Preview

Jan

2025

Preview: Barcelona face improving Valencia at Montjuic

Barcelona will be hoping to put an end to a drop-off in league form as they host Valencia in LaLiga.

By Matt Smith

The away side have seen an improvement on results under new manager Carlos Corberan, and he’s preparing to face Barcelona for the first time in his managerial career.

Valencia have struggled in recent years on their travels to Barcelona, failing to pick up three points since 2016 in LaLiga. When the two sides met earlier in the season, Barca secured the victory with a 2-1 win thanks to a brace from Robert Lewandowski.

Dani Olmo could miss out

Dani Olmo wasn’t named in the squad to face Benfica in the Champions League earlier this week, so it will be interesting to see if he recovers in time to make this one.

Barcelona confirmed last week that Olmo would miss the trip to Portugal due to picking up a ‘right soleus strain’. Iñigo Martínez, Marc Bernal, and Marc-André ter Stegen remain out.

Barcelona need to shake off disappointing form

Although Barcelona have been in impressive form in all competitions, Hansi Flick’s side have struggled in LaLiga of late. Sitting 18^th in the form table, Barcelona will need to start picking up results in the league if they want to mount a serious charge for the title.

Raphinha has undoubtedly been one of Barcelona’s key stars over the last few weeks and has been at the heart of everything. The Brazilian forward has provided six goals and assists combined in his last four games in all competitions, including a 9.4-rated performance against Real Madrid.

Barcelona’s home form has been a bit of a worry this season, already losing three games from eight on their own turf.

Corberan has injury doubts

Thierry Correia will be unavailable for Valencia ahead of their trip to Barcelona, while Mouctar Diakhaby, Rafa Mir, and Umar Sadiq are doubtful.

Dimitri Foulquier was also unable to complete training this week, so it will be interesting to see whether he makes the squad.

Turning a corner under Corberan

Valencia are starting to steer in the right direction after Corberan was appointed just a few weeks ago. Starting with an unfortunate 2-1 defeat at home to Real Madrid, Valencia have since been unbeaten and are slowly battling to climb out of the relegation zone.

Last time out, Valencia secured an impressive 1-0 victory over Real Sociedad in LaLiga, with a game plan that Corberan will likely have to replicate. Valencia had just 35% possession, but they produced 1.64 expected goals from just seven shots.

Barcelona are likely to dominate the ball against Corberan’s side, so hitting them on the counter-attack and creating chances when they do have possession will be pivotal.

Prediction

Corberan has certainly tightened Valencia up defensively, so we’re not expecting too many goals in this one. Barcelona have been finding the net regularly of late, but Valencia will be sitting deep and absorbing the pressure. We’re going for a 2-0 victory for Barcelona, who could have too much quality for the away side.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from LaLiga with FotMob this season — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Jan

2025

Preview: Fulham welcome Manchester United to the Cottage

At risk of being the worst version of Manchester United ever, a last-minute winner did move them closer to Europa League last-16 qualification in midweek – are things suddenly looking up for Rúben Amorim and his inconsistent crew?

By Karl Matchett

From midweek smiles to weekend reality checks

Probably it’s a bit early to be drawing such optimistic conclusions. While incremental improvements and stoppage time celebrations are all positive and lead to an uplift in morale, the brutal truth is United head to Fulham, hardly one of the Premier League’s superpowers, three places lower than them in the table and a full seven points adrift.

Amorim may spin it as one defeat in United’s last five, but in the top flight it’s still one win in six – and that came against the bottom club. Add in the fact that United have managed two wins in ten on the road this term and this isn’t likely to be an away day they relish in West London. Amorim still hasn’t worked out his strongest team, and while that’s fine considering the time he’s had at the club, a bigger issue is how vulnerable they look on the road. Only Bruno Fernandes has averaged two shots or more in away games this term and the team as a whole only has six open play goals away too.

Recent form

Fulham are the draw specialists recently. Four straight draws on home soil mean they’ve only lost two of 11 at Craven Cottage, but have also drawn nine of 22 in total – only Brighton have drawn more. Factoring in FA Cup as well as league, it’s just one defeat in 11 for the Cottagers, four of them wins – and they’ve played each of Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal in that period.

Go back to the opening day of the campaign, mind, and it was Man United who emerged triumphant as these two sides met – a late Joshua Zirkzee goal enough to earn Erik ten Hag three points. He didn’t get too many more thereafter.

Team news

Fulham are missing right-back Kenny Tete and squad winger Reiss Nelson, but are otherwise at full strength. Amorim is without Luke Shaw and Mason Mount as usual, while centre-backs Victor Lindelof and Jonny Evans are sidelined too. Everyone else is available, with some suggesting Altay Bayındır may have shown enough in Europe to get a chance in goal domestically.

Key player

Fulham make more accurate crosses per game than any other team in the league (6.2) and have been awarded the third-highest number of penalties (four). Add those two attacking traits together and what you get is a rejuvenated Raúl Jiménez, with eight goals this term from an xG of 8.1. He’s averaging 3.5 shots per 90, plus has created five big chances and has won 40 aerial duels – more than 85 per cent of strikers in the league. The Mexican finally looks like he’s back to near his old effective self and Fulham are reaping the rewards.

*Jiménez shooting stats, Premier League 2024/25*

Prediction

More away day misery for United and Amorim. Fulham 2 United 1.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every Premier League game with FotMob this season — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Jan

2025

Preview: Leicester look to break seven game losing streak at Spurs

Spurs managed to get past Bundesliga crisis club Hoffenheim; can they continue this run against a similarly out-of-sorts Leicester City?

By Ian King

One dismal run must end

A narrow-ish win against a pretty dismal-looking Hoffenheim in the Europa League and that win against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup notwithstanding, Spurs’ recent form has been dismal, with the small consolation from their trip Everton being that they at least kept the score respectable after having gone in at half-time three down. It’s now one win in ten in the League.

Leicester City’s new manager bounce following the appointment of Ruud Van Nistelrooy at the start of December fell quickly back to earth; one win and one draw on the way down, followed by seven consecutive defeats during which they’ve scored two goals and conceded eighteen. It doesn’t say much for the two teams above them that a win against Spurs could lift them out of the bottom three.

History

Spurs and Leicester have played each other twice in cup finals with Spurs winning both, 2-0 win in the 1961 FA Cup final and 1-0 in the 1999 League Cup final. More recently, this fixture has often brought goals. Over the last decade Spurs have won 6-2, 6-1 and 5-4, while Leicester won 4-1 at The King Power Stadium in 2023. They drew 1-1 on the opening weekend of this season, with a Jamie Vardy goal cancelling out Pedro Porro’s opener for Spurs.

Familiar faces

James Maddison has spent seven out of 23 on the bench for Spurs this season, but his early goal in Germany on Thursday could mean that he is given a more central role against his former club. For Leicester, a lack of goals has been as severe as the weak defending, but they have two former Spurs players, Harry Winks and Oliver Skipp, among their available midfielders.

Team News

Timo Werner, Brennan Johnson, Dominic Solanke and Yves Bissouma have all joined the Spurs injury list–now 14 in total–over the last couple of weeks. But it’s not quite all bad news. Antonín Kinský is available again after missing Hoffenheim and Richarlison came through the trip without incident.

Woyo Coulibaly should make his debut for Leicester following his transfer from Parma, while at the other end of the scale Jamie Vardy is now in 10th season with them, a period during which he has now scored 180 League goals.

Prediction

Their Europa League win in Germany was an improvement, but Spurs still looked brittle, particularly throughout the first fifteen minutes of the second half, and when pegged back to 2-1 it felt as though a very familiar script was playing out yet again. But they managed to hold on this time, and that’s something to carry back into a Premier League campaign that has fallen spectacularly off the rails in recent weeks. Leicester have been pretty bad these last couple of months, a badness arguably masked a little by Southampton’s even-worseness, and beating a running on vapours, out-of-sorts Spurs by 3-2 sounds in line with this fixture’s goal-laden history.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from the Premier League with FotMob this season – featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Jan

2025

Preview: Man City meet Chelsea for late kick-off

A well-rested Chelsea travel north to face a Man City side reeling from their midweek Champions League defeat to French champions PSG in what could be a pivotal game for both club’s European ambitions.

By Alex Roberts

Pep Guardiola’s boys went 2-0 up against the Parisians before completely capitulating, conceding four goals in the final 35 minutes, leaving them on the brink of elimination from Europe’s elite club competition.

Chelsea had no such worries, but that doesn’t mean Enzo Maresca will have taken his eye off the ball… literally. The West London club impressed against City in their first game under the Italian but were powerless to resist their overwhelming firepower. They’ll want revenge this time out.

The prodigal son makes an impressive return

It’s almost as if Trevoh Chalobah never left, or at least he shouldn’t have. The centre-back absolutely bossed it in their 3-1 win against Wolves in their previous Premier League fixture.

Chalobah ended the win over Wolves with a 96% pass accuracy rate, two chances created, and an assist: winning the Player of the Match award in his first game back since being recalled from his loan at Crystal Palace.

Yes, those are all attacking stats, because, honestly, he didn’t have to do that much at the back, and when he did, he was as calm as ever. The academy star may have saved his boyhood club millions.

A flurry of new Man City signings

City have spent big in the January transfer window, bringing Vitor Reis, Abdukodir Khusanov, and now Omar Marmoush to the club as they seek to refresh an aging squad before any ruling is made regarding those ominous 115 charges.

The current champions are confusing enough as it is, and should Guardiola decide to give his three new boys their debuts against Chelsea, it could throw a serious spanner in the works for Maresca.

Marmoush in particular could cause problems. The forward played at a higher level than the other two, scoring 20 goals and providing 13 assists in the first half of the season at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Over a billion spent and still in need of a goalkeeper

The Stamford Bridge faithful aren’t starting to lose faith in Robert Sánchez, they lost it some time ago. Maresca continues to back him, despite a number of high-profile mistakes, including the one against Wolves, but his hands may be tied in the near future.

Only Ipswich goalkeeper Arijanet Muric has made more mistakes leading to goals in the Premier League this season with five, one more than Chelsea’s Sánchez. A worrying stat for a side trying to secure a top four spot.

Being a goalkeeper is hard, it’s arguably the most confidence-based position in the sport, and that will make it even harder for Sánchez to redeem himself in the eyes of the Chelsea fans.

Starting to worry about Bernardo

Bernardo Silva has been one of City’s most consistent players over the last few years, but a string of poor performances against the big boys this season should be cause for concern for both Guardiola and the fans.

It was a miracle he wasn’t brought off in the defeat to PSG, losing seven duels, more than any other player on the pitch. The struggle was as clear as day on his face after Ousmane Dembélé nut-megged him before smashing the crossbar.

All things must come to an end, and it’s incredible he’s managed to play at such a high level for such a prolonged period of time, but he may be another aging star City look to move on in the not-so-distant future.

Prediction

City and Chelsea are two of the Premier League’s more unpredictable sides this season, it’s hard to determine which version will turn up for any given game. We’re going to go with a 3-1 win to City, but don’t hold us to it!

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from the Premier League with FotMob this season – featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Jan

2025

Preview: Injury-hit Arsenal visit Wolves

Arsenal’s season has been rather derailed in January as they have suffered big setbacks in all three domestic competitions. Anything but a win against Wolves today could see them drop to a double-digit net deficit from league leaders Liverpool.

By Neel Shelat

Arsenal’s recent domestic struggles

Arsenal have won just one of their last five domestic matches, dropping four points in the Premier League and suffering setbacks in both cup competitions.

Their disappointing run of form started with a score draw at Brighton, which was followed by two cup defeats. First, Newcastle United took away a two-goal lead from the Emirates Stadium in the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final, and then Manchester United scored a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory to send Arsenal crashing out of the third round of the FA Cup. The Gunners did register big xG tallies in excess of 3 in both of those games, so it was their finishing that let them down.

*Key stats, Arsenal vs. Newcastle, Carabao Cup first leg*

Arsenal did not dominate their next two matches quite as much. They did edge out a crucial North London derby victory over Tottenham but then squandered a two-goal lead against Aston Villa to register their eighth draw of the Premier League season.

Wolves reinvigorated after Vitor Pereira’s arrival

Wolverhampton Wanderers spent the vast majority of the first half of the season in the relegation zone and had a single-digit points tally when Gary O’Neil was sacked before Christmas. Few were optimistic about Vitor Pereira’s ability to turn things around when he was brought in from Al Shabab, but he has proven the doubters wrong so far.

Wolves defeated Leicester City and Manchester United in their first two matches under the new head coach to surge out of the relegation zone. They also went on to take a point off Tottenham Hotspur and defeat Bristol City in the FA Cup’s third round. Although they have lost their last three league games, that should not be too big a cause for concern since each of their opponents is in the current top six.

Pereira has hardly overseen a tactical overhaul as he is using the same 3-4-2-1 formation that O’Neil often deployed, but he has shored up the defence a bit and thus improved the team’s counterattacking threat.

Cunha the key against Arsenal’s weakened right side

Injuries have been a big reason behind Arsenal’s drop in form. Their right side has been particularly affected of late as Bukayo Saka and Ben White have remained unavailable while Ethan Nwaneri missed a few matches, Gabriel Jesus suffered a season-ending ACL injury in the FA Cup and William Saliba picked up a slight hamstring issue in training ahead of their last league game.

While Riccardo Calafiori’s return should make up for Myles Lewis-Skelly’s potential absence at left back, Wolves will surely look to target the right side of Arsenal’s defence where Thomas Partey may have to start at right back as Jurriën Timber moves to centre-back. Star attacker Matheus Cunha – the subject of a lot of interest in the transfer window – will be looking forward to adding to his tally of 14 league goal involvements.

*Wolves goals + assists, Premier League 2024/25*

Prediction

Despite their injury issues, Arsenal should have enough to see out an eighth-straight head-to-head victory over Wolves.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from the Premier League live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Jan

2025

Preview: Real Madrid go to Valladolid as top meets bottom

Real Madrid have bounced back from their Spanish Supercopa humbling against Barcelona to score 14 goals in their last three outings.

By Graham Ruthven

Liga leaders hitting their stride

It was only two weeks ago that Real Madrid suffered that humiliation against Barcelona in the Spanish Supercopa. Since then, though, Carlo Ancelotti’s team have responded by stringing together three consecutive wins.

Barca’s draw away to Getafe last weekend allowed Real Madrid to stretch their advantage at the top of LaLiga over their fiercest rivals to seven points with Atlético Madrid two points behind.

Most ominous is Real Madrid’s attacking form. Indeed, los Blancos have scored 14 goals in their last three games in all competitions including five goals against Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League during the week.

After a slow start to the season, Kylian Mbappé has hit top form in recent weeks, finding the back of the net five times in the last four games. The Frenchman’s speed and willingness to get in behind will give Real Valladolid problems.

While Madrid are looking to boost their title chances, Valladolid need points to move off the bottom of LaLiga. The White and Violets have just 15 points from 20 games and are fighting for their top flight lives.

Valladolid have actually won their last two league matches at home (against Valencia and Real Betis), but a victory over Real Madrid would be their biggest result of the season so far.

Key players

Kike Pérez scored the only goal of the game as Real Valladolid beat Real Betis two weeks ago and could offer the hosts a source of creativity from midfield on Saturday.

Defensively, Valladolid will have to be solid to stand any chance of earning a result against the league leaders, putting pressure on goalkeeper Karl Hein to perform. He will surely have a busy afternoon.

Mbappé’s recent scoring record speaks for itself, but the incredible form of Rodrygo has flown under the radar somewhat. The Brazilian scored twice against Salzburg on Wednesday and has seven goals in his last eight games.

With Vinîcius Júnior still suspended in the league, Rodrygo will start in his favoured position on the left wing. On the right side, Brahim Díaz could offer cohesion with his movement inside, creating space for Lucas Vázquez on the overlap.

Dani Ceballos and Fede Valverde have recently forged a strong partnership in central midfield while Jude Bellingham will continue in a more advanced role where he has freedom to roam.

Team news

Juma Bah will be left out of the Real Valladolid lineup as punishment for attempting to force a transfer to Manchester City. The young centre back failed to turn up for training this week and won’t be included in this weekend’s matchday squad.

Moro suffered a broken collarbone in Valladolid’s last game against Espanyol and is now set for a period on the sidelines. Stanko Jurić will be another absentee due to the midfielder’s suspension.

Vinícius will miss out for Real Madrid through suspension while Eduardo Camavinga, Éder Militão and Dani Carvajal are currently sidelined through injury.

Real Madrid’s injury troubles have eased recently with David Alaba back in action following a 13-month spell out. The Austrian could start against Valladolid, but is more likely to make another appearance off the bench.

Prediction

Valladolid’s two game winning run at home will surely come to an end with the rampant league leaders in town: Real Valladolid 0-3 Real Madrid.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from LaLiga with FotMob this season — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Jan

2025

Preview: Leaders Liverpool welcome Ipswich Town to Anfield

Liverpool host the Tractor Boys at Anfield on Saturday afternoon as Arne Slot’s side look to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table. Kieran McKenna’s men will be hoping to climb out of the relegation zone.

By Matt Smith

This will be the first time Ipswich have faced Liverpool at Anfield since 2002. The two sides met earlier in the season at Portman Road, with the Reds securing a 2-0 victory away from home.

Slot dealt Jones blow

Speaking to the media ahead of Liverpool’s game against Ipswich, Slot confirmed that he would be without Curtis Jones, suggesting that he might return to face Bournemouth next weekend. It doesn’t appear to be a serious injury for the English midfielder, but he’ll certainly miss this weekend’s game.

Slot has also added that he’s taking caution with Ibrahima Konaté, who is struggling to play every three days due to his fitness. The French centre-back was benched against Lille in the Champions League during the week, so it will be interesting to see if he comes back in.

The resurgence of Darwin Núñez?

Darwin Núñez has come under plenty of criticism in recent years after some underwhelming performances, and Slot has shown in the first few months of his tenure that the former Benfica attacker isn’t a guaranteed starter. Slot gave Núñez a rare start against Lille in the Champions League in midweek after a 25 minute cameo at Brentford last time out in the Premier League, a decision that paid off.

Núñez scored twice in injury time to help secure the win against the Bees and then earned the highest FotMob rating of the game (8.0) despite not finding the net in the victory over Lille. If the Dutch manager persists with the Uruguayan and shows confidence in the striker, he could become a valuable option in the coming weeks.

Szmodics and Chaplin remain sidelined

McKenna has stated that he’s expecting a similar Ipswich squad to travel to Merseyside as the group who were defeated 6-0 at home to Manchester City. The Ipswich boss confirmed that both Sammie Szmodics and Connor Chaplin will be unavailable for The Tractor Boys.

Ali Al-Hamadi could also miss out, with McKenna suggesting that he might be on the move before the end of the transfer window.

Delap will need to produce the goods

With Ipswich travelling to the strongest side in the Premier League this season, you’d expect McKenna’s men to have little possession, hoping to hit the opposition on the break. Liam Delap could, therefore, have a thankless task in attack, but Ipswich will be relying on him to produce the goods.

The former Man City striker has been a standout for the newly promoted club this season, finding the back of the net on eight occasions. If Ipswich manage to secure an emphatic result on the road, Delap is likely to have a major influence.

Prediction

With Ipswich picking up just nine points away from home and Liverpool losing just once at Anfield, a win for the Reds feels likely.

We’re going for a comfortable home win, with Núñez continuing his momentum and getting his name on the scoresheet.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from the Premier League with FotMob this season — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Jan

2025

Preview: Hoffenheim meet Spurs in early Europa League kick-off

The German Spurs face-off against the English Hoffenheim in the Europa League tonight, a stoppable force versus a highly movable object.

By Ian King

The race to the bottom

It’s Crisis Club vs Crisis Club in the Europa League. For both Hoffenheim and Tottenham Hotspur, the 2024/25 season has been a bit of a disaster. Indeed, Spurs supporters seeking solace from it all can take some from the fact that Hoffenheim have had just as bad a time of things as they have.

Spurs have won one in ten in the Premier League and have failed to win their last three in this tournament, too. Ironically, Hoffenheim’s 3-1 win at Holstein Kiel on Saturday ended a run of one win in ten Bundesliga games for them. Both are in 15th place in their respective divisions, but because there are two fewer teams in the Bundesliga, Hoffenheim are only one above the relegation places.

History

These two have never met before. This is Hoffenheim’s fifth season in Europe, and they’ve met English clubs twice, both times in the Champions League. They’ve lost all four matches, to Liverpool in the qualifiers in 2017/18 and to Manchester City in the group stage the following season.

Spurs first played German opposition in two successive rounds of their run to the 1974 UEFA Cup final, beating FC Köln in the quarter-finals and Lokomotiv Leipzig in the semi-finals before losing to Feyenoord in the final. But more recently the news hasn’t been so good. They’ve lost their last four matches against German opposition, scoring three and conceding 14 (including seven in one match) to RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich.

Key players

The key position for Spurs for this match may be in goal. Antonín Kinský is not registered for this competition, so it’s likely that Brandon Austin will make his second start for the club in that position. Hoffenheim are in a similar position, but Adam Hlozek scored two at Holstein Kiel on Saturday to make dealing with absentees a little easier for head coach Christian Ilzer.

Team News

The Spurs injury list is as long as ever, though Ben Davies has now returned, which should allow Archie Gray to move back into midfield. For Hoffenheim, Gift Orban arrived from Lyon for €9m earlier this month but is ineligible for this fixture. Otherwise, their injury list is as long as Tottenham’s is at the moment, and that’s saying something.

Prediction

This match may all come down to being a matter of priorities. Spurs have flatlined in the League but could be prioritising cups and have an eight-point buffer from the relegation places. Hoffenheim have no such insulation. Indeed, their win last weekend lifted them out of the Bundesliga relegation places. With two threadbare squads of players both looking over their shoulders at relegation, to which of these two will it matter more? I’ll go for Spurs, by 2-1, though this is in the full knowledge that seeing where their next win is coming from has been getting increasingly difficult of late.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from the Europa League with FotMob this season — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, player ratings, and a new super-intuitive knockout stage bracket. Download the free app here.

Jan

2025

Preview: Man United face Rangers in ‘Battle of Britain’ test

Once upon a time, this would have been a massive Champions League fixture, now, the two most successful league sides in Scotland and England face off in the Europa League on Thursday.

By Alex Roberts

Both sides are in the automatic qualification spots, sitting in seventh and eighth respectively, but that could change very quickly, with five other sides able to leapfrog both United and Rangers in the next round of fixtures.

Rúben Amorim hasn’t exactly set the world alight since replacing Erik ten Hag, and Philippe Clement is seemingly one game away from getting the sack at any given time. It’s not quite ‘El Sackio’, but it’s about as close as it gets.

Happy memories for Amad Diallo

Not even arguably Man United’s best player at the moment, Diallo spent the second half of the 2021-22 season on loan at Rangers, banging in three goals, and providing a single assist in his 13 games.

He’s come a long way since then and is almost single handedly dragging Man United out of a potential Premier League relegation battle. A sentence no one here at FotMob thought they would ever write.

Unfortunately for United, he was powerless to stop Brighton in their 3-1 defeat to the South Coast side over the weekend, but he is still their only real big game player at the moment, scoring a late hat-trick against Southampton, a winner against Man City, and an equaliser vs Liverpool. He’ll be wanting to do the same against his former loan club.

A much-needed goal scorer

Hamza Igamane is really starting to establish himself at Rangers. Having supplanted streaky striker Cyriel Dessers as Clement’s preferred option up top, he’s got eight goals in his last ten games across all competitions.

One of those goals came against Premier League opposition, the opener against former Celtic boss Ange Postecoglu and his struggling Tottenham side in their previous Europe League fixture.

He’s incredibly versatile, capable of playing anywhere across the frontline, but feels most comfortable as either a left-winger or a striker. If we were to compare him to anyone, it would be Marcus Rashford.

Onana, not again

After his most recent howler in the defeat to Brighton, André Onana has now made 10 errors leading to goals in his nearly two years at the club. In comparison, David de Gea made 17 over 12 years.

Given Altay Bayındır’s performance in their FA Cup third round win over Arsenal, Amorim has serious options should he decide to drop Onana. The Turkish international appears to be his preferred choice in domestic cup competitions, it wouldn’t be surprising if he gets a chance against Rangers too.

The world’s most prolific right-back

Ok, that might be a sweeping statement, but James Tavernier is an anomaly. While this season he’s not scoring like he used to, just three goals and seven assists in his 31 appearances, he is a massive asset for Rangers.

Deadly from almost every dead ball situation, the Rangers captain could cause some serious damage against Man United, who have a history of not being particularly solid from defensive set pieces.

United conceded a whopping 17 goals from set pieces, excluding penalties, in 2024 and they haven’t started 2025 particularly well either. Of course, that’s not all down to Amorim, but he hasn’t done much to change it.

Prediction

All those 60+ year-old pundits will be incredibly excited about a ‘Battle of Britian’, but in all honestly, they’re rarely a competition. Despite United’s poor form, we’re going to go with a 3-1 win for the English side.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

Jan

2025

Preview: Arsenal face Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb

The Gunners are almost there; one more win in the Champions League and they’ll look all-but assured of an automatic place in the last 16. Standing in their way: embattled Dinamo Zagreb, fighting for their lives to stay in the hunt for a play-off spot.

By Karl Matchett

Kindly fall of the fixture list?

It remains tough to tell as clubs get to grips with the new league version of European competition, and across the board it feels as though playing the strongest available team may be the approach. But, it might just be that the final two rounds of fixtures – and these teams’ respective points – play nicely into Arsenal’s hands.

Mikel Arteta will of course want to wrap up matters at home; win here and they probably don’t have to be too concerned with their last away day in Girona. And that might have the added knock-on effect of allowing them to rest some players before the Premier League match immediately afterwards, home to Man City. So, the reasons mount up for the Gunners to claim three points, hit 16 overall and be all-but-certain to finish in the top eight.

And, while opponents Zagreb won’t exactly roll over and accept defeat, the lingering suspicion is they are more likely to be accepting of putting all their eggs into a final-night basket, given they’re at home to Milan. That said, Dinamo’s two wins so far in the Champions League have come on the road, while they’re without a victory on home soil, so a sturdy rearguard will still be their approach at the Emirates. Hope for Arteta’s men comes in the shape of Bayern thrashing the Croatians 9-2 earlier this season – they are far from unbreachable.

Recent form

Arsenal have been sketchy at best. It feels only a week ago there was bullish talk of reigniting title hopes domestically, only for them to yet again slip up next time out. Arteta has overseen just one win in the last five in all competitions, three wins in the last seven at home and their last clean sheet against a team ranked above 16th in a league was six weeks back. Better is required.

Dinamo would almost welcome that kind of run, mind. While this match will be their first for exactly a month following a winter break, their win on 22 December snapped a seven-game winless streak that included a home draw to Celtic and a hammering by Borussia Dortmund.

Team news

Ben White, Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka and William Saliba are all out, as is Ethan Nwaneri. Riccardo Calafiori needs a fitness test.

Dinamo are missing Bruno Petković, Josip Mišić and Petar Sučić as first-team options.

Key player

Scored one and was denied another at the weekend – Kai Havertz remains Arsenal’s biggest goal threat and has the all-round penalty box play to both create and take chances against a determined defence. In Europe this term though he’s been more about build-up play than getting shots away: he averages 1.9 per 90 minutes with an average xG of 0.39 each game.

Prediction

Arsenal will get the job done but it might not be a pretty watch all night. Arsenal 2 Dinamo 0.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

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