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All times are UK

Good Friday

Premier League: West Ham United v Wolverhampton Wanderers

20.00 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
A combination of international break, elimination from the FA Cup and the EFL Cup final means that this is Wolves’ first game in almost a month. Hopefully for Rob Edwards his side can pick up where they left off, enjoying their best run of the season, losing just one of their last six games (their one was defeat away to Palace, which they really should have won). Of course it’s pretty much already over for them, even a win today would leave them ten points short of safety with six games left — and they only managed nine points in the previous good run of six games. West Ham played as recently as last weekend in a chaotic, breathless, epic FA Cup quarter-final against Leeds that saw the Hammers force extra time having been 2-0 down at 90 minutes, going on to have two goals disallowed in extra time and then lose on penalties. Many West Ham fans who had left the ground early were left watching live-streams of the action at the gates that had closed behind them. In the league, West Ham are unbeaten in four at home including draws against City and United. A win here will see them climb out of the relegation zone at least until Sunday when Spurs visit Sunderland (see below). GS

Saturday

A-League: Western Sydney Wanderers v Sydney

10.35 on TNT Sports 4 and HBOMax
Want some spice with your cornflakes? The Sydney derby is always a pretty intense match, but this Saturday’s fixture promises to be something else. A few weeks ago, then Sydney FC coach Ufuk Talay was linked with the Wanderers job, refused to deny, lost two matches badly and was promptly shown the door labelled “do one”, before heading straight to Parramatta to take control of the Sky Blues’ biggest rivals. The small number of A-League clubs means it’s not unusual for players to end up playing for two bitter rivals, but a coach defection is unheard of. Not that the appointment will give Wanderers much joy. Talay wasn’t exactly loved by the Sydney FC fanbase, missed out on the finals last time around, and has overseen a similar slump this season. The whole affair has a whiff of a Parramatta parochial power-play that’s hardly enthused the Red and Black faithful. Not that Sky Blues fans are any happier. The interim coach is Patrick Kisnorbo, who’s had stints in the dugout at both Melbourne Victory and City and a habit of doing a vanishing act mid-season. Expect a lot of rancour and noise as Sydney look to get the playoff hopes back on track and Wanderers battle to avoid the wooden spoon. When goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic crossed the city, Sydney fans threw plastic snakes at his goal. Expect Talay to get similar treatment in what should be an entertainingly intense encounter. GA

Championship: Norwich City v Ipswich Town

12.30 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
This could be the last “Old Farm” for at least a season if Ipswich have their way. Their last meeting was in early October when both teams were struggling to settle into the campaign. Ipswich’s 3-1 win restored confidence to the Suffolk team and they have risen to second place in the Championship table having ousted floundering Boro over Easter. One of the success stories for the season has been continued and welcome resurgence of Jack Clarke. The English forward was one of the bright sparks of Bielsa’s Leeds but his career derailed with an ill-conceived move to Tottenham. He had to drop a couple of divisions to Sunderland in 2021 before earning a return to the Premier League with Ipswich last season. Back in the Championship he has scored fourteen goals, one of which was in that October win against Norwich. After that defeat, the Canaries struggled on for a few weeks before sacking manager Liam Manning and hiring Philippe Clement. The Belgian had no prior experience of coaching in England and his appointment raised a few eyebrows. However, under his supervision, City pulled away from the relegation zone and into the safety of the top half. Last week they beat promotion hopefuls Millwall. However, recent poor showings against the south coast duo of Portsmouth and Southampton has prevented them from entering the playoffs so all that’s left, this season is to lay the groundwork for the next and sticking it to their rivals. TD

Premier League: Liverpool v Fulham

17.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
There is never an ideal time to be playing Fulham. Like all middle-class Premier League clubs, the Cottagers adopt the fighting relegation mindset, even when your mathematically safe. That’s why they are rarely pushovers. With that said, coach Marco Silva (widely tipped to not be at Fulham next season) has overseen a disappointing sequence of results that have let the air out of their balloon. Defeat to West Ham, an FA Cup exit to Southampton and a bore draw with Forest have set back their European hopes. But hope is not lost and a rare win at Anfield would reignite the fan’s hopes of having to give their seats up to UEFA officials at Craven Cottage next season. Perhaps former Liverpool academy player Harry Wilson will follow up on his goal in the reverse fixture in January with another to continue what has been a standout season for the Welsh international. Liverpool’s own prospects of glory this season took a serious knock over the last week after their 4-0 thrashing to the 115ers knocking them out of the Cup and a first leg defeat to Qatari Sports Investments XI in the Champions League. Arne Slot last saw his team win a league match back in February: a 5-2 win at home to West Ham. Defensively his team are a shambles. Ibrahima Konaté’s testing the limits of the penalty laws exemplified what kind of season he’s had. The forward line, while clearly talented with or without Mo Salah, lack structure. At least Alexander Isak returned from injury in Paris on Wednesday. How that helps Liverpool for this game, depends on whether he decides to rest him ahead of that crucial Champions League match. TD

Sunday

Premier League: Sunderland v Tottenham Hotspur

14.00 on Sky Sports Main Event & Ultra
A couple of months ago, Sunderland’s Stadium of Light was considered something of a fortress. Impressively, this was true right up until Liverpool became the first visiting side to win there in mid-February. Sadly, that was followed by further home defeats to Fulham and Brighton, so a nice easy tie against a relegation candidate is just what the doctor ordered. Well, not exactly. When the relegation candidate in question is Tottenham and they’ve just appointed Roberto De Zerbi, it becomes something of a concern. Maybe it’s not all bad: either side of that Brighton defeat was a win at Leeds, which more or less guaranteed the Lads’ safety, and of course, victory over the (dirty) Mags. That should give De Zerbi something to think about as he brings his battered side to the North East. Battered isn’t an exaggeration either; Tottenham comfortably have the longest injury list in the Premier League having missed a good chunk of their first-choice players for much of the season. Ben Davies, Mohammed Kudus and Rodrigo Bentancur have all been out since January, while James Maddison did his ACL before the season even started. It’s also highly likely that Vicario won’t feature between the sticks meaning Antonin Kinsky may make his first appearance since his infamous 17 minutes against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last month. Whether De Zerbi is the man to turn around what’s left of this Tottenham side in the seven games they have left will be interesting to observe. Certainly, it will be regarded as a miraculous escape if a patchwork side, low on confidence, can dodge this particular bullet. If West Ham beat Wolves on Friday (see above), Tottenham will go into this game in the relegation zone which will pile the pressure on. Hopefully, that will help Sunderland survive the new manager bounce. JB

Premier League: Chelsea v Manchester City

16.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
Look, I'm a bit busy this week, so I thought I'd hand this particular one over to LinkedIn philosopher (and Chelsea manager) Liam Rosenior. Liam, over to you. “People say to me, ‘Liam, what does it mean for you to see Chelsea in such poor form?’ I'd say that the concept of form is relative. Is it something you hand in? Or a fleeting moment in time? Can we ever truly know what form means? The future doesn't exist. It only exists when you get there. And we’ve got to today’s future by only winning three matches since the start of March, two of which have been against lower league opposition in the FA Cup. You can only beat what's in front of you, and what I can currently see is a pitch with 11 players on it. Yes, the crowd at Stamford Bridge could be the extra man, but a crowd is not a player. Am I worried that Manchester City have just seen off both Liverpool and Arsenal, and a loss this weekend could see Brentford overtake us in the race for a European spot? No, because if you believe you have no limit then the future is limitless, even if the limit is six wins at home this season to date. And Enzo Ferandez's suspension for looking at Madrid and returning to the captaincy isn't something I've thought about, even though thoughts about whether this is a wise idea can take many forms. Ultimately, I just respect the ball.” Thanks for that, LinkedIn's Liam Rosenior. City win then. GA

Serie A: Como v Inter

19.45 on TNT Sports 1, HBOMax and DAZN
The failure of Italy to qualify for yet another World Cup has people once again asking what is wrong with Italian football right now. It’s a confusing picture, in many ways winning Euro 2020 is starting to look more like an aberration akin to Greece’s success in 2004, but Italy still ranks second in the table of club coefficients in Europe ahead of Spain and Germany. But crumbling stadia and a reputation for becoming a retirement league are causing concerns about the immediate future. Como have a emerged as the latest side to use this instability to their advantage. Bought in 2021 by the Hartono dynasty, the richest family in Indonesia, for less than €1million, they have been the success story of recent seasons. Of course it’s all about the huge sums being invested but in truth the money spent to lift a side from Serie C to edge of the Champions League in four seasons is less than what Manchester City have spent on transfers in just the last nine months. Bank-rolled success will always draw criticism, for Como this includes the valid concern that they have barely any home-grown players. They have just two Italians in their first team squad: centre-back Edouardo Goldaniga who has managed just 15 minutes on the field all season and back-up goalkeeper Mauro Vigorito who’s not seen game time for three years. Cesc Fabregas’s side currently sit in the fourth Champions League place looking for a result here to maintain that position ahead of Roma, Atalanta and Juventus. Table-leaders Inter, have a favourable run-in; after this they face no one currently higher than ninth in the table, so defeat here wouldn’t be much more than an inconvenience on their way to the Scudetto. Hopefully there will be more action in this game than there was when the two sides ground out a goalless draw here last month in the first leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final, where they Inter failed to register a shot on target (the return leg at the San Siro is the week after next). GS


Whatever you watch, have a great weekend.

Graham, Terry, Jan and Gary