It looks like things are either going to be black or white at Newcastle on Sunday: either the home team are going to be demolished by Liverpool’s suddenly devastating road machine, or Steve McClaren’s side will show hitherto unseen solidity and shut out Jürgen Klopp’s troops. The prospects of the latter happening were not helped by Mike Williamson suffering a hamstring injury after being recalled from loan at Wolves but if the 32-year-old recovers in time, he will likely thrust straight into a rejigged rearguard featuring three central defenders as McClaren searches for a solution to his team’s flakiness. PD  • McClaren wants time to restore Newcastle’s confidence• Why McClaren’s Newcastle are definitely not too good to go down• McClaren defiant but Crystal Palace expose size of Newcastle’s task  What we could have here, people, is an authentic dance-off. David Silva, on the back of dismantling Hull in midweek, will likely make his first league start for nearly two months, hooking up with Kevin De Bruyne from the start for only the fourth time. Stoke also enjoyed a satisfying victory in the week: Ryan Shawcross served his suspension as his team-mates sashayed to victory over Sheffield Wednesday, with Ibrahim Afellay producing a dazzling performance. There must now be a real temptation to unleash Afellay, Xherdan Shaqiri, Marko Arnautovic and Bojan Krkic from the start on Saturday, the footballing equivalent of Mark Hughes slipping into his disco pants. What a sight this match could be early on Saturday afternoon. PD  • Bardsley goal helps Stoke past Sheffield Wednesday to reach last four• Manchester City’s Sterling compares De Bruyne to Suárez• China’s plan: first Man City, then hosting and winning the World Cup  Sam Allardyce has lifted Sunderland out of the bottom three with customary robustness, ignoring gripes about style and getting on with the job of staying up. Sunderland are not very good, but they have a manager who has never been relegated from the Premier League. And they have a manager who really likes getting the better of Arsène Wenger. Admittedly, Allardyce has not done that for a long time. He has not beaten Arsenal since May 2010 and he has lost his previous eight matches against Wenger. Yet Arsenal have been depleted by injuries and they could have one eye on Wednesday’s crucial Champions League match against Olympiakos, which they need to win by a two-goal margin to qualify for the last 16. With Arsenal reeling from recent disappointments at Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion, this could be a good time for Sunderland to pay them a visit. JS  • ‘Calmer’ Allardyce embraces relationship with Wenger• Sunderland’s Allardyce uses 3-5-2 system as political football• Arsenal’s Cazorla to miss at least three months with knee injury• Gilberto Silva: why are players staying silent when football is suffering?• Arsenal’s mountain of injuries – could the Gulliver Theory be to blame?  With one win from their past 10 Premier League matches, it is understandable that there are doubts over Garry Monk’s future at Swansea City. Their startlingly miserable run has left them four points above the bottom three and there are bound to be nerves when they host Claudio Ranieri’s buzzing Leicester City side. Swansea are not short of talent. André Ayew, Jefferson Montero, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Jonjo Shelvey are dangerous players, yet the mystery of their situation becomes clearer when you examine Swansea’s goalscoring record. The numbers are deeply worrying for Monk. Swansea scored seven goals in their first four matches this season, drawing 2-2 and 1-1 with Chelsea and Sunderland respectively and beating Newcastle United and Manchester United 2-0 and 2-1 respectively, but they have failed to score in three of their past four matches and have not scored more than two goals in any league match. While they have scored more than one goal on six occasions this season, that has only happened three times in the past 10 matches. They are struggling to create chances and their strikers are not so much misfiring as not even pulling the trigger. Bafétimbi Gomis had four goals after Swansea’s first four matches, but he has not found the back of the net since scoring the winner against Manchester United on 30 August, and a sign of his stuttering confidence came when he passed up a glorious chance against Arsenal in October. When he does shoot, the ball tends to fly into the stands. He was replaced by Éder against Liverpool, but the Portuguese striker has not scored since joining Swansea for £5m in the summer. They really miss Wilfried Bony. JS  • Liverpool and Swansea consider move for goalkeeper Hubert• Leicester’s Vardy makes history to show the pest is the best  West Ham United were already a diminished attacking force without Dimitri Payet, who will not return until February after the ankle injury he suffered in last month’s 1-1 draw with Everton, so losing Diafra Sakho for an extended period was the last thing Slaven Bilic needed. Although Sakho has only scored three league goals this season, his strength, mobility, unselfishness, touch, agility and workrate means he is well suited to playing as a lone striker and he is far more comfortable in the role than Andy Carroll, whose lack of movement reduces West Ham’s fluency and stops them from playing their preferred counterattacking game. Carroll made a fine contribution when he scored the winner against Chelsea, but West Ham have not won since beating the champions on 24 October, and the former Liverpool striker still looks short of sharpness after returning from his knee injury in September. With Enner Valencia also recovering from his ankle injury, West Ham’s only other fit forwards are Mauro Zárate, who manages to combine dangerous finishing with maddening choices in the final third, and Nikica Jelavic, who has been less than convincing. West Ham have won at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City already this season, but their current winless run is likely to be extended at Manchester United. JS  • West Ham’s Sakho sees specialist on Thursday over thigh injury• Zárate makes strong case for special pleasure of a free-kick specialist• Juventus coach Allegri plays down Manchester United links• Warning forVan Gaal: boring style can mean the sack at Man Utd• Manchester United are different but not boring, says Bilic  Almost five years after his previous goal in the Premier League, Junior Stanislas’s double earned Bournemouth a dramatic late point against Everton. It has been a long journey back to the top flight for the winger. Stanislas was a highly rated prospect when he broke into Gianfranco Zola’s West Ham team towards the end of the 2008-09 season and he marked his first start for the club by scoring the opener in a 2-0 win over Sunderland. Yet his early promise faded, West Ham were relegated in 2011 and Stanislas joined Burnley, who were managed by Eddie Howe, and he seemed to have found his level in the Championship. Howe returned to Bournemouth in 2012 and he signed Stanislas at the start of last season. The 26-year-old’s contribution to Bournemouth’s promotion was minimal. He made 13 league appearances, starting only six times and scoring once, and he seemed likely to be a bit-part player this season, until Bournemouth’s injury crisis presented him with an opportunity. Stanislas took it against Everton and it will be interesting to see if he can push on against Chelsea. JS  • Courtois may return against Bournemouth after knee lay-off• Bournemouth’s late point against Everton boosts Howe’s confidence• Chelsea’s Cahill signs a new four-year contract with the club• Football transfer rumours: Costa set for Atlético Madrid return?  If things had panned out as Spurs had wished in the summer, Saido Berahino would be playing for them at the Hawthorns this weekend. Instead, the 22-year-old will likely be on the bench for West Brom – unless Tony Pulis decides that the striker’s desire to impress his one-time suitors could inspire a match-winning performance. The manager did surprisingly bring Stéphane Sessègnon in from the cold to face Sunderland for slightly similar reasons last month and that worked. But Sessègnon was poor in Albion’s dire first half at West Ham last Sunday and although Rickie Lambert was brought on in his place that time, chances are that Pulis will not start with two up front against Spurs, so Berahino looks a more likely starter. Not that Spurs, or anyone else, would pay over £20m to sign Berahino as a right-sided midfielder. Paul Doyle  • Pochettino targets striker signings in January• Tottenham’s Townsend praised by Pochettino amid exit hints• Tottenham are shedding their soft reputation, says Dembélé  Here come Crystal Palace! They love their trips to Merseyside. They have become Liverpool’s bogey team at Anfield, ruining Steven Gerrard’s farewell in May and winning 2-1 there last month, and they have won 3-2 on each of their past two visits to Goodison Park. Everton will be wary of Alan Pardew’s vibrant side, who smashed Newcastle 5-1 at Selhurst Park last weekend, and they will have to take care not to leave themselves vulnerable to the pace of Yannick Bolasie on the break. Although Everton have scored 10 goals in their past two home matches, Palace will provide them with a tougher test than Sunderland and Villa. Palace are seventh and Pardew said beating Newcastle proves they will not be content with hanging around in mid-table. Yet Gerard Deulofeu, Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku are in tremendous form for Everton and Roberto Martínez’s side will overtake Palace with a victory. It could be a cracking match. JS  • Deulofeu excels as Everton ease past Middlesbrough in League Cup  The big question here, of course, is will Southampton suffer an Aston Villa backlash? Someone, surely, is eventually going to end up paying for Villa’s record-breaking ineptitude. Alas, it will probably be Villa, where Rémi Garde may be starting to fear not just relegation but an overall points tally lower than the 11 that Derby County mustered in 2007/08. Adam Traoré’s display last week hinted at improvement but Villa still do not look sharp enough up front to pierce a Southampton defence that will be bolstered by the return of José Fonte. PD  • Koeman falls off Wembley springboard in humiliating fashion  Norwich beat Watford 3-0 home and away in the Championship last season but Watford finished above them and look more comfortable in the Premier League. Alex Neil has not been able to make as many changes as Watford did in the summer, but in recent weeks he has tinkered well with the resources at his disposal and it will be interesting to see how he approaches this weekend’s match on the back of a good draw with Arsenal. He deviated from his normal attack-oriented tactics by prioritising solidity against Arsène Wenger’s team but will he loosen up against Watford, whose defence was unusually shaky last weekend despite their win at Aston Villa? In particular, will Nathan Redmond be restored to the starting line-up? PD  • Watford’s Deeney gloats over ‘better than dream goal’ at Aston Villa• Norwich hold injury-hit Arsenal to draw at Carrow Road
West Ham are looking short in attack, Garry Monk desperately needs Swansea to get in the goals again, and Palace look to continue their good run in Merseyside