Arsenal face first final step towards Quad God status

A proper big weekend, this one. We’re very excited.

Arsenal can either take a big step towards the quadruple, or see the whole thing go up in smoke altogether should Pep Guardiola get his hands on another trophy after what has for him been an alarmingly long wait.

But the Premier League won’t give up all the weekend’s attention without a fight, and even with the top two’s attention elsewhere there are a whole bunch of vital games in battles at both ends of the table, including the most six-pointery game of the season so far between Spurs and Forest – two teams who both somehow go into the game feeling pretty good about life despite neither of them winning a league game in months. Spursy, that. And Foresty.

Also feels like a big ol’ weekend for Liam Rosenior’s dwindling authority at Chelsea after a week when everyone has been laughing at him even more than they were before.

Carabao Cup final to watch: Arsenal v Manchester City

Last year the Carabao had a rare moment in the sun where it could matter on its own terms. Newcastle’s joy at winning a trophy – any trophy – after so very, very long meant that for once the Carabao wasn’t just a staging post or minor trinket for a big beast with eyes fixed elsewhere.

It’s back to normal this year, with the clear narrative around this one being whether Arsenal can take the first final step – if that makes even a lick of sense – on their way to possible Quad God status or whether Manchester City can stop them in this competition at least having proved entirely unable to apply meaningful pressure in the Premier League.

That narrative itself is a quirky one, because an Arsenal victory here would of course end their own trophy drought that, while nowhere near a Newcastle, has still been a millstone around the Gunners’ neck these past few years.

And yet so dominant have they been this season that the trophy drought has felt effectively over for quite some time now. Everyone knows Arsenal are going to win trophies this season; the question is which ones and how many.

It does feel like actually sealing that deal couldn’t hurt, though. They still probably won’t do the quadruple because nobody – nobody English at any rate – ever does. But it would at least get rid of that albatross and allow them to concentrate their remaining efforts over the remaining post-interlull weeks of the season knowing that at least something is in the bag.

Although we can of course at that point expect last year’s widespread giddy insistence of the Carabao’s status as an indisputable major trophy to once again be called into question if it is Arsenal rather than Newcastle utilising it as a drought-ender.

Game to watch: Tottenham v Nottingham Forest

Just before the Premier League’s top two squabble over the season’s first trinket comes the biggest game of the relegation battle so far in a monumental six-pointer that feels even more watchable than it already was (which was very watchable indeed) after the midweek action.

The very idea of two relegation battlers having European commitments is incongruous, but the even weirder outcome is that both these teams will face a relegation six-pointer on long winless Premier League runs while feeling better about themselves than they have in ages.

Spurs’ best performance of the season was never enough to save the tie against Atletico Madrid, but a win on the night and the manner in which they did it on the back of battling all the way to the finish line to draw with Liverpool means spirits are higher at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium than at any other point in 2026.

That, admittedly, is saying little but there was a notable effort from a far-from-full stadium to get behind the team on Wednesday night, and the team responded against what was still a full-strength Atleti despite a three-goal cushion.

Mathys Tel, Xavi Simons and Randal Kolo Muani all had their best Spurs games to date, which again isn’t the compliment it might be, but so too did Archie Gray in a commanding midfield performance that felt more like a logical next step towards fulfilling his enormous potential for the one consistent bright spot for Spurs in the unrelenting gloom of the last few months.

Nottingham Forest will be the wearier team having taken the full 120 minutes and penalties to overturn a first-leg Europa League deficit against Midtjylland 24 hours after Spurs returned to winning ways, but with their victory bringing progress and a real shot at silverware despite everything it will be an inevitably bullish and buoyant Forest who head south this weekend.

Curious indeed to think of a relegation six-pointer between two teams suddenly feeling good about themselves despite one not having won a league game for almost two months and the other for almost three, but somehow that is the scenario here.

It’s still not quite all-or-nothing for either side with so much football still to be played this season, but it’s going to be hard to see whoever emerges with the three points from this one going down.

Team to watch: Liverpool

Another team who used the European opportunity to ease their domestic woes. Both Spurs and Liverpool appeared to have taken something beyond a point from last weekend’s clash at Anfield.

For Spurs, it was renewed belief and a glimmer of hope. For Liverpool, embarrassment and humiliation at failing to beat the league’s worst team and a sense of never again.

They tore into Galatasaray from minute one and didn’t let up until a 1-0 first-leg deficit had been overturned decisively.

Now the task switches back to ensuring they take their place in next season’s Champions League, which remains far from certain with Chelsea just a point behind the fifth-placed Reds and with a far superior goal difference.

A trip to a Brighton side that has rediscovered itself after a poor run won’t be easy. Fabian Hurzeler’s team were drifting towards the relegation scrap for a while there, but three wins in four – the other a narrow and controversial defeat to leaders Arsenal – have sorted that out and means Liverpool will need another fully committed Galatasaray-style effort to win here. Any repeat of the Spurs debacle absolutely will not do.

Player to watch: Jarrod Bowen

It does feel like a weekend of great significance at both ends of the table. The top two may be otherwise engaged, but the way the fixtures have landed and the fact that what happens this weekend will freeze the league table for the next three weeks means it all feels hugely significant for the races to get into Europe and avoid falling into the Championship.

For West Ham, the incentive is clear. They play Aston Villa at the same time Spurs face Nottingham Forest, which means one thing is certain: if they can win at Villa Park – and that is not the daunting prospect it once was – they are certain to be outside the relegation zone while the Premier League goes on its lengthy interlull-FA Cup hiatus. They could even leapfrog both those clubs this weekend.

When Hammers fans first started looking at the run-in for fixtures of potential, Villa away would not have figured high on the list. That has changed significantly.

Villa have looked a spent force in the Premier League for some time now, and there’s a definite sense of focus shifting towards the Europa League. They are through to the last eight there and it all just looks a lot less effort than the Premier League does for them right now.

Villa remain fourth for now, but that’s based on their own sterling form of autumn and winter, and the ongoing struggles of Chelsea and Liverpool. Their own current form is wretched, with a single victory and four defeats from seven games since January.

They have been well beaten by Wolves, Chelsea and Man United in their last three games, and lost four of their last six home games against Premier League opposition having won every game at Villa Park from September to mid-January.

Make no mistake, this is a huge opportunity for West Ham to capitalise on a tired team struggling to keep the plates spinning to the very end of the season.

But with Crysencio Summerville still a major doubt for this one, an awful lot of responsibility falls yet again on the shoulders of Jarrod Bowen to be the man to drive the Hammers on towards safety.

Manager to watch: Liam Rosenior

Every doomed managerial reign has its defining Kodak moment. It doesn’t necessarily come right at the end, but it tells you the end is inevitable. Steve McClaren with his brolly. Ruben Amorim trying unsuccessfully to plot a course past League Two opposition with his little magnets. Thomas Frank sipping obliviously and gormlessly from an Arsenal coffee cup.

For guff-speaking LinkedIn philosopher Rosenior, that moment arrived this week when he solemnly handed Alejandro Garnacho a note containing instructions for the remaining five minutes of a Champions League tie in which Chelsea trailed 8-2 on aggregate and 3-0 on the night.

Unless that note read ‘Score six goals’ – in which case, listen, fair play – it just adds to the overwhelming sense that Rosenior is a performer. A spoofer. He’s LARPing as a Premier League manager. Cosplaying it. Everything about him feels performative and therefore crashingly insincere.

Former team-mates from his playing days have said they simply don’t recognise the Brentian figure that Rosenior now cuts. We would bet our life savings that he doesn’t even need those glasses and that they contain plain lenses.

He is being found out very quickly at this level, his tactics openly questioned by senior players who for some reason don’t seem to be as impressed as his bosses were by his endless stream of fauxspirational management babble.

It would probably take something truly dramatic for Rosenior not to at least last the season, but it already feels impossible to picture him as a long-term Chelsea manager. And not just because it’s impossible to picture pretty much anyone as a long-term Chelsea manager.

Football League game to watch: Ipswich v Millwall

Crunch time approaches in the Championship promotion race. Coventry still look sure to secure one of the two automatic promotion spots despite defeat last time out against Southampton. They take a nine-point lead over Ipswich and Millwall in third and fourth heading into this weekend with games running out.

But the second spot is firmly in play with this pair sitting just two points behind Middlesbrough. Victory here boosts either side’s chances, but most notably Ipswich who were the only team in the top five to win their last game and have a game in hand – against struggling Portsmouth – over all the teams around them.

Ipswich haven’t lost at Portman Road in any competition since October, but Millwall are on a four-match winning run away from home so something has to give.

European game to watch: Real Madrid v Atletico Madrid

The Madrid derby is approaching must-win territory if Real are to keep their pursuit of Barcelona at the top of La Liga a realistic one.

There’s less at stake for Atletico Madrid who, along with Villarreal appear certain to finish third and fourth given the chasm that exists to the big two above them and everyone else below.

But they’d obviously love to scupper their neighbours after suffering the indignity of defeat on the night to Spurs in the Champions League this week, the first team to experience such a sensation in two long, banter-filled months.

Women’s Super League game to watch: Man City v Tottenham

It’s been a procession for much of the season, but with two of the three matches all season in which City have dropped points coming in their last three they could just do with ensuring there are no more slip-ups against a dangerous Tottenham team. Chelsea are not a team you want to give any encouragement to in a Women’s Super League title fight.

It should be fine. Spurs have had a fine season but have dropped off the top-three pace now and, cosily marooned in fifth, would be forgiven if the upcoming FA Cup quarter-final against Chelsea is the game at the forefront of their minds now.

But we all know funny things can happen when a title-chasing Man City side face Tottenham.

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