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It's Going To Be A Big Weekend For...
Roy Keane
Things haven't really gone against Roy Keane so far in his time at Sunderland.
When he joined in 2006 they had lost the first four games of the season, had new owners and their fans would have been happy with mid-table mediocrity at that point. As it turned out, they won the division and promotion, and last year had as good a season as can be expected.
Now there is some degree of expectation on his shoulders. There is an expectation to not only avoid relegation, but become established in the Premier League, then who knows what else?
With this expectation comes a slightly different interpretation of his comments. What would previously be thought of as his customary pugnaciousness may now be seen as petulance. What would previously be thought of as honesty about Sunderland's performance or refreshing criticism of his team may now be viewed as passing the buck.
"It was probably one of the worst and longest nights I have ever had in my football career. It was a shambles" said Keane after Sunderland scraped past Northampton in the Carling Cup this week.
As one contributor to the F365 Mailbox this week put it: 'Given the amount of occasions Roy Keane has come out and criticised his players, do you think it ever enters his head that, as the manager, he's the one responsible?'
With expectation comes pressure, and dare we say it, criticism, something that Keane doesn't seem to enjoy very much, saying he "won't tolerate people abusing him" after the game.
Keane is not used to such heckling. A hero as a player wherever he went, followed by two successful seasons as a manager. How he deals with the criticism will shape his future as a potentially top class manager.
David Moyes
If you were being kind, you'd say that Everton have had an uneven start to the season.
Two fairly narrow wins against two of the promoted sides, a snatched draw against the other, and two home defeats represent a far from ideal first five games.
All of this after a fairly calamitous and frustrating transfer window, suddenly one or two questions are being asked of David Moyes. This is not the sort of form of a top six side.
However, a win in the Merseyside derby and all/most is forgiven. There would be little better way to kick-start a spluttering season than to beat the most hated, but in turn that puts extra pressure on Everton.
It's become a cliche to say these games are worth more than the three points, but in Everton's case this game is worth much more than local pride.
Portsmouth
If Harry Redknapp wants to feel slightly better about himself and his team, he might want to look to Spain.
Due to a quirk in the Spanish fixture lists, every team has to play Barcelona and Real Madrid in successive games this season, and newly promoted Sporting Gijon didn't deal with this very well, shipping 13 goals in their two games.
Portsmouth might not be that bad, but letting in ten goals in four days will do absolutely nothing for confidence at Fratton Park. Spurs are the visitors on Saturday, and given the palaver down that way of late, Pompey will fancy their chances.
At the start of the season this would have been billed as a clash of the teams most likely, the closest challengers to the Champions League spots. Now it's two sides scrabbling to get stilted seasons back on track. Should be interesting.
Tottenham
Laughter rang around the F365 office on Thursday when we read quotes from Didier Zokora, claiming that Spurs could still finish in the top four this season.
Walk before you can run Didier - getting a win would be a bigger priority at present. In an otherwise dire Carling Cup game on Wednesday, Spurs looked excellent and threatening for about 15 second half minutes, which was enough to do away with a shambolic Newcastle side. A full game of that will do nicely.
Arsenal and Chelsea
Last weekend Liverpool faced a Stoke side that they were expected to make very light work of, but came away with a mere point. This weekend Arsenal and Chelsea face Hull and the Potters respectively, and cannot let the same thing happen to them.
Nick Miller
