Chelsea seek to extend title lead while Arsenal, Manchester clubs sit idle

Chelsea seek to extend title lead while Arsenal, Manchester clubs sit idle

Chelsea can stretch their lead

Chelsea's rivals will be largely powerless this weekend to stop the Premier League leaders from extending their points advantage, which currently stands at eight over second-placed Manchester City. Sunday's EFL Cup final has blown a hole in the fixture list, postponing Arsenal's trip to Southampton and what would have been a pivotal Manchester derby delayed until the latter weeks of the season.

Only Tottenham, playing Stoke at home on Sunday, and Liverpool, at Leicester on Monday, can play immediate catchup. First, though, Chelsea must overcome resurgent Swansea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

And Swansea, coached by former Chelsea assistant manager Paul Clement, are an opponent that hold unpleasant memories. Last season's opening match, a 2-2 draw, concluded with the Jose Mourinho-Eva Carneiro clash that preceded the tailspin of the regime of the former Special One.

In April, with Guus Hiddink in charge, Chelsea weakly lost 1-0 at the Liberty Stadium, where in 2013 Eden Hazard got himself dismissed for tangling with a ball boy during a League Cup semifinal defeat.

With four wins from six league matches since Clement took over, including winning 3-2 at Liverpool on Jan. 21, and having climbed from the relegation zone, this season's Swansea cannot be taken lightly, not that Antonio Conte is likely to. His players have been put through the usual week of intensive video-tech revision of their opposite numbers and rehearsals of positional play.

This week, Conte has been bending the ear of Eddie Jones, coach of England's all-conquering (in the Northern Hemisphere) rugby union team, on Thursday's fact-finding visit to their training camp. Should Chelsea win on Saturday, they can put significant distance between them and the five-team scrum behind them.

While their rivals sit idle, Chelsea will look to open up their Premier League title lead vs. Swansea.

Moyes and his old boys

An exhaustive list of ex-Evertonians will be making a return to Goodison Park with Sunderland and David Moyes on Saturday afternoon. Jack Rodwell, Bryan Oviedo, Joleon Lescott, Steven Pienaar and Darron Gibson have all joined their former boss on Wearside (while Victor Anichebe is injured).

Moyes, who took his players away for downtime in New York last week, will hopefully receive a warmer reception than last time he brought a team to his former place of work.

That was the Sunday afternoon in April 2014 when a 2-0 defeat on Merseyside hastened his exit as Manchester United manager, and he was barracked from all corners, including by the away fans. Also in the stands was a "fan" who dressed as the Grim Reaper, who later turned out to be an emissary of a publicity-seeking bookmaker.

Moyes was sacked the following day and his situation with Sunderland is not much more cheery. They are bottom, having won one game in 2017. Their 4-0 defeat at Southampton last time out wiped away much of the good work done the previous week when winning by the same scoreline at Crystal Palace.

Who will get booed most? It may well be Lescott, who left for Manchester City in 2009, a transfer that Everton's manager of the time called "disgusting". His name, of course, was David Moyes.

Silva plots his course

Marco Silva has received plenty of plaudits during his six weeks in charge of Hull City. Beating Liverpool 2-0, drawing 0-0 at Manchester United and creditable 2-0 defeats at Chelsea and Arsenal threw the Portuguese manager into a harsh spotlight with which his squad, overhauled during January's transfer window, dealt most creditably.

Four points from those fixtures was above expectations but here's where the real business begins: Hull's next three opponents are Burnley, Leicester and Swansea, the latter of whom were beaten 2-0 in Silva's first match in charge. Four points would not be enough from that sequence; despite their "new manager bounce", Hull are still 18th.

Marco Silva has impressed in his short spell in charge of Hull, but he now faces a stretch vital to the Tigers' survival.

During his team's two-week break, Silva has kept his players working hard. And thinking. "We sometimes go into meetings and it's meant to be a 10-minute meeting, you come out half an hour later with a headache, but the main thing is when you actually get on that pitch you know everyone's job," said defender Curtis Davies this week.

Silva should fancy three points at home from Burnley, what with their desperate record of just a single point away from Turf Moor all season.

Ciao, Claudio

Dilly ding, dilly gone. Thursday's sudden departure of Claudio Ranieri from Leicester City came after Jamie Vardy's away goal at Sevilla had offered light after months of darkness.

The timing seemed shocking, though Ranieri's departure had been in the post for weeks. His team had not scored a single league goal in 2017, while collecting just one point. The Italian eventually took the rap for a group that had failed as a whole. Players still enjoying the status of defending champions have tarnished last season's title victory in performing so disastrously in Leicester's slide.

Without him, they have plenty to prove at the King Power on Monday.

Kane, Alli must make amends

Time ticks on White Hart Lane, which will host just seven more Tottenham league matches before the club moves temporarily to Wembley and then next door to a brand-new stadium.

Judging by Spurs' latest horror at the national stadium in exiting the Europa League after drawing 2-2 with Gent on Thursday, occasions like Sunday's home meeting with Stoke will have to be savoured. Dele Alli's vicious loss of control in being red-carded at Wembley means he has plenty of amends to make. So too own-goal scorer Harry Kane.