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| (Courtesy of DavidKenny - Flickr) |
Sunderland v West Brom
One of
many games this weekend that is difficult to predict. West Brom have undoubtedly been on a
fantastic run of late, most recently putting in a winning performance against
Chelsea at the Hawthorns. However, of the 5 games the Baggies have played away
from home this season they have only managed 1 win, which came against Wigan a
fortnight ago who, no disrespect, are not the toughest of opposition. You might
argue that on current form Sunderland are not the toughest of opposition either
and, with only 2 wins from 11 games this campaign you might be right. On the
other hand their latest game was an impressive 3-1 victory away at Fulham,
which is no mean feat at present. Stephen Fletcher’s goal in that game will
have come as a massive relief to Martin O’Neill who had seen his main striker
go 5 league games without a goal before the visit to Craven Cottage. I can see
that win being a bit of a catalyst for the Black Cats and owing to this and the
Baggies less than fantastic away form I’m going to predict a surprise. 2-1
Everton v Norwich
Despite
a superb run of 5 games unbeaten including victories over Arsenal and
Manchester United Chris Hughton’s men are still without a win away from home in
the league so far and will not be looking forward to travelling to Everton who
are unbeaten at home in the league. The
Toffees, who have been performing extremely well this season, dropped out of
the Champions League spots last weekend with a surprise defeat away to Reading.
This is unlikely to do too much to dampen the spirits of a team who will see
themselves as worthy contenders to grab the much-coveted 4th spot
this season as they see the teams around them, such as Arsenal and Tottenham,
struggling to find form. Although they have only won one of their last 6 league
games I see Everton as strong favourites for this one. 2-0
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| Redknapp could be in by tomorrow (Courtesy of Ronnie MacDonald - Flickr) |
Man United v QPR
If there
was one fixture you don’t want to see when you have just lost your manager it
is a trip to Old Trafford. It is rumuored that Harry Redknapp is going to be confirmed as QPR manager soon, but I'm not sure he will be too keen to have this fixture as his first fixture, all new managers like to get off to a winning start and that will be a tall order if the former Spurs man is installed before tomorrow's 3pm kick off. It is not all calm seas and
clear skies for Manchester United either, although I think we can be fairly
certain that Ferguson won’t be the next manager out of the door. A loss away to
Norwich last weekend will have done nothing to ease the fears that United are
not performing well enough this season, going behind first in so many games was
eventually going to catch up with them and it’s time to kick that habit.
Fortunately for them tomorrow they are facing a team who have only managed 9 goals
in 12 games, and have conceded 23. Never was there a better opportunity for
Ferguson’s men to put in a confidence-boosting performance and if they don’t
come away from tomorrow with all 3 points then they have a serious problem. 4-1
Stoke v Fulham
Stoke’s unbelievable
difference between home form and away form continues this season, without a
home defeat or an away win. Even more incredibly, they have only conceded 1
goal at home in 5 league games this season, on the flip side they have only
managed to score 4. Combine this with the fact that there has been an average
of 4.5 goals in Fulham’s 6 away games this season it is difficult to know what
to make of this game. Now without a win in 4 Fulham will not be running high on
confidence and Stoke will look to pounce on this, especially as Cottagers’ talisman
Brede Hangeland, so unfortunately sent off last week, will be missing. I am
going to have to set more store by the Stoke home statistics than the Fulham
away ones and say that this is not going to be a high scoring fixture; Stoke to
just about nudge it. 1-0
Wigan v Reading
Another
evenly matched fixture, two teams who are performing just about well enough to
see themselves occupying the two positions above the relegation zone. While
Wigan are two points ahead of The Royals they have lost their last 2 since
impressive wins against West Ham and Tottenham and they are unable to rely on a
home advantage tomorrow as their home form has been so poor this season. They
have managed only 5 points from 6 games at the DW stadium compared with 6 away
from home. They will nonetheless see tomorrow as an opportunity to propel
themselves further away from the dreaded bottom 3 positions given that their
opponents are winless away from the Madejski Stadium this season in the league.
Reading are unbeaten in 4, however, and their shock win over Everton last
weekend will do absolutely no harm to their confidence. Only averaging a goal a
game away from home so far this season McDermott will have to rely on his team
to put in a solid defensive performance to ensure that they come away from
tomorrow with anything. I can see these two teams’ poor runs so far giving us a
score draw. 2-2
Aston Villa v Arsenal
Here we
have two teams performing below expectations and in desperate need of a win.
Despite hosting Arsenal I get the feeling that neither the Villa fans nor players
will be satisfied with a draw tomorrow. Although they haven’t been a top-end
challenger for some time I doubt many of the Villa faithful would have seen
themselves in this position nearly a third of the way through the season. With
only 1 win in the last 8 they will be desperate to avoid being dragged into a
relegation battle so early on. While Arsenal are not on top form they will have
to be going into this game with high hopes of a win, following a
confidence-boosting win in midweek which saw them progress to the next round of
the Champions League. Although Olivier Giroud is still far from repaying his
hefty transfer fee of almost £13m his form is definitely picking up with 4
goals and 2 assists in the last 4 games in all competitions. Unfortunately for
The Villains I can’t see their poor form turning round for this one, away win. 1-3
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| Suarez is on red hot form at the moment (Courtesy of wonker - Flickr) |
Swansea v Liverpool
Swansea
could not have dared to hope that when they came into the Premiership for the
first time last season that in their second season they would be sitting ahead
of Liverpool with almost a third of the season gone. Yet as they go into a home
game against The Reds on Sunday this is how things stand. The Swans have been
performing well recently and have 2 wins, 2 draws and one loss from their last
5 games, including a hard-fought point against Chelsea. Liverpool too find themselves
in rude form, unbeaten in 7 and slowly climbing the table (climbing slowly because
of the number of draws) and will look to tomorrow’s a fixture as a way of
leap-frogging their way into the top half of the table. Luis Suarez has been on
superb form; with 5 goals in the last 4 league games he now finds himself atop
the league’s leading scorers chart. I feel that Liverpool’s form coming into this
will just about tell and they will edge a close encounter. 1-2
Southampton v Newcastle
Only
time will tell but it is my belief that the 3-1 away win at QPR that cost Mark
Hughes his job may just prove crucial for Nigel Adkins and his men. The Saints
are now only 1 point off safety and they avoided a massive confidence-killing
landmine by getting all three points last weekend. Newcastle on the other hand
have only got 1 point from their last 3 games and are constantly moving further
away from the kind of form that saw them challenging for Champions League positions
last season. Alan Pardew has to do something quite drastic soon as, while he
managed to hold onto all of his biggest stars over the summer, the side is beginning
to look stale and without a good run of form Newcaslte may prove to be bargain
basement for top-half teams looking to strengthen their squads in January. I
think that, despite a good result last weekend, Southampton’s lack of top
quality players will show against a Newcastle side that, while underperforming,
is not short of a quality player or 3. 1-3
Chelsea v Man City
See Big
Game Report on Saturday.
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| AVB - needs a win (Courtesy of the sportreview - Flickr) |
Tottenham v West Ham
Tottenham
face another tasty London derby tomorrow in the form of Sam Allardyce’s
over-performing Hammers. Andre Villas Boas will be disappointed with his side’s
form of late, admittedly they have played Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal all in
the last 5 games but AVB wouldn’t have expected to get nothing from those games
and the defeat against Wigan was unacceptable. West Ham on the other hand have
been playing well but, funnily enough, have also had a disappointing loss
against Wigan recently. As encouraging as the win against Newcastle was, their
only other wins in their last 9 games came against Southampton and QPR, the
league’s bottom two teams, and this inconsistent form will prompt Allardyce to
go for at least a point tomorrow at White Hart Lane. The fact that these two
are so close in the league, the Irons in 7th and Spurs in 8th,
will be reflected in the score tomorrow and I think that we will see an
attacking display from both sides. 2-2
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