Post by Gianni Infantino on Apr 10, 2014 15:12:12 GMT
A bit of a double whammy here as teams try to catch up for various reasons, be it cup finals interfering or weather meaning your Asian fan couldn't watch his first game live (thought all your fans were scouse?).
Remember, all 3pm kick offs on Saturday are now 3:07 kick offs as the FA's way of honouring the 96 victims of the Hillsborough tragedy, which was stopped at 3:06.
Crystal Palace have been resurgent under Tony Pulis this year. They're visited by Champions League winner Paul Lambert™ and his Aston Villa team. Villa are without Christian Benteke, as are Belgium for the World Cup. Not the biggest miss, he's had a poor year all things considered.
Fulham and Norwich battle at Craven Cottage for pride, really, and nothing more as both sides are quite likely to go down. Fulham will be encouraged that Norwich have just sacked their manager. Norwich will be encouraged that Fulham still have Felix Magath.
Southampton have had a very good season, spending almost the entire season camped in the top half, something they didn't manage at all last year. Winger Jay Rodriguez is out of the World Cup which is a big blow for everyone due to the season he was having. Old Gunnar Solksjaer couldn't care less, about anything.
Stoke are looking for their first top half Premier League finish, Newcastle are doing their best not to finish in the top half. Mark Hughes' exciting possession based game was a myth and Stoke are still DNHBs.
Sunderland's difficult run in continues as they face Roberto Martinez's in-form Everton side. Sunderland are never afraid of the big boys, but Everton have relished their underdog status this year by beating the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal at home. Away though, they aren't the biggest goalscorers and Sunderland may fancy themselves here. Everton are unbeaten in six games though, so they'll be confident.
The final 15:07 kick off sees West Brom go up against Tottenham. Pepe Mel's West Brom have had a turgid season and sit precariously above the drop. They can almost take solace in the fact that Tottenham aren't the kind of team to come along and steamroll a smaller team. So they might take a bit of confidence out of a 1 goal loss.
Sunday's early kick off isn't a title decider. However it is a huge game between the two favourites for the title. Liverpool are unbeaten in 14 and haven't lost since losing twice in a row to City and Chelsea back in December. City's away form has grown as the season has developed but they're very different from the animal which dismantles teams for fun at home. The sides have 174 goals scored between them in the league this season and have supposedly leaky defences, so this could be a high-scorer.
The second game on Sunday is another of the title trifecta as Chelsea go down to South Wales to face Swansea. The Swans have had a stop start season and have just one win in the last eight. By contrast, Chelsea's form this year has been excellent and I fully expect that to continue.
On Tuesday, not Monday, Arsenal look to get their season back on track against West Ham, who will have taken encouragement from a decent display against Liverpool last week. Arsenal were battered on Merseyside for the second time this season and now face a huge test to finish in the top four after the season had shown so much promise. By the time they kick off, Everton might already be ahead of them.
Onto Wednesday, Everton will face Crystal Palace at Goodison Park. If Arsenal fail to beat West Ham, depending on their result against Sunderland, Everton could consolidate 4th in this one and with how good they've been this year, you wouldn't put it past them.
In a repeat of this year's Carling Cup final, Manchester City will play Sunderland. This fixture carries a lot of memories, one of those being "JIIII, HE'S DONE IT" which in hindsight, you wonder what "it" was.
And that's your week in the Barclays Premier League.
