Big Games – week commencing April 18

Without the victory over Manchester United this month, Everton really would be in despair. Fortunately they go into their renowned local derby with the city’s red-shirted side with those three valuable points. The match is at Fortress Anfield, so it looks likely that they will be defeated. Not certain, but likely.

Liverpool will play Villarreal three days later in their Champions League semi-final, so may rotate certain players and give squad players a game: James Milner, Naby Keita, Joe Gomez and Kostas Tsimikas are not usual starters and, if they want a league winners’ medal, they need to hit a certain appearance threshold. Young talent like Kaide Gordon and Tyler Morton would relish the chance to play Everton at Anfield.

The Battle of Merseyside is one of four games to take place on Sunday along with Brighton v Southampton, Burnley v Wolves and Chelsea v West Ham. You can find drinks branded with crests of both of the London clubs on this site if you have a look around. Bohemian Brands offers three flavours of vodka and a lovely black crystal gin for supporters of both clubs: Sweet Cherry and Blue Raspberry for Irons fans; Dark Berry and Pineapple for Blues fanatics.

As site visitors can see this week, we ask you to charge your glasses to Arsenal and Manchester United, who meet on Saturday lunchtime. Another Saturday fixture sees Manchester City host Watford at the Etihad. In 2019, City went 5-0 up in 18 minutes and ended up 8-0 winners. The teams contested the 2019 FA Cup final, which was the most one-sided final in history and finished 6-0, with Watford fans waving their flags and enjoying a day out in spite of the heavy defeat.

There are two rounds of Championship fixtures this week: on Easter Monday, Birmingham City go to Blackpool and Millwall host Hull City, while on Saturday the Blues and the Lions play one another. Birmingham are too good to go down and not good enough to challenge for promotion but Millwall – under the stewardship of Gary Rowett, who played for Birmingham between 1998 and 2000 – have an outside chance of reaching the play-offs. Regardless of where they end up in the table, it has been a fine season for the Bermondsey club and a lovely vodka with a Millwall crest upon the bottle will be a perfect way to celebrate 2021/22. There’s one available for Birmingham fans too, should they wish to toast their Championship survival.

In fact, with four games of the season left going into this week, any team from QPR upwards can sneak into the golden lottery. Incidentally, this Saturday the two sides who will probably go up automatically, Bournemouth and Fulham, will play a mock Premier League game.

After the break for the Scottish Cup semi-finals – Hearts beat Hibs and Rangers needed extra time against Celtic to set up a final on May 21 – the final five matchdays in the Scottish Premiership commence with six fixtures which separate the top six and bottom six from the first 33 matchdays. Aberdeen play Livingston, after the latter fell out of the top half of the table with more or less the last kick of their game at Motherwell. The Well welcome Rangers while Celtic travel up to Ross County. The Edinburgh clubs, Hibs and Hearts, respectively travel to St Mirren and Dundee United.

Have a look around the Bohemian Brands site to see drinks dedicated to five SPL clubs.