sport

It's Going To Be A Big Weekend For...

Joe Kinnear
You have to feel sorry for him really. Laughter rang out in the F365 office when his appointment was announced, something repeated even among the supposedly more mature and learned broadsheet scribes on BBC Radio.

He's a desperate man taking on a desperate job, as can be clearly seen from his opening encounter with the gents of the press. To say he's feeling the pressure is something of an understatement.

Kinnear last took charge of a football match in December 2004, a 3-0 defeat for Nottingham Forest against Derby (shortly before which Kinnear didn't exactly endear himself to the Forest fans by claiming the derby was 'just another game'. Try that with the Sunderland game on October 25), leaving Forest in 22nd place in the Championship, and sewing the seeds for the inevitable relegation that season.

Four years later he's been given the thankless task that nobody else wanted. Word has it no less than 17 managers turned down the gig before they turned to Kinnear, and if you were an out of work coach who wasn't contacted by Mike Ashley, it's probably best to start looking for an alternative career.

People will say that Kinnear has nothing to lose by taking this job, but in fact he has everything to lose. Make even a mild success of this and he is back on the market, back as a viable candidate for the next Football League vacancy that comes up. Make a mess of it and it will be the last job he ever has.

David Moyes
Really for the first time in Moyes' tenure at Goodison Park, people are starting to ask questions.

He was the saviour, the Moyesiah when he arrived, then became the last manager to break the 'big four'. Even the struggles of the season after were forgiven due to the enormous goodwill built up over the previous campaigns.

Now however, Everton have only wins against West Brom and Fulham to their name, are out of two cups already and Moyes has still to sign that new contract, despite promises that a deal was close stretching back to last season.

Clubs have started poorly and recovered before, but the difference with Everton is that this is nobody's fault but Moyes'. Despite constantly claiming during the summer that he needed to strengthen considerably, his new signings have yet to convince and the sense of a squad under construction has clearly impacted on their start.

Moyes stated in the week that perhaps the uncertainty surrouding his contract was affecting Everton's play, but that misses the point. An unsettled and incomplete squad is far more likely to result in poor performances than boardroom negotiations.

Tottenham Hotspur
It's getting slightly boring putting Tottenham in this column every week, but they will keep losing.

This is the first game of the season that, if Spurs don't win, genuine questions about whether they can get themselves out of this mess will crop up. At present, they're a shambles, but there is a sense that when Roman Pavlyuchenko beds in, or when Juande Ramos finds his best side, things will be OK.

However, if they don't beat Hull on Saturday...well, to say alarm bells will ring doesn't describe the situation anywhere near adequately.

True, the pleasant surprise of the Premier League season will be confident after their win in the other bit of North London last weekend, but that was a one in 100 result that was as much down to Arsenal's criminal profligacy as it was Hull's admittedly admirable display.

All talk of a top-four challenge probably went out of the window with Robbie Keane's sale (or perhaps more accurately, with Spurs' failure to replace him), but there is still a chance of them cobbling together a half decent season (from this position, that would be a top ten finish and maybe a cup win). However, they need to start it now.

Arsenal
Genuine title contenders do not tend to lose two of their opening six games in any one season. In fact, it doesn't happen.

Furthermore, genuine title contenders don't lose two of their opening six games, when only one of those games was against a top-half finisher last season (an out of sorts Blackburn).

Arsenal have faced virtually nobody of consequence, as far as the title race is concerned, yet they have already dropped six points, points that any genuine title contenders should not drop.

However, as with their friendly neighbours, all is not quite lost, but as with their friendly neighbours, a win this weekend is crucial.

It's all very well sweeping past Porto (hopeless away from home) in the Champions League, but beating Sunderland (excellent at home) at the Stadium Of Light is more important to dispelling the feeling that Arsenal have sturdier backbone these days.

Also, it should be noted that Sunderland have a pretty physical side. Arsenal's problems at set-pieces have been well documented, so coming up against a team containing the likes of Anton Ferdinand, Danny Collins and Djibril Cisse is not ideal.

Aston Villa
Things are looking very good for Aston Villa at the moment.

Ashley Young is twisting the blood of full-backs up and down the land, John Carew is scoring for fun and Gareth Barry has slotted back in as if the summer never happened.

At present they look the most likely to crack the top four, and given the uncertain way Arsenal and (to an extent) Manchester United have started, the breaking of the cozy Champions League club is not beyond the realms of possibility.

However, this weekend they come up against their toughest test so far at Stamford Bridge. This fixture last season produced a bonkers 4-4 draw that featured three sendings off, two penalties and a stoppage time equaliser. Obviously the chances of a repeat are slim, but Villa given Chelsea's injury list Villa might actually fancy their chances at Stamford Bridge.

Nicolas Anelka
As Pete Gill pointed out earlier this week, Nic Anelka hasn't exactly been a rip-roaring success since Chelsea busted a gut to buy him in January.

Six goals in 31 appearances is a pretty shoddy return for a £15million player, and now he has another chance to prove himself a worthy stand-in for Didier Drogba, following the Ivorian's injury in Romania on Wednesday.

While a return of four goals in his eight games this season is good, it's worth noting that none proved crucial to the outcome of a game. Compare that to Drogba, whose crucial goals at the end of last season (the league game against Arsenal and the Champions League semi against Liverpool spring to mind) kept Chelsea in contention in both competitions, and you'll realise both why Luiz Felipe Scolari was keen to bring Drogba back quickly, and why he'll be missed so greatly.

Middlesbrough
Gareth Southgate has been mentioned by more than one commentator as a possible future England manager.

At present, speculation of that sort looks hideously premature, with Middlesbrough on a shoddy run of three defeats, and without a goal since the 24th minute of their 2-1 defeat to Portsmouth on September 13.

This weekend they travel to Wigan, which is undoutably a tough proposition. Steve Bruce's men are lodged comfortably in mid-table, have the top scorer in the division and haven't lost since August 24. Add to that the presence of Lee Cattermole in the Latics midfield, who was somewhat surprisingly sold by Boro in the summer, and is the sort of character who will be keen to prove a point, especially with the centre of Southgate's midfield being comfortably the weakest area of his side.

However, this is the sort of winnable match Boro need to take three points from if they are to avoid a relegation scrap. Lose and there's every chance they will end up in the bottom three by Saturday night.

Nick Miller