It’s a huge weekend everywhere we look, in the FA Cup, Premier League, Championship, and National League. Arsenal, Illan Meslier and Cristian Stellini need to shape up sharpish…
Game to watch – Man Utd v Brighton
Manchester United had one of their moments again on Thursday night. What next?
It was bad. Oh so bad. The defeat to Sevilla was every bit as bad as anything served up under Ralf Rangnick or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer last season. We knew United still had in them to sh*t their bed and smear the walls, but the manner of their Europa League exit ought to end a number of Old Trafford careers.
They have two days to get over the hangover before they face Brighton in the FA Cup semi-final. The bad news: they have no centre-backs. The good news: Harry Maguire is suspended.
And Bruno Fernandes is back. The Portuguese playmaker was missing in Seville and without their leader, United caved in. Unfortunately, he’s not a central defender, and they are left with Victor Lindelof, as Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane are crocked. And possibly so too Luke Shaw.
All of which is a massive problem because at Wembley they will face a side better than the Sevilla team that pulled their pants down on Thursday. If Brighton weren’t strongly fancied before to turn over Erik ten Hag’s men, they certainly are now. Especially if Roberto De Zerbi can inspire a similar performance to the one that embarrassed Chelsea on their own patch last week.
It is difficult to articulate how much better Brighton were than Frank Lampard’s bunch of beleaguered Blues. The 2-1 scoreline certainly wasn’t an accurate indication of the Seagulls’ superiority. De Zerbi watched his side pepper Chelsea’s goal with 26 shots while putting on a clinic for Lampard and Todd Boehly on how to organise a team and run a club. United could be forced to sit through the same again on Sunday.
Player to watch – Illan Meslier
The Leeds goalkeeper is a contradiction in gloves. Bayern Munich and Manchester United are supposedly among the clubs tracking the France Under-21 international who, right now, can’t stop conceding.
Meslier has given up 11 goals from 11 shots on target over the last two games which his side have lost 5-1 and 6-1 to Palace and Liverpool respectively. The Leeds No.1 hardly chucked any of them in but it’s a damning statistic. And there is little doubt he has been far too easy to beat of late.
His recent form has confirmed to some what they already suspected. “They…
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