Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekendAnd feel free to email Gregg, tweet him or post BTL 9.56am BST
Steve Bruce has been wheeled out early at Newcastle to talk about Sunday’s game against Leicester. He says he knows little about the possible £300m takeover by a Peter Kenyon-led consortium. “It’s news to me,” are his exact quotes. As for Sunday’s match, Newcastle will be without Jonjo Shelvey. “[He] has a grade two hamstring so he’ll be missing for a few weeks. Sean Longstaff will be OK. It will be good to see him again. Shelvey picked it up in the game last week. I think he has been hampered by a thigh injury. It’s still not 100% right.”
He also spoke to
BBC Radio 5 earlier about Andy Carroll’s ongoing battle to get fit. It’s been a long one hasn’t it? “Of his type there isn’t anybody better,” he said, begging the question what is “his type”? “We just hope he has a bit of luck in terms of injuries. We know he’s a very good player. Our aim now is; how can we get him on the pitch frequently and regularly? Obviously you need some luck along the way. But a fit and firing Andy Carroll would help more teams.” Maybe Carroll should just be a 20-minute impact sub these days. An incredible jumping man who is just thrown into the fray towards the end of games. 9.34am BST
Morning all. The League Cup games are done and dusted and we’re straight back into the seventh round of
Premier League matches. Eight of them are on Saturday which is quite a rarity in these days of spreading matches out across the weekend. Kicking things off tomorrow at 12.30pm are league leaders,
Liverpool, who travel to Bramall Lane for a 12.30pm kick-off against Sheffield United hoping to go eight points clear of Manchester City. Pep Guardiola’s side are in action at Everton in a 5.30pm kick-off. Jürgen Klopp managed to rotate all 11 of his starters against
Chelsea when they beat MK Dons 2-0, so there’ll be no worry of fatigue. The Blades face a daunting task against the Reds, who have won their last 15 Premier League matches stretching back to last season, but Chris Wilder is backing his on-loan
Manchester United goalkeeper, Dean Henderson, to perform well on what could be a busy day between the sticks.
“Liverpool’s forward three have been unbelievable for the past couple of years,” said Wilder. “In terms of the quality they’ve got, the mobility and way they interchange, we’re going to have to have an unbelievably great day to keep the ball out of our net. Our goalkeeper is going to have to make saves, we understand that, but I feel we have the best young goalkeeper in the country.”
Related: Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend