Merseyside and London Derbies highlight lay of the league as EPL hits final sprint to the finish

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The next week will tell us a lot about the final leg of the English Premier League season.

After the international break, most teams get a little more breathing room than the usual scramble of players coming back from around the world on Friday for league games to run on Saturday and Sunday.

This weekend sees the FA Cup quarterfinals take place, so only Fulham, Crystal Palace, Brighton, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Bournemouth and Manchester City have to deal with any jet-lagged, weary players.

But next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the league resumes with just nine games to go.

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Arsenal versus Fulham on Tuesday and Liverpool against Everton on Wednesday could tell us if there is to be any drama for the league title or if it’s going to be a bridge too far for the Gunners.

If Arsenal drops any points and Liverpool can stretch their 12-point lead at the top, it becomes unrealistic to expect Arsenal to reel in the Reds.

But, should Liverpool drop any points to hated rivals Everton and Arsenal can close the gap, the race remains alive.

Liverpool have only lost once at home to Everton in the past 26 years. But the Reds limped into the international break on a low having lost the Carabao Cup final 2-1 to Newcastle and being knocked out of the Champions League in a shootout by Paris St-Germain.

The Toffees, though, haven’t lost in eight games since firing Sean Dyche and bringing back David Moyes as manager. They’ve drawn the past four games after four wins, one of them a controversial 2-2 draw with Liverpool at their own stadium, but if they managed to get a point and steal two from Liverpool, Arsenal would be thrilled.

In an anomaly of the schedule, the following weekend sees a complete flip-flop of those fixtures, as Arsenal travels to Everton and Liverpool plays at Fulham.

I can guarantee with the Toffees safe from relegation and nowhere near the European spots, the Everton faithful would prefer to see their own side lose to Arsenal if it meant they’d be able to stop their crosstown rivals from adding another trophy to the case.

The hatred between the fans — and the insecurity of Evertonians — regarding Liverpool is off the charts.

As I’ve highlighted in the past few weeks, with Liverpool pulling away and the three bottom-dwellers already looking doomed to relegation, it’s the race for the Champions League spots that will carry the most drama the rest of the season.

There’s a couple of games next week that will be crucial in that race. From Aston Villa in ninth to Chelsea in fourth — the last qualification spot — there are just five points. That’s six teams within striking striking distance of that one spot.

Brighton, who sit seventh with 47 points, two back of Chelsea, host Aston Villa who sit in ninth with 45 points.

Fulham are eighth with 45 points, so they’re not going to be strolling through their games with Arsenal and Liverpool, they have legitimate designs on moving up the table. The challenge for them is they have to get through the FA Cup quarterfinal with Crystal Palace this weekend as well and those demands are difficult for teams without huge squad depth.

The other team to watch is Newcastle. The Magpies are in sixth, just two points back of Chelsea, but having won their first domestic trophy in 70 years before the break, the atmosphere at home against Brentford on Wednesday is going to be bonkers.

The Magpies have a game in hand on the teams they’re jockeying with and have a fairly soft schedule the rest of the way. If Manchester City or Chelsea don’t get on a roll, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Newcastle slide into that final qualifying spot.

Red-faced Reds

There has been much glee from Liverpool’s rivals that they were knocked out of the Champions League and lost the Carabao Cup final in the same week.

But let’s not forget they’re comfortably ahead in the league and winning the title of champions of England isn’t something anyone was predicting before the season when Jurgen Klopp left the club.

It’s especially significant for Liverpool supporters as the club’s previous league championship in 2020 broke a 30-year drought, yet they couldn’t celebrate with a parade as that was the COVID season.

There has been early planning for the possibility of a parade and the estimates are between 750,000 and a million people would descend on Liverpool should they get over the line.

Liverpool winning the title would equal Manchester United’s record of being crowned champions of the top division for the 20th time.

But there’s still angst on Merseyside. Their three top players all are out of contract at the end of the season. And while there remains optimism that captain Virgil van Dijk and star winger Mo Salah will still sign a new deal, news broke this week that homegrown talent Trent Alexander-Arnold has all but agreed to a mammoth deal with Spanish giants Real Madrid for next season.

Alexander-Arnold was born minutes from Anfield, has been with the club since he joined them as a nine-year-old and is still only 26 years old.

It’s a harsh lesson for Liverpool to learn, losing a top homegrown talent for no fee. Critics have moaned that if they couldn’t extend their right back prior to the season, they should have sold him for a fee. However, he’s such an influential player, there’s a real question of if they’d be 12 points clear in first place had his contributions not been there this season.

This week’s slate

FA Cup

Saturday: Fulham vs Crystal Palace; Brighton vs Nottingham Forest.

Sunday: Preston North End vs Aston Villa; Bournemouth vs Manchester City.

Premier League

Tuesday: Arsenal vs Fulham; Wolves vs West Ham; Nottingham Forest vs Manchester United.

Wednesday: Bournemouth vs Ipswich; Brighton vs Aston Villa; Manchester City vs Leicester; Newcastle vs Brentford; Southampton vs Crystal Palace; Liverpool vs Everton.

Thursday: Chelsea vs Tottenham.