With the March international break now at an end, the 2024/25 domestic Premier League campaign is now back with a bang and last weekend’s round of fixtures saw the continuation of the intriguing battle that has developed at the top of the English football table and there was a little bit of (expected) history made in the battle at the bottom as well.
Many are still expecting Liverpool manager Arne Slot to lift his first Premier League title, but in terms of the battle for the European spots we now have six sides who are separated by only eleven points as we hit the final few games of the business end of the campaign, but at the other end Southampton have had their relegation confirmed and with only ten points from 31 games, no side in the history of the Premier League have been relegated this early.
With plenty of battles left to be played out, this coming weekend sees Newcastle United and Manchester United go head to head at St James Park and the fixture stands as proof of how topsy turvy the league has become. The storied serial winning Red Devils are languishing down in 13th place in the top flight table and with 38 points nobody is expecting them to make a late surge up the table now.
Their struggles continue under Ruben Amorim and it seems that the only consistent thing at Old Trafford these days is the rain and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s desire to cut every penny he can in spending whilst things arguably become worse on the pitch due to the players that are being castigated and moved on.
On the flip side, Eddie Howe’s Newcastle side are slowly progressing and showing improvement and they sit on 53 points in fifth place in the division with a game in hand on those above of them. As fans will be well aware, just ahead of the last international break they had a day trip out to Wembley and took a 2-1 victory over Liverpool to lift their first domestic trophy for 70 years.
As we go into this weekend’s fixture, fans of the Geordies will be in confident mood and will be looking for their side to pick up another three points in the race for the Champions League by making it four league wins on the spin, whereas few will be backing United to show swift improvement as their own form has only seen them pick up two wins in the last six games.
There will be a number of key players to watch and in terms of current form, Newcastle’s Jacob Murphy will be one to keep an eye on as he is enjoying a very good season with seven goals and nine assists to his name so far and in terms of goal involvements that is as many as his last two seasons combined.
With a shot of confidence from their cup success, the prize of the Champions League will be a motivation all of its own, yet there will also be those who feel that United’s poor form and poor performances simply has to change at some point given the players that their squad still boasts.
It could be a great tie for the neutral.
