FOOTBALL: five things to lookout in today's EPL games

Reds juggernaut to keep rolling on

It looks like things are either going to be black or white at Newcastle on Sunday: either the home team are going to be demolished by Liverpool’s suddenly devastating road machine, or Steve McClaren’s side will show hitherto unseen solidity and shut out Jürgen Klopp’s troops. The prospects of the latter happening were not helped by Mike Williamson suffering a hamstring injury after being recalled from loan at Wolves but if the 32-year-old recovers in time, he will likely thrust straight into a rejigged rearguard featuring three central defenders as McClaren searches for a solution to his team’s flakiness

Stoke face the Silva and De Bruyne show

What we could have here, people, is an authentic dance-off. David Silva, on the back of dismantling Hull in midweek, will likely make his first league start for nearly two months, hooking up with Kevin De Bruyne from the start for only the fourth time. Stoke also enjoyed a satisfying victory in the week: Ryan Shawcross served his suspension as his team-mates sashayed to victory over Sheffield Wednesday, with Ibrahim Afellay producing a dazzling performance. There must now be a real temptation to unleash Afellay, Xherdan Shaqiri, Marko Arnautovic and Bojan Krkic from the start on Saturday, the footballing equivalent of Mark Hughes slipping into his disco pants. What a sight this match could be early on Saturday afternoon

An opportunity for Sunderland?

Sam Allardyce has lifted Sunderland out of the bottom three with customary robustness, ignoring gripes about style and getting on with the job of staying up. Sunderland are not very good, but they have a manager who has never been relegated from the Premier League. And they have a manager who really likes getting the better of Arsène Wenger. Admittedly, Allardyce has not done that for a long time. He has not beaten Arsenal since May 2010 and he has lost his previous eight matches against Wenger. Yet Arsenal have been depleted by injuries and they could have one eye on Wednesday’s crucial Champions League match against Olympiakos, which they need to win by a two-goal margin to qualify for the last 16. With Arsenal reeling from recent disappointments at Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion, this could be a good time for Sunderland to pay them a visit

Swansea’s strikers must start firing

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With one win from their past 10 Premier League matches, it is understandable that there are doubts over Garry Monk’s future at Swansea City. Their startlingly miserable run has left them four points above the bottom three and there are bound to be nerves when they host Claudio Ranieri’s buzzing Leicester City side. Swansea are not short of talent. André Ayew, Jefferson Montero, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Jonjo Shelvey are dangerous players, yet the mystery of their situation becomes clearer when you examine Swansea’s goalscoring record. The numbers are deeply worrying for Monk. Swansea scored seven goals in their first four matches this season, drawing 2-2 and 1-1 with Chelsea and Sunderland respectively and beating Newcastle United and Manchester United 2-0 and 2-1 respectively, but they have failed to score in three of their past four matches and have not scored more than two goals in any league match. While they have scored more than one goal on six occasions this season, that has only happened three times in the past 10 matches. They are struggling to create chances and their strikers are not so much misfiring as not even pulling the trigger. Bafétimbi Gomis had four goals after Swansea’s first four matches, but he has not found the back of the net since scoring the winner against Manchester United on 30 August, and a sign of his stuttering confidence came when he passed up a glorious chance against Arsenal in October. When he does shoot, the ball tends to fly into the stands. He was replaced by Éder against Liverpool, but the Portuguese striker has not scored since joining Swansea for £5m in the summer. They really miss Wilfried Bony

West Ham will miss Sakho

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West Ham United were already a diminished attacking force without Dimitri Payet, who will not return until February after the ankle injury he suffered in last month’s 1-1 draw with Everton, so losing Diafra Sakho for an extended period was the last thing Slaven Bilic needed. Although Sakho has only scored three league goals this season, his strength, mobility, unselfishness, touch, agility and workrate means he is well suited to playing as a lone striker and he is far more comfortable in the role than Andy Carroll, whose lack of movement reduces West Ham’s fluency and stops them from playing their preferred counterattacking game. Carroll made a fine contribution when he scored the winner against Chelsea, but West Ham have not won since beating the champions on 24 October, and the former Liverpool striker still looks short of sharpness after returning from his knee injury in September. With Enner Valencia also recovering from his ankle injury, West Ham’s only other fit forwards are Mauro Zárate, who manages to combine dangerous finishing with maddening choices in the final third, and Nikica Jelavic, who has been less than convincing. West Ham have won at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City already this season, but their current winless run is likely to be extended at Manchester United.

source: the gaurdian