•If Fulham play like they did in the league game away at Anfield earlier in the season they will give Liverpool a real test.
•The Gunners have had precious little time to prepare for the Wolves game on Saturday following their away game loss at Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
Image: HANDOUT
Fulham V Liverpool
Fulham are tough to beat at home and following Liverpool’s disaster last week, losing 1-0 at home to Crystal Palace and the Cottagers winning away 2-0 at West Ham, the west London club are confident they can inflict more damage on Liverpool’s title hopes.
Fulham’s Rodrigo Muniz, Bobby Decordova-Reid and Alex Iwobi will be looking to increase their goal tallies as they face Andrew Robertson, Ibrahima Konate and Virgil Van Dijk but the Red’s Conor Bradley will be missing following injury.
Willian and Andreas Pereira will supply the assists but are equally likely to score if a chance presents itself. Sasa Lukic and Joao Palhinha will fight in midfield against Alexis Mac Allister, Wataru Endo and Curtis Jones but Antonee Robinson, Calvin Bassey, Tosin Adarabioyo and Timothy Castegne will have their hands full as Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz try to put the Palace horror behind them.
If Fulham play like they did in the league game away at Anfield earlier in the season, they will give Liverpool a real test.
Robinson was superb that day and gave Salah a difficult time. Liverpool needed some world-class goals to beat Fulham.
Jurgen Klopp is desperate to leave Anfield with the title and a top-four place but Fulham are no easy task as the West Ham result shows but they did lose their last home game 1-0 to Newcastle.
Playing in the Europa League on Thursday and travelling to Italy against Atalanta has not helped Klopp’s preparation for Fulham but he insists his team are fit and ready but there might be some tired legs.
Arsenal have already left Craven Cottage empty-handed this season, proving Fulham know how to beat the top teams. Keep an eye out for Fulham’s in-form Muniz, the Premier League player of the month in March.
Wolves V Arsenal
Mikel Arteta knows that Arsenal slipped up badly losing 2-0 to Aston Villa and the pressure is on to get back into a winning streak as the curtain gradually closes on the end of the season.
The Gunners have had precious little time to prepare for the Wolves game on Saturday following their away game loss at Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
They travelled on Tuesday and flew back on Thursday morning. They will train for the Wolves game on Friday and travel up to the midlands on Saturday morning.
It is hardly a perfect scenario for such an important match. Strength on the bench is one of Arsenal’s key cards with Leandro Trossard coming on as an impact player, creating and scoring goals.
He has come off the bench six times this season and scored, which is more than any other player in Europe.
Only Bukayo Saka has scored more goals than Trossard for Arsenal this year. Wolves' central midfielder Tommy Doyle said they have to “keep pushing”.
Sitting 11th in the table, one point behind Brighton, the amber and blacks have a good chance of finishing in the top half of the table. Commenting on last week’s game against Nottingham Forest, Doyle said: “We were disappointed with the draw because we expected to win. We would have taken the three points with a better second half.
The on-loan Manchester City man has been in good form and holds the midfield together and he will be up against Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice but has the confidence and ability to upstage them.
Everton V Forest
Sean Dyche believes midfielder Andre Gomes will be a key figure for Everton as they try to pull away from the relegation zone.
The 30-year-old Portugese turned his loan deal from Barcelona into a permanent contract.
Injuries, however, have hindered his progress at Everton and he was loaned out to French club Lille.
He gave a good performance last weekend in only his second start this season and Dyche said: “There’s a calmness about his play and hopefully, as long as he stays fit, he’s certainly going to be involved in the relegation fight.”
He might find himself back on the bench this weekend, however, with Gana Gueye back at the club following the birth of his child and Amadou Onana is expected to be fit.
With five games to go, Forest are only one point outside the relegation zone. In training this week, they worked on how not to concede from set pieces after letting in 22 goals from free kicks, penalties and corners this season.
Set pieces have long been a problem for Forest and Greek owner Evangelos Marinakis authorised the club to hire a set piece specialist coach but that solved nothing.
As a warning to Forest, Everton have scored more goals from set pieces this year than any other team in the league. Manager Nuno Espirito Santo has blamed individual errors and not his organisation of the team.
Forest seem very nervous at set pieces and Dyche worked with his players this week to take advantage of that and they spent time watching videos of Forest’s weaknesses in defending free kicks.