Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend - one

Stoke’s brilliant efficiency to stretch Sunderland, West Ham search for a plan B and Yohan Cabaye prepares to show Newcastle what they have been missing

1) Foxes face a test of their credentials

Striker

Jamie Vardy

Appearances

13

Goals

13

Shots

51

Shots on target

43%

Offsides

6

Even if they never score, win or smile again, Leicester City’s position at the top of the table after a third of the season and the astonishing feats of Jamie Vardy – whose opportunity to expunge Ruud van Nistelrooy from the consecutive-game-scoring record books comes against the team for which Van Nistelrooy entered the consecutive-game-scoring record books – will remain among the most extraordinary achievements in recent Premier League history. That being said, the fact remains that they are yet to beat anyone very good. Of the top nine teams in last season’s final Premier League table they have so far played four, drawing against Tottenham, Stoke andSouthampton and losing to Arsenal. Now, then, comes the crunch: six of the next eight are against last season’s top nine, and one of the other two is away at Everton, who have appeared a team transformed at times of late. Between now and the new year they play Manchester United, Swansea, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool and Manchester City. We are about to find out quite how seriously they need to be taken, but victory over a sturdy if uninspiring Manchester United side, who needed a stoppage-time own-goal to beat Watford last weekend and have since inflicted upon their fans a soporific 90 minutes against PSV Eindhoven, would be their finest single achievement of the season so far.

2) There is no cure for Spurstitlephobia

You can see them all over the place. Men and women. Young and old. Doubt in their eyes. Confusion in their hearts. Their minds foggy with uncertainty. Their steps stuttering, their direction aimless. They can’t eat. They can’t sleep. They can find no comfort in the grape or the grain. “What’s happening to me?” you can see them asking themselves. “Why do I feel this way? I know it’s not right, I know it can’t really be true, I know these feelings are silly … but I can’t help how I feel. It’s an illusion, a mirage, at best a passing phase. And yet … and yet … and yet … I really think Tottenham are genuine Premier League title contenders.” The title race is one of the most open in years, there doesn’t seem to be an outstanding side about to steamroller the rest, Spurs are only four points off the summit, and they’ve torn apart a series of sides in stunning fashion … it’s no wonder the condition is contagious. The temptation is to suggest that this weekend offers a chance for Mauricio Pochettino’s side to go out and prove they are in this for the long haul by battering the reigning champions. But, let’s face it, even if they were to beat Chelsea, and even if they did it in a style similar to the thrilling 5-3 drubbing they handed out to José Mourinho’s side at White Hart Lane on New Year’s Day, you would still be left with that uneasy feeling, the sense that all isn’t quite as it seems. Given that the last eight games between these sides have produced 35 goals, perhaps an unremarkable 1-0 home win would be the most disquieting result of all.

3) Will Klopp get his home comfort?

It’s not so much raining as pouring for Garry Monk at the moment. If one win in nine, increasingly disgruntled fans and a board pondering his future weren’t enough, now his No2 seems set to jump ship. Pep Clotet, Monk’s assistant who has been with the club since Michael Laudrup’s time, is at the front of the queue for the vacant Brentford job and reports in south Wales suggest he could join the Bees before the weekend. It’s not ideal preparation for a trip to Anfield, where Jürgen Klopp wants a home Premier League performance to match those his sidehave been producing away from Merseyside. His two home games as Liverpool manager in the league so far have resulted in a 1-1 draw with Southampton and a2-1 defeat against Crystal Palace, while away from home they’ve beaten bothManchester City and Chelsea in fine style. Could it be that Klopp’s pressing game is simply better suited to facing the big boys away from home? He won’t have a better chance to prove that’s not the case than against a Swansea side in disarray.

4) Cabaye’s chance to show Newcastle what they’re missing

Newcastle’s form over their last six away games is the 18th best in the league, Steve McClaren’s side having won once, drawn once and lost four times over that period. On the down side, that is pretty terrible. On the plus side, it is the best it’s been for some time thanks to their ludicrously ill-deserved victory at Bournemouth on their last outing being only the second win they’ve enjoyed away from home in the last year. Indeed, the last time they could boast a better record over six consecutive league away-days was in February, when a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park brought them a fifth point of a possible 18. If that isn’t a happy enough omen, this has been a delirious hunting ground for them in modern times: February’s draw was the only occasion in the last 30 years they have visited Crystal Palace and not beaten them, having previously won there six times in succession. Attention on the pitch will be focused on two former citizens of the north-east, in the shape of Palace’s £8m summer acquisition Connor Wickham, who has been promised another chance to impress having emphatically failed to do so against his former employers Sunderland last week, and Yohan Cabaye, a player whose departure from Newcastle in January 2014 massively weakened the team and has never been remedied. Injuries to Cheick Tioté and Jack Colback have left Newcastle, in Steve McClaren’s words, with “not a lot of midfield options” and whether they are able to emulate Sunderland’s disciplined performance in winning at Palace on Monday – reliant as it was on a defensive howler from the usually reliable Scott Dann – appears debatable.

5) Hammers are still in search of plan B

Striker

Andy Carroll

Appearances

7

Goals

1

Shots

9

Shots on target

22%

Offsides

4

West Ham’s away-specialist crown is not just slipping but has very much slipped, Watford having knocked it off their heads with a comfortable 2-0 victory on Halloween and Tottenham having bludgeoned it into pieces during a riproaring 4-1 success at White Hart Lane on Sunday, leaving Manchester United free to ponder what they might do with the remnants next weekend. The onus is thus on West Ham to improve their home form, while also finding a way of thriving during Dmitri Payet’s injury-enforced absence. The lineup that started Sunday’s comprehensive defeat – when Andy Carroll’s one-paced, one-man attack played perfectly into Tottenham’s plans, allowing Spurs to push up their defenders, compress play and close down space when the Hammers had possession – was not the answer. For West Brom, meanwhile, the Hammers are the digestible filling in a tough fixture sandwich, with their last three games against Leicester, Manchester United and Arsenal (who they beat 2-1 despite having just one shot on target) and their next couple against Tottenham and Liverpool.