Matchday 32 preview

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Front Row Preview

Manchester United vs Liverpool

Sunday 7 April @ 15:30 BST - Sky Sports 

We put our hands up before. We got City vs Arsenal wrong. 

But, when we get it right, we like to brag just a little bit. Yesterday, we said that Chelsea vs Manchester United would be pure chaos… and it was exactly that.

• 04' | Chelsea 1-0 Man Utd

• 19' | Chelsea 2-0 Man Utd

• 34' | Chelsea 2-1 Man Utd

• 39' | Chelsea 2-2 Man Utd

• 67' | Chelsea 2-3 Man Utd

• 97' | Chelsea 3-3 Man Utd 

• 100’ | Chelsea 4-3 Man Utd

Chelsea 4 - 3 United. It was wild.

So wild in fact that Cole Palmer’s 100:39 winner was the latest winning goal in Premier League history.

Liverpool also played last night. Their shaky start to the second half was cooled off after Alexis Mac Allister’s 76-minute Gerrard-esque wonder goal… Liverpool 3 - 1 Sheffield United. Normality restored. 

Liverpool will feel confident going into this fixture…

• … as Salah has scored 13 goals in 14 games against United…

• … The Reds have won five of their last six league games…

• … And United have the third-worst expected clean sheets at home this season.

But the remnants of United’s late FA Cup winner last month might make Klopp’s men more cautious.

Either way, while the reverse fixture ended goalless, we can almost guarantee this won’t.

• Quick hit 💉: Liverpool have won more matches (16) and scored more goals (59) in all competitions in 2024 than any other side across Europe’s big-five leagues.

Matchday 32 Snapshot

Crystal Palace vs Man City (Saturday 6, 12:30 - TNT Sports)

→ All the pressure is on City in this fixture - and they’ll want to avoid what happened in the reverse fixture in December when Crystal Palace came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2. 

→ But Palace don’t fare well against City at home as they've failed to score in any of their last four Premier League home games against them.

Everton vs Burnley (Saturday 6, 15:00)

→ This fixture is virtually a six-pointer for Burnley. They’re six points from safety but have found form recently, avoiding defeat in their last four Premier League matches. 

→ Everton did well after their point deduction but have since gone on a 13-match winless streak in the league. 

→ But, if fixture history is anything to go by, Burnley will struggle to get points from this matchup as they’ve lost six of their last eight league away games at Goodison Park.

Brighton vs Arsenal (Saturday 6, 17:30 - Sky Sports)

→ It was Brighton who ended the Gunners’ title hopes last season with a 3-0 win at the Emirates in May, so Arsenal will be keen to correct their wrongs. 

→ Brighton do have a decent record against London teams over their last eight home games (5 wins, 2 draws) and have won each of their last three. 

→ Arsenal don’t like the 17:30 Saturday kick-off time, having won only three of their last 18 league matches at that time slot, but they’ve gone ten games unbeaten in the league so they’re a completely different beast to handle.

Link to MW32 fixture list here.

Head Start

🚨 Spurs’ billionaire avoids jail time: Joe Lewis, the billionaire whose family own a majority stake in Tottenham Hotspur, has avoided jail but has been fined $5 million for insider trading. His sentencing is not expected to impact Spurs as he no longer has “significant control” of the club, according to Companies House files.

💰 Prem’s ‘Luxury Tax’: Premier League clubs are considering abolishing points deductions and introducing a ‘luxury tax’. It’s an NBA-style system whereby clubs that overspend will incur a financial punishment which would increase the more they splash the cash… the monies would then be redistributed to Premier League clubs who complied with the rules. Disclaimer: This story was broken by a Daily Mail journalist with “average reliability”. 

😬 Ratcliffe buts head with competition. During an interview in February, Sir Jim Ratcliffe told a journalist that “nobody’s ever seen” his competition Sheikh Jassim and appeared to confirm the Qatari bid had failed to produce proof of funds. Now, legal representatives of Sheikh Jassim have written to Manchester United to demand they cease “misleading” and “defamatory statements” and argue that Ratcliffe’s statements breach confidentiality agreements he signed.

Podcast Highlights

Rio Ferdinand appeared on The Overlap podcast yesterday.

You can expect the usual chats about Fergie’s culture at United and how different it is today…

But, amongst the cliché chat, there were a few gems.

1/ David Moyes at Manchester United

Firstly, there’s one thing to clear up… Moyes didn’t show Ferdinand and Vidic clips of Phil Jagielka. Yup. It’s a funny thought but that’s a myth.

But, that doesn’t mean Moyes didn’t have his faults: 

• After United’s tour in Asia, a dishevelled Moyes turned to Rio and said, “United’s a big club, isn’t it”. Not a great sign…

• Moyes refused to stick to Sir Alex’s tradition of telling players before the game that they wouldn’t feature in the starting XI… this rubbed some players (Chicharito) up the wrong way.

• And, worst of all, he didn’t listen to Ferguson’s advice to keep the back-room staff.

2/ Rio’s admission

We’ve all wanted our skills and goals featured on Match of the Day… 

… well so do professionals.

One of England’s best-ever centre-backs admits that, at the start of his career, he cared more about impressing his schoolmates with skills (at centre-back!!) on TV than actually winning games. 

It was only once he moved to United that he changed his ways. 

“We could get beat 3-1… but I’d tell my mates to watch Match of the Day to see my skills against a forward” (Yup - that’s an actual quote). 

3/ His favourite partner in crime?

You’d think it was Vidic, right? 

Wrong.

Turns out his favourite centre-back partner was Sol Campbell. And definitely not John Terry. 

Oh… and there was that moment when Rio recalls Roy Keane’s leadership style, hilarious.

Off The Pitch

💸 Taylor Swift has officially become a billionaire, according to Forbes (More)

🥀 The world’s oldest man Juan Vicente Perez dies aged 114 (More)

🐟 Guy and a Manatee Scare Each Other at the Beach in Florida (More)

🧌 Christian Bale transforms into Frankenstein’s Monster in the first image of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘The Bride’ (More) 

🛳️ Eight tourists have been left stranded on an African island after their cruise ship departed without them (More)

🐈 A French couple who kept 159 cats banned from keeping pets (More)

Fantasy Premier League

Gameweek 32: Forwards ✅

→ Forwards Transfers IN

FPL experts tie Erling Haaland (£14.3m) and Mo Salah (£13.4m) for predicted points GW32 (7.4). City’s man has Palace (A), Luton (H) and Brighton (A) in the next three and was rested against Villa on Wednesday so he should be as sharp as ever on his return. 

Is he too much moolah for ya? Then we have the man for you… Newcastle’s answer to Thierry Henry… Alexander Isak (£7.8m).

Only Haaland beats him for expected goals (xG) and he has the best minutes-per-goal ratio this season. Newcastle are good going forward - fourth-highest xG in the league - and they’re playing a weak Fulham defence this GW.

And if you’re really strapped for cash, well we have the man for you…

… Matheus Cunha (5.5m). His fixture run is great - West Ham (H), Nott’ Forest (A), B’mouth (H) and Luton (H) - and includes a double in GW34. Cunha has good underlying stats with 0.69 xG and assists per 90 which is higher than Ivan Toney (£8.1m), JP Mateta (£4.9m), Nicolas Jackson (£6.8) and Dominic Solanke (£7.2m). 

Captaincy 🫡

Before we get into it, let’s take a minute to think about the 4,695,584 managers who captained De Bruyne, Saka and Haaland in Gameweek 31. 

Moving swiftly on… there’s no shortage of captaincy options.

There are safe options… 

• Erling Haaland vs Crystal Palace (A)

• Cole Palmer vs Sheffield United (A)

• Son Heung-min vs Nott’m Forest (H)

• Mo Salah vs Man United (A)

Then there are the differential options… 

• Alexander Isak vs Fulham (H) 

• Dominic Solanke vs Luton (A)

If you’re looking to play it safe, we’d opt for Cole Palmer (£5.9m). He has brilliant per 90 data with 0.63 goals and 0.44 assists, he’s coming off the back of a hat-trick against United, and Chelsea play in the best fixture possible for attacking returns. 

But, if you’re trying to separate yourself from the crowd, look no further than Alexander Isak (£7.8m). Five goals in four games and Fulham have conceded the joint-most goals over the last 3 Gameweeks… a perfect opportunity for an in-form striker to haul.

FPL Bonus Points 📊

• Tom Hadley has a chance of winning FPL this season. Will he be able to hold on for another few weeks? He has his Bench Boost and Wildcard left, plus is 15 points clear at the top of the overall rankings.

• To make you feel better about your FPL season… just remember Let’s Talk FPL transferred out Phil Foden before his hat trick to bring in Darwin Nunez for a hit… so even the pros can get it wrong

Game Face On

Question: The fastest goal scored in Premier League history came in 7.69 seconds. Who scored it?

Hint: He scored a historic goal against Germany for the Republic of Ireland.

Scroll below for the answer.

Extra Time

Iniesta had big moments in his career. And this last-minute winner gave everyone watching goosebumps.

It’s rare to see a performance like Maradona’s vs Brazil in the 1990 World Cup. It’s also rare to see so many two-footed challenges on one player.

Ok, taking a break from football content. A mass brawl broke out two seconds into an NHL game.

League 1 football at its finest. A waterlogged pitch but there was so much determination. 

You can watch this Messi assist a thousand times and not get bored. One of the greatest passes of all time.

Answer: Shane Long (for Southampton vs Watford in 2018-19)

“One year I played 15 months.”

-Franz Beckenbauer