Big Weekend: Man Utd v Spurs, Chelsea, Lampard, Bamford, PSG

Chelsea may be saved from eventual doom

Most improved XI has three of Wolves stingy defence

Gomez forcing a move from Liverpool

West Ham banking Europa League

Tottenham loanee helping deadly duo

Antonio Conte will relish piling on the misery at Man Utd, while Chelsea play their first home game under licence and Frank Lampard tries to fix Everton’s defence…

Game to watch – Man Utd v Tottenham

The last time these two sides met, back in October in north London, the meeting was dubbed El Sackico. To the loser, his cards. Nuno had his thrust upon him, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s followed not long after what inevitably turned out to be a brief stay of execution.

Their successors haven’t had the best time of it either. Ralf Rangnick replaced Solskjaer on an interim basis in the hope of bringing some structure and a new style to the club. So far, the German hasn’t been able to offer either, though it’s hard to imagine who might have in the circumstances at Old Trafford.

Antonio Conte would doubtless suggest he could but United were never going to appoint a coach with the Italian’s record of speaking truth to power. And when he looked like chucking it in after the defeat at Burnley recently, it appeared the Old Trafford hierarchy had taken an unusually savvy stance.

But Conte has got a tune out of these Tottenham players. The problem is when they pick and choose their moments to perform. Conte will be desperate, for the club and his own ends, to ensure that Spurs go to Old Trafford and play like they did at City or at home to Everton. Not as they did against Burnley, Middlesbrough, Wolves and Saints.

We can be a little more sure of which United turn up. Almost certainly the pea-hearted rabble which has probably prompted Rangnick