More than just bragging rights

The final places at next year’s World Cup finals in Brazil have now been decided after the international break’s intra-continental play-offs — five in Africa and four in Europe — and two inter-confederation play-offs, one between South America and Asia and the other pitting North America and Oceania. The next thing on the calendar is the draw to determine who will meet who in the group stages.

For Africa, it is almost a familiar tale where West Africa has clinched four of the five places reserved for the continent, leaving North Africa, another perennial giant of African football, to provide the other representative in Algeria. The gap between the two regions and the rest of the continent is increasingly growing and one wonders when and whether the other regions will manage to catch up.

With international football virtually sorted for this year, our attention and focus now returns to club football and for followers of the English Premier League, there are several tasty fixtures to look forward to. Of course, the more exciting matches are those involving the current top eight sides on the log table who are engaged in some interesting cut-throat competition as we are about to complete a third of the season.

Six of the eight teams are meeting one among the group with most headlines focusing on the so-called friendly derby on Merseyside in this afternoon’s early kick-off. The action between Everton and my Liverpool is normally anything but friendly and has a reputation for producing red cards. With both sides having made solid starts to the season, this particular derby could have more riding on it than usual.

Apart from the expected bragging rights in the city, the incentive for Brendan Rodgers’ Reds would be the chance to get to the top of the league with a win, even for only a few hours. Such a victory would also increase the gap between the two sides and, therefore, raise hopes of reversing the recent trend which has seen the blue half of Merseyside finishing above their rivals in the last two seasons.

Very likely, whatever the result in the derby, interest will shift to the Emirates where league leaders, the Arsenal, will be seeking to erase memories of their loss at Old Trafford just before the international break when they host the season’s surprise package Southampton, who are third on the table and boasting the league’s meanest defence having conceded only five goals from the 11 games played so far.

Playing after the Merseyside derby will give both sides an idea of what possibilities lie before them. An Everton win will mean the Saints could join their hosts on 25 points with a victory. In fact, a two-goal margin would put Mauricio Pochettino’s men on top, which would be a remarkable feat at this stage of the season. The stakes are, therefore, very high for both sides and we could be in for real entertainment.

The other interesting top-eight fixture will be between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur at the Eastlands. Both sides suffered shock defeats last time out and are failing to deliver on the promise of their expensively assembled squads and a loss for either side tomorrow would mean real pressure on the manager as questions will be asked about their ability to get the best out of such an impressive array of talent at their disposal.

The other two members of the top eight—Manchester United and Chelsea—have away fixtures which both would be expected to win although events of a fortnight ago would make one cautious before taking a bet.