Premier League’s ‘El Sackio’ fixture, as West Ham United welcome Wolves to East London.
Both Julen Lopetegui and Gary O’Neil probably know that their goose is (over) cooked, but is there a chance their respective meals can be salvaged? Or will this meeting ultimately be their last supper? Plenty for all of us to chew on, then, over the next few days…
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