Big Midweek: Newcastle v Barca, Arteta, Mamardashvili, Chelsea, Tudor, Manchester City | OneFootball

Newcastle face ‘the biggest game’ in their history, Mikel Arteta can take another scalp and Giorgi Mamardashvili has another opportunity.

The Champions League knock-out stages also throws up Chelsea versus the holders, and the latest instalment of Real Madrid v Manchester City.

But perhaps the most compelling battle of all will be Igor Tudor v Spurs.

Game to watch – Newcastle v Barcelona

It’s Bodo/Glimt v Sporting really, but Anglocentrism and Premier League insularity dictates that one of the physical, brutish teams of set-piece obsessed cloggers are given an overdue spotlight as the Champions League shifts into a different gear.

And among some bountiful options it feels as though Newcastle v Barcelona stands out.

Eddie Howe – even if a little performatively – believes it to be “the biggest game in this club’s history”. He rather vaguely added that it is “an opportunity to grab a moment we may never get again” in a delightful slice of the platitudinal pinnacle he will reach in his inspirational dressing-room speeches.

It is the third time Newcastle have faced Barcelona this season, but the first step the Magpies have ever taken into the proper knock-out stages of club football’s foremost competition. And another chance to invoke the name of Faustino Asprilla.

But fundamentally it is a tie against one of the biggest club’s in Europe, and represents the last bit of tangible progress and pride Newcastle can extract from a largely aimless, disappointing season.

They still have a Tyne-Wear derby and Premier League fixtures against Chelsea and Arsenal to come, but mid-table entrenchment and elimination in both domestic cups at the hands of Manchester City does mean Newcastle’s last modicum of jeopardy and intrigue is contained within this Barcelona double-header.

The combination of opponent and occasion should provoke the sort of belligerent counter-attacking underdogs at home performance Newcastle once specialised in. If the Magpies cannot get themselves up for this either then serious questions will be asked.

Manager to watch – Mikel Arteta

The path to the Quadruple has opened up further, with Arsenal drawn against one of the two remaining non-Premier League sides in the FA Cup as they prepare to face a team in indifferent Bundesliga form.

Bayer Leverkusen were professional in overcoming an Arsenal banana skin of old in Olympiacos to reach this stage, but a team which was ruthlessly plundered last season is still finding its feet under Kasper Hjulmand.

The sixth-best side in Germany should not cause too much discomfort to the competition favourites who have won every game in the tournament thus far and finally displayed their knock-out pedigree last season.

And for Arteta on a personal level, the scalp of Leverkusen in particular is one he has needed to add to his collection for some time. One of the strongest sides Arsenal have yet to face under the Spaniard await.

Player to watch – Giorgi Mamardashvili

“My time will come for sure. Maybe not this year but my time will come,” Mamardashvili said of his need to “find balance between ambition and patience” in his first season at Liverpool.

A matter of hours after those quotes were made public, an injury to Alisson granted the Liverpool back-up his “time” in remarkably similar circumstances to his first proper run of games under Arne Slot.

Mamardashvili benefited from the unique injury proneness of Alisson earlier in the campaign, replacing the Brazilian during the defeat to Galatasaray in September and starting eight of the next nine Premier and Champions League games, in which Liverpool lost five times and conceded 15 goals.

It was a harsh reflection of Mamardashvili’s credentials, a record more reflective of a period of general struggle for the team rather than a difficult transition for one player.

And all Mamardashvili has been given since to rinse out the bad taste of a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City followed by a 4-1 thrashing by PSV in November is 90 minutes of an FA Cup tie against Barnsley.

The decision not to play the Georgian in the fifth-round win over Wolves perhaps contributed to Alisson’s latest setback, and means Liverpool will be leaning on a keeper who hasn’t played in 57 days when his “time” comes on what the club hope will be a more fruitful visit to Istanbul than their last.

Team to watch – Chelsea

Liam Rosenior and Chelsea still feel like a bit of a curious, entirely doomed match, but they do have one thing in common: a victory over the European champions within the last year.

The circumstances were slightly different. PSG made wholesale changes to the side Strasbourg beat in May, with Luis Enrique preparing for a Champions League final the Parisiens would win comfortably, thus confirming their place at the Club World Cup.

PSG quite astutely avoided a trophy lift with Donald Trump at that tournament, instead bestowing that honour upon a Chelsea side which had thrashed them 3-0.

There is little point reading too much into that meeting. PSG still look really quite unconvincing and are only a point clear at the top of Ligue Un, but last season’s Champions League path also took in a disappointing league phase, knock-out phase play-off win over French opposition and last-16 clash with a Premier League side en route, ultimately, to glory.

Chelsea are under completely new management and taking games against Arsenal out of the equation, Rosenior is unbeaten in 12 since taking over. But Arsenal are easily the closest calibre of opponent to PSG that Rosenior has faced as Chelsea manager so it might be a bit silly to strike those matches from the record completely.

After drawing Port Vale in the FA Cup as an essentially internal mid-season appointment, there is something of the Roberto Di Matteos about this all. A Champions League, FA Cup, sixth-placed Treble is surely being cooked up.

One-on-one battle to watch – Igor Tudor v Spurs

A former Big Midweek/Weekend staple section revived for one edition only, thanks to six Premier League teams selfishly making it to the Champions League knock-out stages.

It sounds like a distraction Tudor would rather not have to deal with, “something extra” with top-flight survival understandably the club’s “first aim”.

But Spurs and their miracle worker manager will be in for a shock if they rock up to the Metropolitano Stadium at anything other than 100 per cent of their capacity. The kindest of all Champions League routes has taken a turn into Cojonesville and a meeting with Diego Simeone.

It will at least be nice for Cristian Romero to get used to his new home before being sold for £2m in a panicked Championship fire-sale.

Déjà vu to watch – Real Madrid v Manchester City

In each of the last five seasons – and six of the last seven – Real Madrid have faced Manchester City.

With the two legs of this tie included, it will be the third most-played fixture in European Cup history at 17 matches, behind only Real Madrid v Juventus (22 times) and Real Madrid v Bayern Munich (28 times).

Manchester City have met Real in the group stage, league phase, knock-out play-offs, last 16, quarter final and semi final since their first game in 2013.

“A little bit weird” was Pep Guardiola’s reaction to drawing a familiar foe. That is the diplomatic equivalent to calling it tiresome.

Football League game to watch – Wrexham v Hull

With their fairy-tale FA Cup run from the third round to the fifth finally ended by Chelsea, it is back to business for Wrexham and their charge for yet another promotion.

They return to the boring basics of the Championship with a game against Hull, who are one place and three points higher having played a game more.

It should be a transformative midweek schedule, with Millwall in third also hoping to close the gap to the automatics when they host Derby, who are a place and three points below those brave Wrexham boys.