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

There will inevitably be a few players around this weekend who will think twice before going in for a hard tackle, fearful of a repeat of last weekend. It's a big weekend in both the league and the cup...


Tacklers Of The Premier League
As so often happens in these appalling circumstances, the five or so minutes after Aaron Ramsey's leg-break last weekend was surreal. While it's hardly unusual for Arsenal to pass the ball around for long periods without doing much, it was unusual to see Stoke not massively keen to tackle them.

The Shawcross 'Is He A Monster?' debate has been done to death, but a by-product of it is that, with Ramsey's mangled leg still fresh in the memory, every player in the Premier League will think there but for the grace of God go I. It was a challenge similar to a dozen we see every week, and it's inevitable that at least some of the tacklers and tacklees will go about their business with some trepidation.

Like flying on a plane, logic states that nothing ill will come of the thousands of tackles that will be made this weekend, but such cold reasoning doesn't stop people being afraid of flying.

Will that result in less tough tackling? Will the old adage that you're more likely to do damage by pulling out of a challenge come true? Hopefully not.


Arsenal
As Pete Gill pointed out at the start of the week, Arsenal's collapse after Eduardo's injury in 2008 is slightly exaggerated because they were within a few minutes of winning that game, and they did beat AC Milan in the Champions League just over a week later.

However, their stumble in the few games after that was undeniable. They drew the next three league games and would not win again for another five weeks. In that time, they dropped from three points clear at the top of the table to six points adrift in third.

Sure, they don't have a similarly lofty position to throw away this time, but with both Manchester United and Chelsea steadfastly refusing to pull away at the top, and the chasing pack tripping over themselves not to make the Champions League, Arsenal are free to make a slightly unlikely title charge.

This weekend, aside from conjuring up a team of Ali Dias, Arsene Wenger could hardly have wished for an easier task. Burnley have tipped over from being merely pathetic away from home to pathetic everywhere, after their defeat to Portsmouth last weekend, so Arsenal could probably still pick Ramsey this weekend and come away with three points.

So simple is the task in theory, that Wenger may rest the likes of Cesc Fabregas or Thomas Vermaelen, in preparation for a rather tricky Champions League second-leg against Porto next week.

Beware the words 'in theory' though.


John Terry
Can Terry's season start properly again now? Having faced his international manager, faced his wife, faced Wayne Bridge and faced a fickle England crowd, Terry has little to concentrate on except clawing back his faltering playing form.

And faltering it has been. It's odd that a man who one would have imagined would take the Lee Bowyer route of dealing with a crisis rather than the Jonathan Woodgate path (Bowyer famously blocked out the stresses of their trial and played the best football of his career, while Woodgate crumbled), has seemingly been so affected by the coverage and the pressure of the last few weeks.

Perhaps it was the prospect of these numerous bridges (sorry) to cross that has tampered with Terry's mind. That theory seems to fit with his England performance on Wednesday. Initially nervy, once Terry realised that only a (fairly vocal) few were going to give him the bird, he settled down and put in a reasonably assured showing.

Perhaps, with this final prospect for castigation out of the way, Terry can return to the form that both Chelsea and England need him to produce.


Mick McCarthy
In a strange way, there must be a very small part of Mick McCarthy's brain that wants Wolves to lose against Manchester United.

Such a defeat will be far from disgraceful, while a win would indicate that United are not the all-powerful, undefeatable beheamoth that McCarthy assumed they were when he 'rested' ten players at Old Trafford earlier in the season. It might indicate that he should have actually tried in that game, after all.

"We have shown if we play well at home that we can get results against the likes of Tottenham and Liverpool," said Kevin Doyle on Wednesday.

Quite so.


Hull
With the media's attention elsewhere (and yes, we do include F365 in that), Phil Brown's unnatural face has been out of the spotlight for a while.

He hasn't said anything ludicrous for a spell, his team haven't been losing calamitously and have been just about picking up enough points to keep their collective heads above the murky water of the Premier League relegation zone.

However, most of those points have come in the form of draws. Of their last 13 games, they have drawn six and won just once, but their defeat to West Ham last time out saw them duck into the relegation zone for the first time in a month, and it was their second loss on the spin.

While Portsmouth's demise has made things slightly easier for those at the bottom, now that there are effectively just two relegation spots to 'play for', Hull are still in some trouble.

With Wigan and Sunderland not in action until mid-week, and Burnley and Wolves unlikely to take anything from their games, Hull have a decent chance to put some space between themselves and the rest. The trouble is, they have a trip to Everton to contend with, who while they should have at least drawn with Spurs last weekend, notched up home wins over Manchester United and Chelsea in their previous two games.

A win would do wonders, but they will have to fight pretty bloody hard to get it.


Bolton
Taking points off your immediate rivals is a handy trick, but games against your rivals start to become even more pressured if you aren't beating anyone else.

In fact, Bolton aren't just not beating anyone else, they're not scoring against anyone else. Since Owen Coyle took over at the Reebok, Bolton have won twice (1-0s over Wolves and Burnley), and notched a couple in the defeat to Arsenal, but other than that have not troubled the scorers.

Saturday's trip to West Ham (one point and two places above Bolton) therefore takes on extra significance. Win and they move above their rivals, lose and West Ham edge a few more points clear, points that could be vital come the end of the season.


Portsmouth
It's been a season of firsts at Portsmouth. The first top-flight club in England to go into administration. The first club to have four owners in one season. Could they be the first to win the FA Cup and be relegated in the same season?

The latter is certain, and while the former is unlikely, they are in the quarter-finals with a home draw.

Even beating Birmingham to get to the semis would be both a colossal achievement and a massive financial help. While any monies gained from a trip to Wembley will be rapidly distributed to assorted creditors, any injection of cash will be handy and speed the process of administration along.

And what about the fans? Apologies for the clichés, but as long as you ignore the goon with the bell, Portsmouth's fans are loyal, vocal and long-suffering. Beating Birmingham on Saturday will be a narrow ray of sunshine on an appalling s**t-storm of a season.


Spurs and Aston Villa
For all their building, their impressive play and their flirting with the Champions League places, Spurs and Aston Villa have little tangible to show for their progress over the past couple of years.

With Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Everton all out of the FA Cup, both sides could hardly hope for a better chance to make the final.

Nick Miller