Ahead of next weekend’s FA Cup semi-finals during when the Premier League fixtures get chopped and changed and bumped all around, teams will be looking to Gameweek 32 to pick up points before the busy run-in to the end of the season kicks in. Tottenham host Bournemouth in Saturday’s early kick-off, looking to close the gap on the leaders Chelsea who face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Super Sunday while Arsenal will have to wait until Monday night to try to get their season back on track.
We have to cast our minds back to their very first meeting to remember the last time that Bournemouth beat Tottenham. That solitary victory knocked Spurs out of the FA Cup in 1957. 60 years on and the teams are set to face each other for just the 5th time in history. They were beaten home and away in 2015/16 -their first season in the top flight, but managed to secure their first-ever point against The Lily Whites when they drew 0-0 earlier this season. Harry Kane scored twice in a 3-0 win in this fixture last season, and Spurs will be hopeful he can find his scoring touch once again after his injury lay-off. With Chelsea not playing until late Sunday, Tottenham have a real opportunity to cut the lead at the top of the table to just 4 points.
They say the number 13 is lucky for some. United fans will be hoping that will be the case when they face Chelsea at Old Trafford. They have not beaten the Blues in 12 previous attempts - the last time they recorded a win, Sir Alex Ferguson was still the Manager. On Sunday, Antonio Conte and his Chelsea chargers will tackle Jose Mourinho’s Man United for the third time this season following victories over them in the Premier League and FA Cup already. With a maximum of five more victories needed to secure the title, a win at the home of one of their greatest rivals will send a clear message to the rest of the chasing pack that they will be not be letting up anytime soon. Anything less than a win for United will surely see the challenge of finishing in the top-four be too great to overcome and their hopes of Champions League football next season may depend solely on their success in the Europa League, where they face Anderlecht in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
The pressure is piling on Arsene Wenger by the week and after defeat to Crystal Palace on Monday, the “Wenger Out” protests were as fervent as ever, and with Arsenal again having to wait until Monday night, this time to play Middlesbrough, they could end the weekend a massive 10 points behinds Man City in 4th place. They have won just two of their last eight fixtures in the league, slipping down the table to 6th in the process, while their opponents on Monday have been in a free-fall of their own – they have not won a league game in 2017 and are the Premier League’s lowest scorers with just 22 goals scored in 31 games and find themselves six points adrift of safety.
Full list of fixtures:
Saturday
Tottenham vs Bournemouth
Sunderland vs West Ham
Crystal Palace vs Leicester City
Everton vs Burnley
Stoke vs Hull
Watford vs Swansea
Southampton vs Man City
Sunday
West Brom vs Liverpool
Man United vs Chelsea
Monday
Middlesbrough vs Arsenal