West Ham must improve, Arsenal are unpredictable, and our eyes are on Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag. You lucky people have a midweek full of Carabao Cup and Europa League action to look forward to.
Game to watch: Liverpool v West Ham
Liverpool and West Ham’s weekend fixtures both finished 3-0, with one going into Wednesday’s match at Anfield full of confidence and the other feeling very sorry for themselves. The Hammers were catastrophically bad at home to Chelsea, who should have won by more than three, and Liverpool away is a pretty dire follow-up fixture to have.
That does not mean it is impossible for Julen Lopetegui to mastermind a famous victory. Nottingham Forest have already gone to Anfield and won this season and this is Arne Slot’s Liverpool after all, not Jurgen Klopp’s.
Much improvement is needed if West Ham want to avoid having their pants pulled down again and being knocked out in the same ground as last season, whereas more of the same is needed from the Reds, who bounced back from that shock home defeat to Forest to comfortably beat Bournemouth.
Team to watch: Arsenal
Carabao Cup line-ups are very difficult to predict and with Arsenal, we will either see seven kids start or Mikel Arteta go full strength to flat-track bully their way through League One Bolton Wanderers.
The uncertainty over their starting XI makes them the team to watch given the high amount of players we should be keeping an eye on. Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri should start and both are very exciting players, Nwaneri in particular.
Ayden Heaven could also play in centre-back, and David Raya is a doubt in goal, presenting the prospect of one of Jack Porter, 16, Alexei Rojas, or Brian Okonkwo, both 18, starting in between the sticks. There are uncertainties over the fitness of summer signing Tommy Setford, who would be preferred to the aforementioned trio if available. Neto is cup tied, making his loan from Bournemouth a bizarre decision on the Gunners’ behalf.
Leandro Trossard is suspended after his foolish red card against Manchester City, meaning one of Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli or Bukayo Saka will play when they really ought to rest. In defence, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Kieran Tierney and Takehiro Tomiyasu are injured, and Benjamin White played with an injury on Sunday and can’t be risked.
Not to mention that Thomas Partey being one sprint away from a ripped hamstring could also see unnecessary minutes for Declan Rice.
Regardless, it will be fun for Arsenal fans to see some new faces in action, especially Raheem Sterling and Nwaneri.
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Manager to watch: Erik ten Hag
Man Utd ‘ate Crystal Palace alive’ on Saturday but could not score past an inspired and not-at-all-bitter Dean Henderson. That was Erik ten Hag’s assessment following his side’s 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park and the Dutch manager needs to deliver a strong goalscoring performance against FC Twente in the Europa League this midweek.
Ten Hag will likely bring Rasmus Hojlund back into the starting XI and Mason Mount should have a part to play but getting off to a strong start in the Europa League, no matter who is on the pitch and how they do it, is imperative for the Red Devils manager.
Winning the Europa League is something Man Utd should aim to do this term and if Ten Hag can make it one trophy in each of his three seasons at the club, then he will be able to continue shutting up his very loud critics.
There are rarely easy games in Europe and Twente is a club Ten Hag supported as a boy, but it is time to lay down a marker in a very winnable competition, that success in will make up for finishing outside the Champions League spots in the Premier League.
Exorcising his European demons after last season’s woeful Champions League campaign will be important for Ten Hag, who has not had a great European season since managing that Ajax team.
Player to watch: Ben Chilwell
“Hopefully we can give him some minutes tomorrow. The idea for him was to leave. In the moment that he’s here, he’s one of the squad, he’s training. He will be in the squad tomorrow and hopefully we can give him some minutes.”
Enzo Maresca and Chelsea have realised that keeping a £50million player on £200,000 a week out in the cold is not financially beneficial so Ben Chilwell is back in contention.
A cup tie at home to League Two Barrow is a perfect opportunity for Maresca to play those on the periphery and while starting Chilwell is not a guarantee, he will surely get a decent chunk of minutes to prove his worth.
Maresca could easily change his entire starting XI from Saturday’s win at West Ham and Chilwell is not the only player who desperately needs to impress.
European game to watch: Nice v Real Sociedad
Proper Europa, this. These two just stink of it. Both you would look at thinking they’ve got a chance of winning the whole thing and every time without fail, they are knocked out in the last 16. Probably by Shakhtar Donetsk or Sevilla.
Nice narrowly won 8-0 at the weekend with seven different scorers and are back on home turf against Real Sociedad on Wednesday. The French club are expected to win with the Spaniards in a rut. They have not scored in any of their previous four matches and have one win in seven this season, scoring three in total.
European nights can bring more out of players and La Real will need to ride that wave against a team brimming in confidence.
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