Big weekend: Tottenham v Liverpool, Pep Guardiola, Southampton, Havertz, Barcelona

Roll up, roll up, there’s another inevitable episode of the Tottenham Clown Car Rodeo this weekend. And this one is against Liverpool, so you know it’s good.

Match to watch: Tottenham v Liverpool
Because honestly, why on earth wouldn’t anyone watch this fight? We’ve been racking our brains for about seven hours and so far we’ve only come up with one halfway plausible, valid reason why you might not want to watch this game: you’re a Spurs fan.

For everyone else, there’s really no excuse to miss this one. The guests are Liverpool. They are the best team in the country right now. Nice, well done, that is very clever and impressive of you. But with all due respect, it’s not about you.

Sure, Liverpool may have played with a bit of vulnerability in recent draws against Newcastle and Fulham, but basically we know what to expect from them. They will play well and Mo Salah will probably score at least one goal. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It has already carried them far this season and is likely to carry them much further still.

But Liverpool are really only of secondary interest here because the main question is, what will playing the best and most consistent team in the country do to Spurs? That’s what counts. And the genius is that there are endless possible answers to that question, and absolutely all of them are magnificent.

Let’s look at Spurs’ recent form, shall we? Within their last four games, they have lost 4-3 from 2-0 up, tried to lose from 3-0 up but accidentally won 4-3, before the break he led 5-0and most absurd of all nearly losing a football match to a team from Scotland of all places.

And it’s not like they were sane before that. At no other club does a manager need to add the caveat ‘as long as we win’ when he declares he is content with his team scoring four or five goals every game.

What inevitably got lost in the scale of the Carabao rubbish on display against United is just how many players Spurs are short. They were without 10 first team players; even allowing for United’s own brand of cluster play, it’s fair to say that finding a way to beat a big club in a big game where many key players are missing would normally be hugely commendable. It’s a huge credit to Spurs’ relentless commitment to the brand that they managed to find a way to do it that ultimately wasn’t hugely laudable.

But now they will have to try to do it all again against a far less silly big team. None of the missing players look set to return this weekend, meaning we should all get the chance to see Salah and co. taking on a defense whose only remotely composed and reassuring presence is an 18-year-old midfielder playing completely out of position who, a few weeks ago, had never even started a Premier League game.

Logically, Liverpool should win this game handily. But logic has long since left the building at Spurs. Absolutely anything can and will happen in a game that absolutely needs no extra spice, yet has it by virtue of also marking Liverpool’s long-awaited return to the scene of last season’s most controversial game.

Manager to watch: Pep Guardiola
If we were picking a place to visit with the aim of avoiding slipping to a record of one win in 12 games, there would probably be a few higher on the list than dragging our tired squad and big overheated manager’s brain to Villa Park.

Pep and his former champions have enjoyed a rare midweek off, thanks to the Carabao defeat to Spurs that started their current run. Maybe it would have done some good. Maybe that will have cleared some heads.

Time to think, time to breathe is rare this time of year. One of the striking things about the one win in 11 is that it only took six and a half weeks to put together the 11 games, and there was an international break in the middle of it too.

Of course, City is not alone there. Ruben Amorim only took charge of his first Man United game on November 24 and has already delivered eight bewildering and wildly varying results.

It can go two ways, a break. It might be good to come straight back to another game after a disappointment like the derby instead of spending a week cooking. But we rather think that in City’s case both the players and the managers needed it. They may have been able to move and put their heads back on during that time. Games coming thick and fast certainly haven’t helped them change anything so far, so at least this is different.

The United game was really the first time we’ve given serious credence to the idea that Guardiola might be on his way out to City. He’s not going to get fired—you can wrap that talk up, show some respect—but his head is clearly twisted. He looks exhausted and sounds used. He has never experienced anything like this and is clearly struggling with it. The fact that it feels possible that a man who only signed a contract a few weeks ago could now walk away tells its own story, but the timing of the new contract was never one that suggested clear planning and careful thought .

It always looked like a pretty desperate ploy to force order on the chaos from the outside. And it hasn’t worked. City now need to get back to winning ways here and it won’t be straightforward.

Villa, for their part, have had their own week off to ruminate on their own costly late collapse against Forest. It’s rare to come into a game against Pep’s City as the form side on the back of three wins in 12 games, but these are unusual times.

READ NEXT: Guardiola’s resignation would follow transfer streak, Keane fury and broken Spurs ‘promise’

Team to watch: Southampton
The list of managers on Southampton’s apparent wish-list does not suggest they will follow standard practice and respond to a manager’s failure by appointing his direct opposite to follow. The guys they seem to be looking at are all progressive, possession types a la Russell Martin, although perhaps the thinking is that they might be a bit more willing to do what they think is best for Southampton, rather than that, they think can get them the Bayern Munich job in a year’s time.

In the meantime, however, Simon Rusk is in charge at St Mary’s and it will be interesting to see how he fares at Fulham. Ideal game in many ways, against a very good and skilled team perfectly capable of exploiting any continued commitment to abhorrent nonsense ball from Saints, but not so formidable that a caretaker-manager jump can be completely ruled out.

At least we’d like to see Southampton manage to touch the ball before going 1-0 down in this one. We believe in you!

Player to watch: Kai Havertz
While Gabriel Jesus’ Carabao hat-trick against Crystal Palace was great for him and great for Arsenal and really great for anyone who wanted to make fun of Marc Guehi’s wristband expressions, it might not be very good news for Kai Havertz.

When you’re the no-nonsense striker for a team that has now taken the mistake of scoring goals from open play in the league to almost sarcastic levels, sitting back and watching someone come into the side and immediately score three goals can be considered sub-optimal.

Of course it was the Carabao, a competition which is not real and cannot hurt you, but nevertheless. Havertz could do with a performance and, if we’re being particularly greedy, maybe even a goal as Arsenal take on the opponents they faced in midweek in more serious conditions.

Football League match to watch: Sheffield Wednesday v Stoke
In theory a game where the Owls bid to close the five points between themselves and the play-off places against a free-falling Stoke side without a win in seven. In fact, a game that will be dominated by the discussion about Wednesday’s boss Danny Rohl and whether he will even be at Hillsborough for a possible promotion push.

He has certainly turned around a team that only previously seemed likely to come out of the Championship at the other end, and that has put him on the radar for the Southampton job.

You kind of feel he’d be a fool to take it, but a shot at the Premier League – however short and doomed – has turned older and wiser heads before. The fact that Rohl previously spent time at Southampton during the Ralph Hasenhuttl days adds another layer of heart-over-head possibility.

European match to watch: Barcelona v Atletico Madrid
A huge game ahead of La Liga’s winter break with top spot on the line as stumbling leaders Barcelona run into an Atletico Madrid side who do what they always seem to do when Spain’s big two show any frailty.

It’s 11 straight wins in all competitions now for Diego Simeone’s mischievous men, a run that has coincided with Barcelona picking up just one win in six league games to really open up what had threatened to be a non-starter in a title race.

Just to add an extra layer of frankly unnecessary intrigue to this top-of-the-table clash, an eminently feasible draw between these two would give Real Madrid the chance to claw themselves into first place with victory over Sevilla the following day.