The Premier League is dragged kicking and screaming into another international break with Chelsea v Arsenal and Liverpool hoping to stay on top before we all spend two weeks pondering the sheer mind-numbing futility of Lee Carsley’s Final England Squad.
Game to watch: Chelsea v Arsenal
Always looked a significant pre-international break game that would offer a stern test of a London club’s title credentials, and sure enough, just like we all predicted, we really are set to learn an awful lot here about whether Chelsea truly have what it takes to stick around on the coattails of the real major contenders like Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
Funny season this one, isn’t it? Lord knows Arsenal and their fraying manager Mikel Arteta could have done with an easier task than this heading into two weeks of much-needed rest and recuperation.
They come into this game with an identical record to their London rivals of five wins, three draws and a pair of defeats, but it’s hard to argue that Arsenal’s route to that record has been the more compelling or convincing.
They appear to be in the process of second-guessing everything as their manager tries desperately to find a way past Manchester City, who are themselves stuttering a bit as both allow Liverpool to sneak through. It’s all a bit like that 1500m final at the Olympics, isn’t it? But the 1500m final at the Olympics if one of the big two had just gone on the pitch and handled the ball for absolutely no reason other than his head entirely overheating under the pressure of his situation and the sheer stifling weight of all that unnecessarily dense hair.
It’s tempting to think that Arsenal could be happy enough to just emerge from Stamford Bridge with a solidly-won point and move on. That it would stem the bleeding and quiet the noise over a two-week period where somebody needs to be the crisis club and there won’t be the usual cover provided for the last year-and-a-half by Erik ten Hag and Man United.
Depending how the rest of the weekend has panned out, Arsenal really do need to win this game. They could very well start it 10 points behind Liverpool and eight behind Man City. Alternatively, they may start this game within something closer to striking range of both those teams in terms of points but somehow eighth in the table below Aston Villa and Brighton and even Spurs if they manage to avoid any Dr Tottenham behaviour against Ipswich.
The Gunners really could have done with something far, far kinder from that relentlessly mischievous fixture computer after a run of one point in three games and ahead of the year’s final international break.
Team to watch: Liverpool
For final, compelling proof that it is to Arne Slot’s Liverpool that the mantle of Man City’s Primary Challenger has officially passed, it is now their fans to once again be heard with the refrain of Arsenal’s over the last two years:
“We’re not favourites! Don’t say we’re favourites! That’s an absurd idea! Nobody is favourites against City! 115 charges!”
They really kind of do look like the best team around at the moment, though, and if they can take down Aston Villa on Saturday evening it’s going to be desperately hard to keep the noise down over the international break given the vulnerability on display in North London and East Manchester.
This noise-dampening attempt is in large part due to the same motivation that drove Arsenal supporters, of course: the simple dread fear of being accused of bottling it if they don’t win. There is no greater disgrace in all of sport than bottling it, and denying even the requisite conditions for a bottling are in place for as long as possible is the most powerful if occasionally desperate-sounding defence against such a charge.
But there’s something else specifically Liverpool at play here as well. Because we’re very sure they would be a lot giddier were Jurgen Klopp still in charge and delivering Slot’s results.
It’s not that they’re unhappy with what they’re seeing from Slot – very obviously – it’s just that there’s still such a deep affection for the former boss and all he achieved that a slightly subdued air remains around what is by any measure an outrageously good start to the season, one thrown into even greater contrast by the relative struggles occurring elsewhere.
It almost – almost – seems like some part of some Liverpool fans might almost not quite be comfortable with the idea of Slot rocking up and casually winning the Premier League in his first season – something that is now at the very, very least an extremely live possibility – lest it somehow be seen to detract from the achievements of their beloved Klopp.
It kind of makes sense in that way that football fandom doesn’t really make sense at all, but that Klopp-Liverpool relationship really was a special one.
Anyway, they’re absolutely flying and appear to be running into Aston Villa at just the right time too on the back of the absolute paddling they took in the second half at Tottenham and the Champions League loss in Bruges.
The fans might not like it quite as much as they should, but for now everything really does seem to be coming up Liverpool.
Manager to watch: Nuno Espirito Santo
We’re genuinely pleased for him, something that doesn’t happen to us often. Following that disastrous Spurs spell with a move to the lucrative dead-end that is Saudi Arabia really did suggest a far-too-soon end to the meaningful managerial career of someone who is clearly very good indeed at it when presented with the right conditions.
Nottingham Forest have presented him with those conditions, as Wolves did before, and if he and his team can plot a path past an inconsistent and unconvincing Newcastle on Sunday afternoon then the Premier League table is going to have a very strange look to it for another couple of weeks at least. Which is nice.
Player to watch: Erling Haaland
All suddenly gone a bit Human After All for the Goalbot 3000 hasn’t it? After 10 goals in his first five Premier League games of the season there’s been just one in the last five, and that was against Southampton which only barely counts.
He’s still a ridiculous specimen, which means this unthinkably bleak October he’s endured has also involved three Champions League goals. But the missed penalty at Sporting as he was entirely upstaged by Viktor Gyokeres was another worrying moment in a worrying run for Haaland.
And, as ever with Haaland, when the goals stop flowing there isn’t really a great deal else on offer from what remains a deeply unusual footballer.
Nobody’s pretending Brighton represents an easy place to get back on track before the interlull, but they do have the second leakiest defence in the top half. They will give him and City chances to get back on track. But can they take them?
Football League game to watch: Sheffield United v Sheffield Wednesday
Lovely bit of Steel City derby action for you on Sunday lunchtime here, with the Blades seeking to maintain their bid to keep the ol’ yo-yo going in another promotion push, while the Owls can at least approach the game without total dread fear after winning two of their last three games to drag themselves into mid-table.
European game to watch: Inter v Napoli
If you’re still not quite full after an absurdly fattening pre-interlull weekend of Barclays, then what better way to finish off Sunday evening as we all head forlornly into two weeks of speculating about Thomas Tuchel’s involvement with for-some-reason-still-Lee Carsley’s England than a lovely big slice of Inter v Napoli?
The last two champions of Italy clash as the current top two, with top spot on the line as Antonio Conte’s Napoli now hold a mere one-point advantage following last week’s chastening home defeat to Atalanta.
Inter, for their part, rested several starters in midweek with this game in mind but were still able to inflict defeat on CRISIS-addled Arsenal.
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