Football writer Alex Keble analyses where this weekend's fixtures could be won and lost, including:
- Can Glasner strike again v Man City?
- Will Newcastle game shed light on Amorim's recent tactics?
- Will interim boss inspire relegated Saints?
- Can Bournemouth halt their slide v Fulham?
- Can bottom-half opponents boost Forest?
- Will Delap show Chelsea what they lack?
- Can Salah return to form against West Ham?
- Will Wolves continue their winning run?
- Can Arsenal keep their league season going?
- Can Brighton end their recent winless run?
Can Glasner strike again v Man City?
Crystal Palace and Oliver Glasner have Pep Guardiola’s number.
Palace have lost just two of their last six matches at the Etihad Stadium in all competitions.
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Perhaps emboldened by that record, after the 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park in December, Glasner was surprisingly candid about the tactical reasons behind his side’s success.
"We knew we can play a higher intensity [than Manchester City], all the data showed this," he said. "We knew when we get into the transitions we'd get in behind. When we get them running maybe they'd struggle a bit.
"When you play with one number six, 4-1-4-1, like City is playing, there is a lot of space on the left and right of the No 6. Then it's [about] how you find this space."
They weren’t the first, or the last, to expose Man City in exactly that way: combative midfield pressing, fast transitions, and targeting the Rodri gaps.
It could happen again in the early kick-off, not only because Man City continue to struggle in that manner but because Palace are in scintillating form.
Only Liverpool (23) have earned more points over their last 10 Premier League matches than Crystal Palace (22). Also, the Eagles are unbeaten in their last 10 away league games as they head to the Etihad.
Meanwhile, City have failed to score in three of their last six matches. They are vulnerable, then, to Palace’s strong defence (three goals conceded in the last five matches) and the counter-attacks led by Jean-Philippe Mateta, who has the second-highest tally of Premier League goals in 2025, with nine.
However, this is Kevin De Bruyne’s first match at the Etihad Stadium since announcing his summer departure – and that could be significant.
Romantics will note two things: De Bruyne’s first Premier League appearance for Man City was against Palace in September 2015, and Southampton (14) are the only opponent he has more goal involvements against than Palace (12).
Will Newcastle game shed light on Amorim's recent tactics?
Gary Neville has said that "robotic" football is becoming a "disease" in the Premier League. It’s fair to say the reaction to a drab Manchester derby was a little overblown.
Neville’s anger was of course directed mostly towards the highly-structured football in the early days of Ruben Amorim, whose Manchester United are looking slow and considered as they learn the detail of his 3-4-2-1 formation.
To an extent, this follows what Mikel Arteta or Guardiola did in their early days at Arsenal and Man City respectively; put the scaffolding in place first, then allow improvisation and only when the non-negotiables are committed to muscle memory.
We will know more about whether Man Utd are making progress in this regard, or are simply overly-conservative as some have suggested, when they face an opponent that is anything but "robotic".
Newcastle United will be energetic and bullish as they seek to complete their first league double over Man Utd since 1930/31, and it will be up to the visitors to match that energy. If they don’t, fresh questions will be asked of the Amorim project’s direction.
Only Leicester City (14) and Everton (13) have failed to score in more different Premier League matches this season than Man Utd (12). Meanwhile, Amorim's average of 1.15 points per league match ranks third-lowest among all of the managers in the club's history, behind only Alfred Albut's 0.73 and Scott Duncan's 1.00 in the old First Division (when adjusted to three points for a win).
A conservative setup to against Man City is understandable, but attempts to do similar at St James' Park will not work.
Will interim boss inspire relegated Saints?
The inevitable has finally happened. Southampton have been effectively relegated for what feels like months but last weekend it became official, and with that, the club decided to part ways with Ivan Juric after just 105 days in charge.
This isn’t good news for Aston Villa.
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There are many examples in Premier League history of clubs getting a sudden bounce in form after relegation is confirmed, as if a weight has suddenly lifted and they can play with freedom again.
The chances of that happening are perhaps greater with Simon Rusk as interim manager, and if there is a bump at Saints, then a rotated Villa side could fall victim to it.
Unai Emery made eight changes to his XI for the match against Nottingham Forest last weekend and, sandwiched between the two legs of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain, he is likely to do something similar again.
Villa have won just two of their nine Premier League matches that have immediately followed a Champions League match, while half of their league defeats (4/8) have been after European exertions.
Can Bournemouth halt their slide v Fulham?
AFC Bournemouth’s season is on a knife edge.
Six Premier League matches without a victory leaves them 10th and in danger of sinking into the bottom half, undoing so much of the good work that, until a few weeks ago, had Andoni Iraola’s side in the battle for Champions League places.
They’ve lost their last four at home and conceded twice in each of their last five Premier League matches.
It’s imperative Iraola finds a way to stop the slide, and so he will not be looking forward to the visit of Fulham, a resilient team who appear particularly resistant to Bournemouth’s attacking threat.
Only Man City, with 289, have forced more high turnovers in the Premier League this season than Bournemouth's 287, while Iraola’s side top the charts for shot-ending high turnovers (61), reflecting the energetic pressing and quick transitions that have defined his tenure.
But only Bournemouth and Brighton & Hove Albion, with 26 and 27 respectively, have faced fewer shots following high turnovers than Fulham (28), who simply don’t take risks.
Marco Silva will know how to slow the match down and neutralise Bournemouth’s pressing. That could extend Iraola’s winless run.
Can bottom-half opponents boost Forest?
Every league match is like a cup final for third-placed Forest now, and this one in particular feels symbolically significant as it's the first in their sequence against bottom-half clubs.
Six of their eight remaining matches are against teams currently 11th or lower.
On paper, that’s great news for their fans, given Nuno Espirito Santo’s team have won 12 of their last 13 Premier League matches against teams starting the day in the bottom half.
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But there are signs of Forest slowing down and they are only five points clear in the Champions League places now.
Tension will only grow as their superb season builds to a crescendo. How they fare against such a hardy Everton team will tell us if they can keep on keeping on.
More dropped points, or any sign of bluntness against a stubborn defence, will be a foreboding sign.
Will Delap show Chelsea what they lack?
Goals are not coming easy for Chelsea at the moment.
Since 21 December, only five teams have scored fewer goals than Chelsea’s 17 in 15 Premier League matches and only Leicester (2.3 per cent) have a lower shot-conversion rate than the Blues' 7.1 per cent, a run defined by Cole Palmer’s waning form and Nicolas Jackson’s injury.
Neither player started last weekend, which explains their 0-0 draw at Brentford. Enzo Maresca is unlikely to leave them both out again.
Nevertheless, Ipswich Town’s Liam Delap might just show Chelsea what they’re missing.
Delap has scored 12 Premier League goals for Ipswich this season. In Premier League history, only three players have scored as many as that for a promoted club while aged 22 or younger: Alan Shearer, Andrew Cole, and Yakubu.
Delap, who scored one goal and assisted the other in Ipswich’s 2-0 victory over Chelsea at Portman Road - still their only home win of the season - has netted in each of his last two Premier League matches.
Can Salah return to form against West Ham?
Every week we seem to ask the same question: when will we see the real Mohamed Salah again?
Two penalties against bottom-club Southampton aside, Salah hasn’t scored or assisted in a Liverpool shirt since 26 February.
He risks a brilliant season becoming just a very good one, and certainly he’s running out of time to get the four assists he needs to break the Premier League record of 20 held by Thierry Henry and De Bruyne.
West Ham United might be accommodating opponents. Liverpool have won their last nine matches in a row against them and have already beaten them 5-1 (in the EFL Cup) and 5-0 (in the Premier League) this season, with Salah scoring twice and assisting twice across these matches.
One more goal or assist and he will set a new Premier League record for goal involvements in a single season. Incredibly, that was also true five weeks ago.
Surely, this time, Salah will get there.
Will Wolves continue their winning run?
Vitor Pereira has quietly done a superb job at Wolverhampton Wanderers, culminating in three straight Premier League victories that have all-but secured the club’s top-flight status.
In a table based on Premier League results since he took charge on 22 December, Wolves sit ninth and only a few points off the top five.
Premier League form since Pereira's first match - top 10 clubs
| Team | P | W | D | L | Pts |
| Liverpool | 16 | 11 | 4 | 1 | 37 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 14 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 29 |
| Palace | 13 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 27 |
| Newcastle | 13 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 27 |
| Forest | 14 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 26 |
| Man City | 14 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 25 |
| Fulham | 15 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 24 |
| Aston Villa | 14 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 23 |
| Wolves | 15 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 23 |
| Brighton | 14 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 22 |
They will fancy their chances against Tottenham Hotspur, then. Not least because they are unbeaten in four matches against Spurs and have won each of the last two at Molineux.
More than that, only Southampton and Leicester, with 13 and 11 respectively, have lost more away matches this season than Spurs' nine, plus Ange Postecoglou’s side will likely be distracted by their Europa League quarter-final.
Spurs' season rests on success in Europe and so, with matches against Eintracht Frankfurt either side, Postecoglou will presumably rest key players for the weekend.
Wolves are in brilliant form, Spurs are distracted. Pereira’s team are in the driving seat here.
Can Arsenal keep their league season going?
Arteta will presumably rotate his team heavily to keep players fresh for the second leg to the Santiago Bernabeu, where they are now favourites to finish the job after a sensational performance against Real Madrid on Tuesday night.
Presumably Arteta wraps his players in cotton wool until next week, meaning an outing for fringe players like Leandro Trossard, Raheem Sterling, Ethan Nwaneri, and Jorginho.
Rotation led to a disappointing 1-1 draw with Everton last weekend, and it might be a similar story for the visit of Brentford, who have won five of their last six Premier League away matches.
Arsenal’s record is two wins from six in the league. Their domestic campaign is in danger of fizzling out, a prospect that only grows if and when the Gunners go deeper in the Champions League.
Can Brighton end their recent winless run?
There’s a feeling in the air that a top seven is starting to pull clear – and Brighton are not in it.
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With seven matches remaining there’s still time for Brighton to come back, but after consecutive Premier League defeats (as many as in their previous 13 beforehand) and four matches without a win in all competitions, Fabian Hurzeler needs to get back on track sharpish.
He’ll be thankful, then, to be hosting Leicester this weekend.
Leicester have lost each of their last eight Premier League matches, home or away, without scoring a goal. Brighton will surely get back to winning ways.
