The international break is here - and it's the last chance for Premier League teams to regroup before the crucial run-in.
Things are still up in the air for the majority of clubs with around a quarter of the season remaining. Arsenal and Manchester City are battling for the title, Liverpool are fighting to keep their top four hopes alive and a whopping NINE teams are at risk of the drop.
There's one club ( Crystal Palace ) on the lookout for a new manager after sacking Patrick Vieira, another ( Tottenham ) with a big decision to make after Antonio Conte's outburst and others in desperate need of improvements on the training ground before they return to action.
With that in mind, we asked our Mirror Football writers a simple question - which Premier League club is facing the most important international break and why?
Neil Moxley - Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace - dropping like a stone and managerless.
In a nutshell, that's it. They need to re-group, re-appoint Roy Hodgson and return revitalised.
A lot of the teams below them have recognised they're in a scrap. The Eagles have been sleepwalking towards it.
Everton have acted in appointing Sean Dyche , Leeds finally admitted the inevitable and sacked Jesse Marsch, Wolves went for ex-Real Madrid manager Julen Lopetegui...the list goes on.
Palace are four points better off than Southampton with ten games left. If they don't do something sensible to arrest the slide - and quickly - they're going to be bang in trouble.
Darren Lewis - Arsenal
Yes, they have a terrific squad but the last thing they need over the next fortnight is injuries to any key players. Especially after Gabriel Jesus injured himself away in Qatar at the World Cup.
Mikel Arteta and his men are on the verge of something massive. They will not want their squad for the title run-in hurt by this international break.
Andy Dunn - Crystal Palace
After their slightly odd decision to sack Patrick Vieira before a return to his old stomping ground that might have inspired him and before a run of fixtures mainly against teams in the bottom half of the table, this is a crucial international break for Crystal Palace.
They need to bring in the successor to Vieira very soon - whether it be an interim appointment or permanent one - and he needs to come up with some sort of masterplan to produce goals. Simple as that.
Five goals in their last 12 Premier League games is pitiful but here are the current positions of the sides Palace have to face between now and the end of the season: 17th, 14th, 20th, 15th, 13th, 18th, fourth, 19th, ninth, 16th.
Work for the new guy cannot start quickly enough. There were signs against Arsenal that there is a serious goal threat in this Palace squad and if the next manager can somehow unlock it, the Eagles will stay up.
Felix Keith - Tottenham
Looking at the Premier League table, you might not know that Tottenham are in meltdown.
Spurs are in fourth place, two points above Newcastle – albeit with their rivals having two games in hand. But the table does not begin to tell the story.
Antonio Conte’s remarkable meltdown in the press room at St Mary’s Stadium on Saturday saw everything that had been bubbling under the surface for months thrown out into the open in a stark manner.
Conte bemoaned his players’ lack of fight, excused them of seeking excuses, fired shots at the club’s hierarchy over their conservative transfer policy (his favourite gripe) and even aimed a dig at the lack of trophies over the past 20 years. It can be argued that he has a point, but the nature of the rant was unacceptable.
The truth is that Daniel Levy has allowed such a situation to develop. He didn’t concede a 93rd-minute penalty to the league’s bottom side, but he did allow the Spurs ship to drift towards the rocks with a disinterested, disengaged £15million-a-year manager at the wheel.
Conte is out of contract at the end of June and is clearly fed up with the job. He has flown back to Italy and is essentially daring the Spurs chairman to act.
Tottenham crashed out of the FA Cup and Champions League in pathetic fashion and are currently rudderless. Levy needs to act with decisiveness ahead of a summer in which they face the possibility of losing Harry Kane.
A certain Mauricio Pochettino is unemployed, Daniel, maybe you could give him a call?
James Nursey - Leicester City
Brendan Rodgers told the press last week he intends to use the international break to “reset” Leicester for their remaining games as they battle to survive.
Rodgers acknowledged the 2015-16 champions have had a tough season after failing to sign a single new outfield player last summer.
They now languish just a point above the drop zone and relegation could potentially trash the reputation of both the club’s Thai owners and ex-Liverpool and Celtic coach, who some fans want out.
A point at Brentford on Saturday stopped the rot but the Foxes still have a huge amount of work to survive.
Rodgers is bedding in a new keeper after Daniel Iversen came in to replace the under fire Danny Ward at the Bees.
He also has to finally settle on a striker to fire the club to safety after none of Patson Daka, Kelechi Iheanacho or Jamie Vardy have managed to consistently hold down the role and net.
Daniel Orme - Arsenal
It seems slightly obvious to pick the current favourites for the Premier League crown, but such is the clamour for a first Premier League title in 20 years, Mikel Arteta will certainly want to use his time wisely over the next fortnight. The break has arguably come at the right time for the Gunners’ too.
The two-week break allows Gabriel Jesus to work even more on his fitness following a couple of brief league cameos over recent weeks - the striker having not been named in Brazil’s squad for the March internationals. It also allows the likes of William Saliba and Eddie Nketiah to continue their respective recoveries from a back and foot injury respectively.
The three being back and firing ahead of the run-in would certainly be a big boost for Arsenal, particularly with testing fixtures to come. They are set to take on Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea over the next month - all games that could be key to their title hopes.
Mike Walters - Crystal Palace
Surely, after 10 years in the Premier League, Palace are not going to sack Patrick Vieira and gamble a decade of stability on 75-year-old Roy Hodgson... are they?
No offence to Hodgson, who saved the Eagles from the drop in 2017-18 and kept them above the floodwaters lapping at the gates of Selhurst Park for another three seasons.
But sometimes, time catches up with the methods which have served a manager well, and after 40 years of unblemished service in the dugout, Old Father Time didn't just tap Hodgson on the shoulder last season: He gave the former England coach a smack in the chops.
Unwisely, as we can say with hindsight, he agreed to come out of retirement to try and save Watford from relegation 14 months ago. Of his 18 games, he won two, drew three and came runner-up in the rest.
On the day Watford were relegated - by a contentious penalty at Selhurst - he outraged the visiting fans by ignoring them and waving merrily to his old Palace flock on the walk along the touchline afterwards, a dreadful PR own goal to go with all those defeats.
Significantly, there are serious misgivings among Palace fans now about Hodgson making an encore for the last 10 games of the campaign. Chairman Steve Parish and his American co-owners have a critical decision to make - and if Hodgson is the answer, then it was a trick question.
Simon Bird - Newcastle
Why? They are fifth, everything looks positive, and the players are enjoying some light training and down time in Dubai. When they return after the break, they face top four rivals Manchester United.
The next 12 games represent a chance to turbo-charge their relaunch and reach the Champions League, at a stroke increasing income by £3-40m if they win games and reach the last 16.
Top four will open up a new market of elite players for the Saudi funded club to lure, including free transfers. A finishing total of 70 points if often enough. The Toon are on 47. Seven wins, and a couple of draws required in one last big push for the big time.
Nathan Ridley - Liverpool
There are two obvious answers here, Tottenham and Crystal Palace, so I'll go for a more left-field choice: Liverpool.
Amid 17 days without a game before their crunch clash with former title rivals Manchester City, plenty of Reds players have ample time to refresh and gain some much-needed confidence while representing their countries. Others can focus on getting back to full fitness, knowing that they've got 12 fixtures to make up at least seven points in the race for Champions League football.
Off the pitch, Jurgen Klopp and the Anfield hierarchy know better than anyone that a successful summer transfer window means putting the foundations in place months before, and this one is their biggest in years. A midfield overhaul - which fans hope is based around the mega-money signing of Jude Bellingham - is being hotly-anticipated and could form the basis of Klopp's next great team to drive Liverpool back to the top of world football.
Get it wrong, though, and the Reds might have to go the long way around.
Alan Smith - West Ham
The table suggests this could be the most thrilling relegation battle in Premier League history as nine teams enter April with genuine fears of the drop.
Yet for a West Ham team that had so much investment last summer to fall from a European place to relegation would have been unthinkable when the season began and is still difficult to get your head around now.
They have had injury problems, many of the new signings have failed to impress and manager David Moyes has appeared to enter the last chance saloon three times since the turn of the year.
The Hammers have a winnable Europa Conference League quarter-final to come and their home form has not been awful but they must improve quickly on the road or risk becoming the first club to win a continental title and be relegated in the same season.
Tom Blow - Leicester City
With a minimum of 10 Premier League games remaining, it's time for club chiefs to decide whether to stick or twist in the managerial department.
Looking at the table, there are a number of managers who could get the chop.
Antonio Conte seems certain to leave Tottenham when his contract expires at the end of the season and an agreement could be reached as early as this week after his post-Southampton rant. West Ham remain in the relegation zone - maintaining their blind faith in David Moyes - while Steve Cooper's Nottingham Forest are sitting above the parapet. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if any of those managers received a P45 before the next round of fixtures.
Yet the biggest decision will be at Leicester, where Brendan Rodgers is still struggling to get a tune out of the Foxes. Their 1-1 draw at Brentford on Saturday means it's now no wins in five for Leicester, who were also dumped out of the FA Cup by Championship side Blackburn. That leaves them one point and one place above the relegation zone, with West Ham boasting a game in hand.
There is a genuine possibility that Leicester - a team who won the title in 2015/16 and were pushing for Champions League qualification just two years ago - could go down. That would cap off a remarkable decline for the East Midlands club.
Whether it's now or in the summer, the writing seems on the wall for a frustrated Rodgers. Leicester's board have not backed the impressive coach in the transfer market. They may decide to cut their losses now and bring in a firefighter until the end of the season.
According to the bookies, Conte will be the next Premier League manager to get the sack. Yet my money is on Rodgers. It's time for a change at the King Power.
Rich Jones - Wolves
Make no mistake, Wolves are still right in the relegation scrap after missing a golden opportunity for some breathing space against Leeds at the weekend.
Every time Julen Lopetegui's side look like climbing out of it, they seem to lose to a relegation rival and get sucked back in. Worryingly, they were carved open with ease against Leeds whilst, again, struggling to put their chances away at the other end.
After some controversial VAR calls in recent weeks, and a number of apologies by Howard Webb, there is a real sense at Molineux that the world is against them. However, that needs to be channelled by the players into better performances rather than losing their composure as they have done too often in recent weeks.
The search for more goals has only led to a leakier defence - that needs to be tightened up over the next two weeks if Wolves are to fend off the others and keep their spot in the top flight.
Sam Meade - Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace need to do some serious soul searching over the coming weeks - and that is before they appoint a new manager having sacked Patrick Vieira.
The Frenchman had overseen a run of 11 games without a win and that was extended to 12 when they were hammered at Arsenal on Sunday. The Eagles have long been a side that existed in the Premier League, but never seemed to particularly do much.
They may see top flight status as an achievement in itself, but that status is now very much under threat. So often, in the final months of a season, a team gets dragged into the relegation scrap and the London outfit are just three points above the bottom three despite sitting in 12th.
Palace can hardly buy a goal at the minute and that, as well as their current form, is a recipe for disaster.
Freddie Keighley - Leicester City
Cases could be made for top-four hunting Liverpool and managerless Crystal Palace, but this international break will be most important for dismally out-of-form Leicester.
It's hard to imagine the Foxes clinching the Community Shield and reaching a European semi-final last season in light of how much they have lost their way. A 1-1 draw at Brentford on Saturday put an end to a run of four defeats in the Premier League, leaving Brendan Rodgers' side teetering one point above the relegation zone.
Admittedly, three of those results came against Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea, but the other was a chastening 1-0 loss at Southampton. Rodgers needs to turn things around fast and has two attractive-looking games on paper to kick off March, against Palace and Aston Villa.
A glance at the table suggests this season's relegation battle will be one of the most fierce witnessed in recent years, with only four points separating 12th from 20th. Leicester must come surging out of the blocks in March to ensure they avoid the drop.
Jennifer Brown - Tottenham
Antonio Conte is a canny operator and has been here before - a few times. The Tottenham boss' explosive rant following a late draw with bottom of the league Southampton was timed to perfection. He is in effect, forcing Daniel Levy's hand - and a payout rather than see out his contract and just simply part ways this summer.
Conte doesn't want to be there - he's made that crystal clear. The 'selfish' players don't want him there. Tottenham fans have never wanted him a their club. The Italian has gift wrapped a perfect excuse and moment for the board to cut their losses and bring in an interim coach before things turn ugly in the stands. This international break allows a bit of breathing room for someone to work with the players before the run-in and ensure Tottenham keep their European place for next season.
