Manchester United and Ten Hag are praying for an Arsenal miracle as Haaland waits and the play-offs begin

Even with just three Premier League games televised, it’s a broken schedule. Manchester United v Arsenal is an obvious headliner with a great undercard.

Match to watch: Manchester United v Arsenal
It’s impossible to look at this game without looking at it with a “how far have we come” vibe. Manchester Uniteda proud and great club reduced here to the status of highly unlikely but potential party men against their old title-fighting partners from Barclays Origin stories.

Now they can’t even take special pleasure in pooing Arsenal’s party because they’d give Manchester City the title anyway. How gloomy.

And it’s worth considering just how dismal Manchester United’s state is when assessing Arsenal. It remains likely that they will come up short in the title again, regardless of the upset they caused United on Sunday afternoon, but this really is a team and a club that go places.

They have proven this season that they are here to stay. Last season’s late collapse to hand the title to City was met with “When will this chance come again?” concern (often, of course, very false concern). Nobody says that this time. Nothing is inevitable in sport, but it seems only a matter of time before this Arsenal team ends Liverpool’s journey from challenger to conqueror. Giving City a fair fight two years running, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have already done more than anyone other than Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool in the last six years..

As for this match itself, it could get horribly ugly. Whatever strange magic United pull off to avoid being touched by Liverpool surely won’t work against the Gunners. Not with Casemiro at center back again anyway.

Bruno Fernandes is back after missing the 4-0 capitulation at Palaceof course, but he’s still only human and Arsenal’s live attack of Jonny Evans, Casemiro and an out-of-position Aaron Wan-Bissaka feels like it should only be allowed on TV after the upset.

Player to watch: Erling Haaland
Oh yeah, we’re really thinking outside the box with this one. Maybe I wouldn’t have thought to watch it if we hadn’t pointed it out, yeah? Still, still.

He scored four goals last weekend in a 5-1 win over Wolves and now faces a Fulham side against whom he scored just three in a 5-1 win earlier this season.

Fulham have been a superbly mercurial side and their Craven Cottage wins against Arsenal and Spurs (don’t laugh) mean there’s enough reason to believe Man City could drop points here before they certainly won’t and, in fact, to win 5-1. again.

City have an unblemished record against the Cottagers with a dreadful spell and Haaland has five goals in three Premier League games against them.

It’s hard to imagine a scenario where they don’t add to that tally against a team that isn’t exactly on the beach but has been looking at flip flops and shorts for a while now, they’ve only won once since. early April and we prepared for this game by flying kites in practice. A fact that was met with the kind of quiet, detached calm for which Arsenal’s terminal online supporters have become justly famous.

The only disappointment, really, is that the game is on TNT, so we’ll have to wait to hear how angry Roy Keane is. Haaland’s inevitable statistics addition.

Team to watch: Chelsea
Because honestly, they’re the most watched team in the division right now. Nine of their last 10 Premier League games have featured at least four goals and that was it hardly through any fault of their own Spurs were so incredibly lousy going forward in the other.

Just during the last five crushing games, Chelsea won 5-0 and 6-0, lost 5-0 and drew 2-2 in a game where they trailed 2-0 after an hour.

They have four 2-2 draws in their last 10 matches against a magnificent list of opponents: Brentford, Burnley, Sheffield United and Aston Villa.

The 5-0 defeat to Arsenal it’s also somehow the only Premier League defeat they’ve suffered since February, despite the fact that it’s still far from clear whether they’re actually good or not, and the disappointments of the others – Spurs and Manchester United, we’re looking straight at hold here – it means they are right in the European competition after a season that for the longest time looked as dismal as the last.

And depending on how Saturday’s previous games have gone, Chelsea could find themselves up against a Forest side that are effectively safe from relegation (barring some unlikely mathematical shenanigans or points penalties), which should just to add to the sense of silliness on offer.

Manager to watch: Erik Ten Hag
Just three televised Premier League games this weekend means we can cheat. You can insist that Monday night counts as the weekend if you like, but it doesn’t, and in any case, a once tantalizing Aston Villa v Liverpool is now the most disastrous of teams that are sure to finish fourth and respectively third. It might be fun to watch, but it has no deeper meaning.

Ten Hag is unlikely to have any fun at all on a Sunday afternoon full of deeper meaning. The absence of any other Premier League action on the day doesn’t help either, but let’s be honest, even if there were other games, the spotlight would be heavily on this one.

Honestly, what are they supposed to do here? The man has made many, many mistakes and he absolutely does not deserve to keep his job beyond the end of the season, but it’s hard not to feel a little sympathy for him here. Looking at Sunday and how it should go, there’s a clear case to be made that sacking him now would have been an act of kindness by putting him out of our misery.

They must feel the game is over and now have almost no choice but to face Arsenal – 13 goals scored in four straight wins since exiting the Champions League – with the same mended and alarmingly heavy defense that delivered four. at the Palace on Monday evening.

As amazing as that is to say about any game at Old Trafford, it doesn’t even feel like United’s main aim is to avoid defeat here, but rather to avoid (anymore) humiliation. A narrow defeat can be swallowed up if there is enough pride and effort, especially with the side effect of making life difficult for Man City.

But do Ten Hag and his injury-ravaged team have even the kind of less-than-imaginable fight left in them?

MORE ABOUT THE MAN UTD MANAGER SEARCH FROM F365:
👉 Tuchel still favorite for Man Utd job after Ten Hag’s inevitable exclusion despite CL cock-up
👉 Exclusive: Meulensteen expects Man Utd to sack Ten Hag as he chooses ‘two reasons’ to sell players

Football League match to watch: Norwich v Leeds
No 2pm Premier League fixture on Sunday means both Championship semi-final legs can be fully enjoyed ahead of The Small Matter of Manchester United v Arsenal in what should be a great afternoon of football really put in good shape. .

There are broadly two types of play-off stories. The prospect of a chance in the Premier League for someone a little new, exciting and different (Brentfords, Lutons); or welcome the familiar for another crack at Barclays. This year will surely be the last with Norwich, Leeds, Southampton and West Brom the four teams involved.

Norwich v Leeds is the pick if you’re only going to watch one of the games, though, purely because of the fascination of watching two scrappy teams battle it out for such a potentially huge prize. Both stumbled dismally over the regular season line, with Leeds losing their way in the automatic promotion race and Norwich all but hanging on in sixth place.

Both teams have managed just two wins in their last seven league games since the start of April, so neither team will approach this with any confidence. Which is absolutely ideal for any of us who don’t have some skin in the game.

European Match to Watch: Celtic v Rangers
Most of the Major Leagues are sorted and settled now, but even if they weren’t, this would still be the pick. We’ve previously struggled with whether it’s in the spirit of the ‘European game’ to watch, but Scotland isn’t England and it’s in Europe, so we’ve decided that it matters and that, frankly, there’s nothing you can do about it.

In any case, we highly recommend ditching all this pedantic semantic preoccupation and instead simply enjoy the nonsense that is very likely to flow, given that Celtic currently hold a three-point lead at the top SPL, while the last Old Firm derby was a) barely a month ago and b) a comprehensive 3-3 draw, with a goal in the first minute, two penalties and three goals in the last five minutes.