Football writer Alex Keble analyses where this weekend's fixtures could be won and lost, including:
- Can Nuno mastermind another victory against Guardiola?
- Can Timber and Saka find a way past a stubborn Everton defence?
- Will Villa exorcise their demons – or is this the weekend they drop out of the top five?
- Can Tudor’s Spurs react positively after midweek defeat?
- Will explosive Newcastle bring out Chelsea’s more chaotic side?
- Will Palace’s improving form leave Leeds looking over their shoulder again?
- Can Brentford take advantage of a kind run to consolidate seventh?
- Can Pereira finally get a league win before crunch match at Spurs?
- Can Sunderland stay “humble” and put Port Vale defeat behind them?
- Will Bournemouth end up regretting their promoted-club record?
Can Nuno mastermind another victory against Guardiola?
Pep Guardiola will be wary of the threat a Nuno Espirito Santo team can cause. He’s been burnt before.
Nuno has won four of his 13 matches against Guardiola, with only Jurgen Klopp (five) winning more league games against Guardiola in his top-flight career.
That statistic ought to embolden the West Ham United team, who will hope for another Nuno masterclass: a deep block and a counter-attacking set-up that can do a number on Manchester City again.
Most recently, Nuno’s Nottingham Forest won 1-0 in March 2025 with a smash-and-grab result at the City Ground. He also did the double over City as Wolverhampton Wanderers manager in 2019/20, and won 1-0 with Tottenham Hotspur in north London in August 2021.
Forest 1-0 Man City, March 2025 - xG map
Every game was similar in tone, so we know how the pattern of Saturday’s game will go. If the result is familiar it will go down as one of the biggest results of the season – at both ends of the table.
Can Timber and Saka find a way past a stubborn Everton defence?
This looks like exactly the kind of fixture that will make fans nervous; that could drag on for a while at 0-0 and prove another big test of Arsenal’s mettle.
Only Arsenal (nine) have won more Premier League away games this season than Everton (seven), who have won four of their last five on the road, at least partly because David Moyes prefers playing the kind of defensive football that could slow Arsenal down and make them reliant on corners.
The trouble is, only three Premier League teams have conceded fewer set-piece goals this season than Everton (six). If the Toffees sit tight in their mid-block 4-4-2, create a suffocating atmosphere, and hold firm at corners, they can feed off the rising tension inside Emirates Stadium.
For Arsenal to win the match they might need to lean heavily on their right side, where the combinations between Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber have looked dangerous of late.
It was Timber’s overlapping runs that caused all the problems in the reverse fixture, and although it took a Viktor Gyokeres penalty for Arsenal to win 1-0, Timber and Saka got into good positions on many occasions.
With Eberechi Eze likely to be squeezed out centrally, this is Arsenal’s best path to victory.
Will Villa exorcise their demons – or is this the weekend they drop out of the top five?
Aston Villa supporters never look forward to this fixture. The club’s record at Old Trafford reads two wins in 37 league games.
Their record runs so deep that the vast majority of Villa supporters were not at all surprised by the final-day defeat last May, when Villa lost out on a place in the UEFA Champions League despite Manchester United’s poor form and UEFA Europa League final defeat days earlier.
It would not surprise them, either, if Man Utd were once again the obstacle that gets in the way of Champions League football.
Defeat on Sunday could mean Villa drop out of the Premier League top five for the first time since late November, signalling, perhaps, that their slide (making it two wins in 10) is set to go on for a while yet.
Of course, a more optimistic angle is to say Villa have a rare opportunity to exorcise their demons. The pain of that 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford still lingers, but it won’t if Villa get their first win on this ground since September 2021, jumping three points above Michael Carrick’s side in the process.
Can Tudor’s Spurs react positively after midweek defeat?
Spurs' 5-2 defeat at Atletico Madrid in the Champions League made it four defeats from four under Igor Tudor and six consecutive losses in all competitions for the first time in Spurs’ entire history.
However, it’s important that Spurs focus on the positives, namely that they remain one point above the relegation zone.
They have also won 66 per cent of their Premier League points away from home (19/29) this season and could be galvanised by a trip to Anfield that allows them to focus on Tudor’s principles.
Not unlike Antonio Conte, Tudor wants his teams to press aggressively but remain defensively robust, usually with three centre-backs in the side.
Arguably that kind of football will work best against the elite clubs, especially if those teams, like Liverpool, are in patchy form.
A huge game in front of a raucous crowd could be just what Spurs need to play with fire in their bellies – and pull off a result that could radically alter the trajectory of their season.
Will explosive Newcastle bring out Chelsea’s more chaotic side?
The most entertaining game of the weekend could be at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea often get dragged into wild end-to-end contests during this period of adaptation to Liam Rosenior’s football.
The central idea is control: since Rosenior took charge, Chelsea have had more sequences of 10+ open-play passes than any other side in the Premier League (173), and they are averaging 21.6 per game under Rosenior, compared to 14.0 before his arrival this season.
But dictating the tempo means Chelsea players are often spread expansively around the pitch, leaving them vulnerable to more explosive pressing sides able to pinch the ball and transition quickly into the final third. That is exactly how Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United side play.
Newcastle have avoided defeat in five of their last seven Premier League games against Chelsea (three wins, two draws and two losses), which will fill them with confidence, as will looking at Chelsea’s recent results: there have been 18 goals in their last three games, including five goals against.
Whatever the outcome it should be a lot of fun - for neutrals, at least.
Will Palace’s improving form leave Leeds looking over their shoulder again?
Crystal Palace have won three of their last five Premier League games, as many as they had in their previous 14, suggesting Oliver Glasner’s side have well and truly turned a corner.
Leeds United may rue their luck at the timing of this fixture, because not only are Palace back on their feet but Daniel Farke’s side are on a run of four league games without a win. It all points towards a result that could plunge Leeds back into trouble.
With so much focus on Spurs, Leeds’ situation has gone a little under the radar, outside the club that is. They are only three points above West Ham in 18th now, and with 40 points looking likely to be the benchmark for safety Leeds may require another three wins from their final nine matches.
In better news, the 3-0 victory against Norwich City in the FA Cup may have provided a psychological boost, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin – who has scored just one goal in his last eight in all competitions – has scored more goals against Palace (seven) than any other side, including a brace in Leeds’ 4-1 win in the reverse fixture.
Calvert-Lewin xG map
Can Brentford take advantage of a kind run to consolidate seventh?
“I think it’s right that players, to a point, and staff, to a point, but definitely fans need to be dreaming about what is possible,” Keith Andrews told Hounslow Herald last week when asked about the possibility of European football.
“We want to achieve as much as we can achieve really by just keeping going. I don’t really like to set targets.”
Andrews wants to take it one game at a time, then, but he appears to have given fans permission to dream. And why shouldn’t they?
Not only are Brentford a point clear in seventh, and four points clear in the top eight (which could be the European places this season), but they have a nice run of matches coming up, starting with the visit of bottom club Wolves.
After that they play Leeds, Everton, Fulham, Man Utd and West Ham: all very inviting, aside from the trip to Old Trafford.
Then again, Wolves have won their last two Premier League games. There are no easy matches at this level, but Brentford have a real opportunity to consolidate their place in the table.
Can Pereira finally get a Premier League win before crunch match at Spurs?
As tension mount at the bottom there is a growing sense that Vitor Pereira simply must pick up his first three points as Forest head coach this weekend.
That’s because what follows is a crunch match against Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: a six-pointer that could end up deciding which of the two clubs, both playing European competition this season, will spend next season in the Championship.
Going into that match with some momentum would help, but so too would arriving in London without a four-game winless run in the Premier League hanging over them.
Forest have to see Fulham at home as a winnable game.
Marco Silva’s side have been superb this season but they are often stumped by low blocks.
Their possession-centric philosophy (only Man City, Chelsea, and Liverpool are averaging more successful passes per game than Fulham’s 400 this season) can look a little flat when they come up against a defensive set-up that lets them hold onto the ball.
West Ham and Leeds have both beaten Fulham this calendar year. Forest will feel they have to grab this opportunity with both hands.
Can Sunderland stay “humble” and put Port Vale defeat behind them?
Sunderland will be keen to make sure the 1-0 defeat to Port Vale in the FA Cup is not a turning point in their season. They must recover as quickly as possible, as Granit Xhaka has said this week.
“We need to stay humble, we know where we’ve come from,” Xhaka told the Sunderland club website, reflecting on hitting the 40-point mark last Matchweek.
“Our target was 40 points. When you achieve the first one, you want more. In this team, we feel that we have the hunger to want more this year.”
Xhaka’s reference to staying “humble” most likely refers to the possibility that Sunderland, like so many teams before them, may find themselves declining slightly now that season targets are met and subsidiary targets, like the FA Cup, are no longer in sight.
Regis Le Bris and his captain Xhaka are clearly determined to avoid that familiar pitfall, starting with Saturday’s visit of Brighton & Hove Albion.
Will Bournemouth end up regretting their promoted-club record?
AFC Bournemouth are unbeaten in their last nine Premier League matches, a record that has reignited their hopes of European football, although Andoni Iraola’s side remain three points shy of Everton in eighth with nine games to go.
If they do miss out, then Iraola and the Bournemouth fans will know where they went wrong. The Cherries have drawn three and lost one of their four Premier League games against promoted teams this season.
That could yet haunt them, and it almost certainly will if they can’t get three points this weekend at Turf Moor, where Burnley are without a win in 10 league games.