Chelsea vs. Everton

Chelsea have had nearly a week now to put their FA Cup exit at Manchester City out of their minds, and it has been a pretty quiet week as things go at Cobham with not much press surrounding The Blues due to Man City and Arsenal’s exploits in the Champions League, and the mess that has become of their SW neighbours Fulham.

And I think that will have done them the world of good ahead of a testing visit from Everton. The Toffees beat Chelsea 1-0 at Goodison Park in September, but since then I think Mourinho has found his best team, and this trip to Stamford Bridge will be a lot different..

A win here would put them in a great position ahead of their trip to ‘Hell’ in mid-week.

Prediction: Chelsea 2-0 Everton.

Arsenal vs. Sunderland 

The Gunners were unlucky to lose against Bayern, or perhaps to put it better they didn’t deserve to lose based on the actual game, which was the opening 36 minutes.

While there are lots of questions now surrounding Mesut Özil and his effort, it has almost been ignored the outstanding efforts of the English youngsters in the game; Messers Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wilshere and Gibbs (for the time he was on the pitch). All of them got stuck in, and Bayern were pegged back in the opening stages which certainly took me by surprise.

It is also worth noting that I think Yaya Sanogo didn’t do too badly either, and the criticisms of him are pretty absurd; why not give him a chance?

This is probably a good fixture for Arsenal though because although they will never admit it, Sunderland will have next weekend’s League Cup final on their minds, and will be conscious of avoiding injury so wont be overly willing to get stuck in.

Luckily for them, it seems unlikely that the teams around them will be getting maximum points this weekend, and I doubt they would expect three points from The Emirates anyway.

Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Sunderland.

Cardiff vs. Hull

Hull have dealt themselves an un-necessary hand by drawing with Brighton in the FA Cup on Monday, and they will now have to play again this coming Monday, so like with Sunderland, they will possibly have half an eye on that replay, but for them the league should take priority.

They have lacked consistency, and if anything the Cup is now a distraction from what should be a run of winnable games against their rivals, Cardiff being one of them. 

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has chosen to focus on the league, evident by his weakened team selection in the Cup against Wigan, so he needs to back that up with a win on Saturday and in their next home game against Fulham in a couple of weeks.

But unfortunately for Cardiff, Steve Bruce should have Long and Jelavic back after they were cup-tied against Brighton, and they have looked promising.

Prediction: Cardiff 1-2 Hull.

Man City vs. Stoke

A tale of two City’s, and the pattern has always been a struggle at The Britannia, then sweep them away at The Etihad. And so it probably will be again despite a tough game against Barcelona in mid-week and the League Cup final next weekend because Stoke’s away record isn’t far short of awful.

The Potters have had nine days off and a trip to Dubai for some warm weather training after a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Swansea last time out, nevertheless I think we will see a resurgence from Pellegrini’s side to silence the doubters (as much as it pains me to say it!).

Stoke will be without Oussama Assaidi for a few weeks after the winger damaged his knee in Dubai, so I may as well tell you now that all City need to do is stop Charlie Adam.

Prediction: Man City 3-0 Stoke.

West Brom vs. Fulham

Two teams down the bottom. Two teams who have both lost faith with their managers, the latter it’s not even worth explaining it’s that odd, complex and simply mystifying.

The Baggies’ form has hardly improved since Pepe Mel took over from Steve Clarke, and the draw against Chelsea was more lack of concentration and clinical finishing from Mourinho’s side than West Brom improvement. Quite lucky.

The same can be said of Fulham; Rene Meulensteen couldn’t improve them anymore than Martin Jol, and he has now been replaced by Felix Magath, who comes with a strict reputation that some players have complained is too much like a ‘dictatorship’, so this could be interesting..

Both teams are struggling on the pitch, and off it in Fulham’s case. I think home support will see Mel record his first victory, but I can’t see this being a classic.

Prediction: West Brom 1-0 Fulham.

West Ham vs. Southampton

West Ham have done things the right way by backing their manager, and guess what? It’s paid off! 

I know Sam Allardyce has more Premier League pedigree than Clarke, Jol, Meulensteen, Laudrup et al, which he has built up through proving himself, something managers don’t seem to get these days because of the new, foreign owners coming in expecting instant results.

It is almost ironic that this week of weeks sees one of the only recent successful managerial changes come against the club who decided to back the manager through the bad.

I was outraged when I read Nigel Adkins had been sacked, but Mauricio Pochettino has actually come in and done a better job than the good job Adkins was doing, utilising young English talent too, and I think Southampton fans have forgiven Nicola Cortese.

This has the makings to be a good match; The Hammers have come good since their embarrassing League Cup defeat to Man City, with a 0-0 draw at Chelsea, and three consecutive 2-0 wins against the teams around them. Did you know they have kept the most amount of clean sheets in the Premier League this season (13)?

Prediction: West Ham 2-1 Southampton.

Crystal Palace vs. Man United

There will be plenty of eyes on Selhurst Park, most of them eagerly waiting to see if United will slip up again after a slightly improved performance against Arsenal.

But going to Palace is something different than going to The Emirates, and they will face a tough trip like they did to Stoke a few weeks ago; smaller pitch, hostile atmosphere, and a 110% committed team.

I always liked Tony Pulis, but he never seemed to be evolving Stoke, so it is ever so slightly annoying that he has gone into Palace, stabilised them, and given them a pretty decent attacking threat by signing Joe Ledley and Tom Ince, who both hit the ground running against West Brom.

Both teams have had a good chunk of time off, so both will be fresh. Whether that means Palace will shut the door on United, or if United might finally click having spent some time together on the training ground, we shall see…

Prediction: Crystal Palace 1-2 Man United.

Liverpool vs. Swansea

Brendan Rodgers entertains his former club Swansea with an in-form Liverpool side against what is likely to be a tired Swansea team after their 0-0 draw with Napoli on Thursday night.

Michael Laudrup is another manager who has lost his job after his ‘laissez-faire’ approach was seen as him being uninterested, and club captain Gary Monk has taken over managerial duties.

Unlike most mid-table clubs who feature in the Europa League, The Swans haven’t lost all of their matches after a European tie midweek (P8 W2 D3 L3), but of those, the losses have come against teams in the top half.

Liverpool are on a good run, and are playing well against everyone in their path; they were even the better side in the Cup loss at Arsenal and would have won if not for poor finishing.

In other words, expect a home win.

Prediction: Liverpool 4-0 Swansea.

Newcastle vs. Aston Villa

Of all the managers, Alan Pardew has to be the most complicated. Newcastle have gone from the Championship, to doing well in the Premier League, to Europe, to a relegation battle, and in this season doing really well to losing the last three on the bounce heavily.

His agent did well to secure him a long contract because no matter what, I can’t see someone even as stupid as Mike Ashley paying that off..

Villa are another peculiar side too in that their away form is better than their home form, something I just cannot work out, among many others..

Prediction: Newcastle 0-0 Aston Villa

Norwich vs. Tottenham

Despite their 1-0 loss to Dnipro, I think it’s still valid to say Spurs made it through their trip to Ukraine because of the unrest there at the moment…

But bar that, the 5-1 loss to Man City, and the 2-0 Cup loss to Arsenal, they have certainly improved under Tim Sherwood, and it’s disappointing there is still so much talk about who will come in during the summer; it will be good to see an English manager doing well at a top English team, and his values on youth are promising too.

I’m confident they will turn the Europa League tie round at White Hart Lane, so he will have to balance carefully winning the Europa League and finishing in the top four, because both are quite probable possibilities.

Norwich, meanwhile, are still facing their own battle against relegation. The funny thing about Chris Hughton is that he always seems to pull out a win when he needs one, but that is more likely to be at Villa next weekend than at home against Spurs this weekend.

Prediction: Norwich 0-2 Tottenham.