Hi folks, hope you've had a good week, I'm looking forward to the weekend's games and am going to watch Blues play at home to Ipswich in the Championship, who are bottom of the table and have just sacked their manager. Knowing Blues, we might be able to sneak a draw.
We've got the same players as last week: Rami, owner of football blog 'foot and ball', and he won by 3 points last time. Also, sending in her predictions again, is Del, who came last the week before but correctly predicted the Chelsea-Man U game.
The competitions is on, lets go to the games...
The competitions is on, lets go to the games...
Man Utd vs. Arsenal
An
intriguing, and no-doubt heated clash, will see the team with the best ‘goals
scored’ record in the Premiership play that with the best ‘goals against’. How
Arsenal seem to have solidified under Steve Bould’s new assistant role, that crazy Reading game in midweek aside,
makes me think this won’t be a repeat of this fixture last season, when United
hammered the Gunners 8-2. Having said that, Wenger's side haven’t exactly been producing confident
performances of late; they went down to a shock defeat at Norwich, badly lost
at home to German outfit Schalke, and it took them a red card and a scrappy
late goal from Arteta to see off bottom-of-the-table QPR last week. With United on a high after
getting a late winner of their own against Chelsea, and the attention slightly off
Arsenal old-boy RVP who’s scored his first few goals for his new club now, I
think the Red Devils will win this. 2-0, and van Persie to get one of the
goals with hopefully a modest celebration.
Del says: "After their 7 goal triumph in the football league cup I can see Arsenal more than holding their own at Old Trafford. The red devils had better watch out!" 2-3
Rami says: 2-1
Fulham vs. Everton
The
fact that Fulham have picked up as many points at home this season as
Manchester United tells you that this will be a difficult game for Everton,
but it’s one they should be looking to win if they want to beat either Arsenal
or Tottenham to a European spot. Fulham could be potentially looking at European football
next season themselves had they managed to hold on to away wins at Southampton
and Reading- with an extra 4 points they would actually currently occupy 4th
spot, but it seems like it’ll be their home form that they will solely rely on this
season, which I don’t think will be quite enough for them to get into the
Europa League, and I think Everton might miss out as well. 1-1.
Del says: 1-3
Rami says: 2-2
Norwich vs. Stoke
Chances will be at a premium in this game. Both of these teams established themselves in the Premier League last season because of their team spirit and competitive edge, which has made up for their lack of obvious technical talent. With both being such hardworking sides, I don't think there'll be much space for the attacking players to really show us what they can do, I'm predicting a game of few, if any goals. Because Norwich seem to be on a run of form, good performances against Arsenal and Villa, I'm going to say they can clinch a hard-fought victory. 1-0, Holt to score.
Del says: 0-1
Rami says: 2-1
Sunderland vs. Aston Villa
Both
O’Neill and Lambert opted to field practically their first team in the Carling
Cup in midweek, which seemed to me like a dubious decision- how can they expect
to keep players fresh and the other 14 players in the 25-man squad happy if
they do that? For that reason, I think there could be an element of lethargy in
these teams’ play on Saturday, so I’m seeing a bore draw. Sunderland do seem to
have problems scoring goals at the moment, only 6 of them from 8 Premiership
games isn't a good return and if the Villains can keep Steven Fletcher quiet on
Saturday I would argue they can keep a clean sheet. However, the Villa have got
goalscoring problems of their own- Darren Bent is probably somewhere within the
top 10/15 strikers in the Premiership and I just can't understand why Lambert
doesn't play him, and if it's for confrontational reasons, well then you've got
to question his handling of Bent from the outset. A goalless draw feels the
most likely outcome.
Del says: 1-0
Rami says: 1-0
Swansea vs. Chelsea
I’d
be inclined to say there’s a goal in this game for the Swans. Chelsea will be
without a number of important players for this match and could suffer from
fatigue having been involved in back-to-back dramatic clashes with Manchester
United over the past week, the Carling Cup game going to extra time, so
Swansea, having just knocked Liverpool out of the cup, might just fancy themselves a
bit. I think this game is a big opportunity for the likes of Sturridge and
Marko Marin (if Mata is given a rest) to come in and prove their worth to the
team; with Chelsea oozing quality in the attacking midfield and wide areas I
can’t see them missing the Spanish number 9 as much as some might suggest. 1-3.
Del says: 1-3
Rami says: 1-3
Tottenham vs. Wigan
Jermain
Defoe will have happy memories of playing against Wigan- his five goals back in
November 2009 helped Spurs to a remarkable 9-1 win in which he equalled Alan
Shearer and Andy Cole’s record for most number of goals a player has scored in
a Premiership match (5). He is a deadly finisher; if you give him the ball in
the box he will score goals, it’s as simple as that. Tottenham will have been
knocked off their, rather comfy, perch by conceding two late goals to the
Canaries in midweek and crashing out of the Carling Cup but if anything that
competition can prove to become more a distraction in the long-term. Wigan had a cup
nightmare of their own losing on penalties to Bradford, albeit with a second
string side, but this match was always going to be the priority. I think Wigan
will turn up and play some decent football at White Hart Lane, like they did
against West Ham, and I have a feeling they might score the opening goal but
Tottenham ought to win this eventually. 2-1, and I can see another goal for Defoe
to add to his proud collection.
Del says: 3-0
Rami says: 2-0
West Ham vs. Man City
I
definitely see this as a potential banana-skin game for Man City. They did look
sluggish in the match against Swansea last week, albeit having just come back
from Holland, but I expected them to put in a strong performance to make up for
that defeat and they didn’t. It does make me think the players don’t seem to
have that dying allegiance to Mancini, like the Chelsea team did when they won the title under Mourinho
a few years ago, they just don’t look fully committed to the cause. For West Ham, I’m
sure Allardyce will let the players know in no uncertain terms that the performance
at Wigan last week wasn’t really good enough, and the Hammers being the
home team here I think they can bounce back from that to pick up a point. 1-1.
Rami says: 0-1
QPR vs. Reading
I think it'll be QPR who get their first win of the season in this game. They defended reasonably well at Arsenal, although the Gunners
had the majority of the play, and showed encouraging signs in getting a draw
the week before against Everton, who were 4th at the time. To be
fair to them, they’ve had a tougher opening quarter of the season than the
average team but they should still have had their first win by now. This will be a
must-win for Hughes. As for Reading, it's a crucial game for them as well but their preparation for this match has hardly been ideal; they
might still be in a state of shellshock having thrown away a 4-0 lead to lose
to Arsenal in the cup midweek, and some players playing 120 minutes in that
game won’t have done their fitness and mental planning for this match any
favours. For that reason, I’m going to go with QPR, 3-1.
Del says: 1-1
Rami says: 2-0
Liverpool vs. Newcastle
Liverpool
haven’t exactly got a reliable home record, they draw more games than they win
at Anfield which is a recurring problem they haven’t stamped out since last season, and
that’s what you’ve got to have, home consistency, if you want a place in Europe.
Despite their defeat in midweek to Rodger’s old club Swansea, going out of the
cup could be a blessing in disguise because they’ve not got the biggest squad,
and the tiki-taka man will want to prioritise getting their league form right before anything else.
For Newcastle, they are yet to win an away game this season but you’ve always
got a chance of scoring goals with a player like Demba Ba in your team, he's so sharp, so I
think they will get a draw, which they’ll be reasonably pleased with. 1-1.
Del says: 2-0
Rami says: 2-1
West Brom vs. Southampton
Despite
an 11-place difference between the teams in the table, Southampton have
actually scored more goals than West Brom this season, and are the joint-highest scorers with Swansea in the bottom half of the table. This for me, epitomises
my dilemma in predicting who will go down: Norwich are ticking now under Chris
Hughton, QPR have got so much money either Hughes will turn it around or
someone will replace him, Reading do look capable of scoring goals and might have
some money in the kitty themselves, West Ham and Baggies have started very
well, Villa seem like too big a club to go down and Martinez has got Wigan
playing with a lot of confidence. Might do an article on this later, because I
think it’s a very difficult one to call. I just think Southampton, if they can
address their problems at the back, and Adkins has showed such defiancy in
recent interviews, I have a feeling they can do it as well. But of course ultimately there will be three teams who go down, it's dog-eat-dog. I’m struggling to
see West Brom getting sucked into the relegation mixer with performances like
they put in at Newcastle last week, might go for another 1-1 draw to finish off
with.
Del says: 3-1
Rami says: 1-1
And that's all for now. Good luck if your team is playing this weekend, I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about the Blues game. You've got to think a win is on the cards, but only Birmingham City could possibly play at home to the league's bottom side who have just sacked their manager, and lose the game. Having said that, we impressively won at Leeds last week and by all accounts we're defending slightly better- couldn't get to that game- so we shall see. I don't like to tempt fate, but I'll, rather pointlessly, throw my hat into the ring and say 2-0 to Blues for that game.
See you soon.
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