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Jenson Button may have just dethroned Lewis Hamilton as the F1 World Champion but the real British sporting duels come into view this weekend. There’s football, American football and probably a bunch of other stuff I just don’t have time to write about.

Liverpool v Man United

Crisis? Defeat against their fiercest foes would leave Benitez’ boys 10 big points away from United and consign them to their fifth straight defeat. Since mauling Hull 6-1 at the end of last month, Pool have scored only once and seen their domestic and European prospects slip; one more loss and they will have suffered their worst run for 56 years and will officially be playing for fourth.

The team and it’s managers future appear inextricably tied to their two star players. The loss of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres has exposed the sides lack of attacking options but the pair were both absent when Liverpool defeated United at Anfield in the same fixture last year. Both are doubtful for the game.

The Red Devils could also be without their talismanic forward – Wayne Rooney is struggling with a calf injury – but in Michael Owen and the resurgent Dimitar Berbatov, United have capable alternatives. Man U enter on an 11-match unbeaten run and lead the league.

In the league’s most aggravated game form matters little and, despite United’s strong record at Anfield since the Premier League’s inception and Liverpool’s current plight, the home team win this game 2-1.

West Ham v Arsenal

The Hammers have still yet to win at home in front of their bubble-blowing faithfuls and find themselves in the bottom three. They were slow to start under Zola a year ago and have a squad stacked with England hopefuls (Upson, Cole, Parker, Green, Ashton), England U-21 talent (Hines, Stanislas, Noble, Tomkins) and enigmatic foreign players (far too many to name) but have not won since the opening day.

While West Ham have quietly slipped into the relegation zone, the Gunners have quietly mounted a title challenge; they trail United by four points with a game in hand and have won their last four on the bounce. The returning Tomas Rosicky, the impudent Andrei Arshavin and the imperious Cesc Fabregas form a dazzling creative pivot behind Robin Van Persie – arguably the most technically gifted footballer in the country (if you don’t believe me watch his strike against Birmingham last week or rewind to his volley against Charlton a couple of years ago) – and have made Arsenal the league’s top scorers by a distance.

Arsenal continue to surge, West Ham continue to suffer. The Gunners win 3-1.

NFL: New England Patriots v Tampa Bay Buccaneers

It’s back; the game of power, intensity, drama and cheerleaders returns to these shores as part of the NFL’s International Series and explodes onto British TV screens on Sunday afternoon. The game features three-time Superbowl winners and all-decade team the New England Patriots and one-time champions but currently bottom-feeding Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Glazers other sports pet.

The Patriots epoch seemed destined to end with Bernard Pollard’s ill-timed tackle on superstar and snappy-dressed QB Tom Brady – husband of supermodel Gisele Bundchen – in the opening game of the 2008 season, causing their star player to miss the entire year and the team to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2002 (despite the emergence of Matt Cassel and an 11-5 record). Brady ruptured his ACL and, until last week’s 59-0 demolition of the Titans, still looked troubled and slowed by the injury but has driven the Pats to a 4-2 record and the lead in the AFC East.

Life for the Bucs and first-time NFL Head Coach Raheem Morris has been much more challenging; a lack of identity on offence and talent on defence have seen them yet to win a game and look well out of their depth. They recently traded former 1^st round pick Gaines Adams to the Bears for a 2^nd round draft choice as they look to rebuild for the future and have their most recent top draft selection, QB Josh Freeman, waiting in the wings.

New England win in England as Brady and co. are relatively untested. 28-7.

It’s almost as if the goons at FIFA knew the footballing calendar would spurt out the bothersome distraction of World Cup Qualifying fixtures in light of the raging winds of disciplinary judgements handed out this week to English clubs. One former Milan coach has his hands tied at Stamford Bridge but another has the freedom of Wembley stadium to experiment and prepare.

England v Slovenia

England play Croatia in midweek with a victory securing them a place at the World Cup in South Africa next summer. The fodder for their tactical and personnel research comes in the form of Slovenia, themselves vying for a spot at the big show with Poland their opponents on Wednesday night. Friendlies are notoriously difficult to predict due to their commonly disheartening combination of substitutions and player apathy alleviating any real competitiveness from the fixture. But this isn’t Eriksson or McClaren’s team anymore and under Capello England have been strong at home and have suffered defeat only in France and Spain.

The biggest threat to the national team’s positive preparation will likely come in the form of forward Millivoje Novakovic, a regular scorer since his debut three years ago, Robert Koren, of West Brom ‘fame’ and maybe also Rene Krhin, a young, uncapped playmaker plying his trade for Inter Milan. England are struggling for bodies at centre-half and have a decision to make in goal with David James out of the squad; the opportunity is there for Robert Green to become the side’s no.1 for the foreseeable future.

England should not be to heavily troubled by a side over 40 places below them in the FIFA rankings and beat neighbours and group 3 rivals Slovakia 4-0 back in March. England to cruise to a 2-0 win.

Scotland v Macedonia

In the slightly more meaningful division of the weekend’s games, Scotland host upstarts Macedonia in a crucial group 9 fixture that will probably determine whether they follow the current trend of Scottish football teams (despairingly bad and forced to whine about referees to divert attention from it) or get the chance to get beaten in the playoffs for World Cup in a couple of months. Needless to say, I’m not buying what George Burley is selling.

The Scots have 7 points from 6 games, one more than Norway and behind Macedonia on goal difference with the pair of adversaries due to meet in the final round of games on Wednesday. Scotland play the Dutch at Hampden Park that night. See, not a lot to like there.

In reality it seems Burley’s boys will have to beat Macedonia to have a chance of securing second place but, with goals hard to come by (just 4 so far in their 6 games) and a defeat in the first fixture between the two last year, it’s hard to be overly optimistic. Scotland’s core players, the likes of James McFadden, Darren Fletcher and the returning David Weir, will have to shoulder the responsibility and lift the crowd but in this depreciating pundit’s opinion, a disappointing 1-1 draw barely keeps their hopes slimly swimming above water for a few days.

By they way, has there been a world-class player in the Scottish ranks since the eighties?

Poland v Northern Ireland

Although Ireland are also in action on Saturday, it’s their northern counterparts that take the limelight this weekend. Successive victories over San Marino, Poland and Slovenia this year have propelled Nigel Worthington’s team to second in their group and within touching distance of their first finals since 1986.

Northern Ireland have to travel to Poland this weekend and, with games against Slovakia and the Czech Republic looming, need a good result to have any chance of automatic qualification. The Irish were the better team when they beat Poland at Windsor Park but the Poles are extremely tough at home (unbeaten in a competitive fixture sine 2006, Northern Ireland have only beaten Liechtenstein and San Marino away from Windsor Park in that same period) and will be favourites.

David Healy, so often the hero, can now look to team mates Kyle Lafferty and Martin Paterson for support however it’s the defence that will need to be the key performers if they are to resist a prolific Polish attack (they scored 10 in their last qualifier) and keep the African dream alive. Northern Ireland to be spirited but Poland to edge it 1-0.

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