Premier League Predictions – Tottenham to march on?

Saturday 22nd August

The season couldn’t have started much better for Arsenal. A remarkable 6-1 win at Everton on the opening day was followed by a reasonably comfortable 2-0 win at Celtic. They certainly good.

The season couldn’t have started much worse for Portsmouth. A damp squib of a 1-0 defeat at home to Fulham was followed by an even damper squib of a 1-0 defeat at Birmingham. They certainly look poor.

There can only be one result in this game.

SoccerNews prediction: 3-0

Birmingham got a slightly fortunate three points in midweek when David James had one of his infamous rushes of blood to the head and gifted them an injury time winner. They won’t mind how the wins come. They looked pretty good in defeat at Old Trafford but they are up against it this season.

Stoke are formidable at home but not nearly so good away from home.

This is the type of game that Birmingham need to win if they are to have a chance of staying up and Stoke need to win if they are going to consolidate their position as a mid-table Premier League side.

I don’t think either of them will win.

SoccerNews prediction: 0-0

The clash of the titans. The battle of the giants. Oh no, sorry, wrong game.

Hull are really not very good. They did OK at Chelsea on the opening day before losing to a last minute Drogba fluke, but their limitations were ruthlessly exposed by Tottenham in midweek.

Bolton are a side who give everything but have a serious lack of quality. Any hopes for this season were rocked by their disappointing defeat at home to Sunderland.

Bolton may lack quality but I think they’ll have enough to see off Phil Brown’s men.

SoccerNews prediction: 0-2

The hopes and expectations around Manchester City this season are almost unbearable. They did little to reduce those hopes in their comfortable opening day win at Blackburn.

Wolves are obviously in for a hard season but they will be feeling confident after they recovered from defeat to West Ham by winning at Wigan.

City will be desperate to show their home fans that they are genuine title contenders. In this game, they might just do that.

SoccerNews prediction: 3-0

Two teams who would be more than happy with a comfortable mid-table finish. Early signs are that Sunderland may be more likely to achieve that than Blackburn. Although they were outplayed by Chelsea in midweek the partnership of Jones and Bent up front looks as though it could be quite productive for them.

I can see a pretty tough season ahead for Blackburn although there are undoubtedly at least three worse teams in the league so they should be OK.

SoccerNews prediction: 2-1

Wigan winning this game is about as unlikely as Manchester United going to Burnley and losing…

Surely United won’t slip again for the second time in a few days? I would imagine that Fergie is probably still shouting at the players now and they will be glad to get on the pitch again just to get away from him.

Wigan had a great start by winning at Villa but followed that up with a poor performance in the home defeat to Wolves. With a new manager and several new players their season is likely to be one of ups and downs. I think that today may well be a down.

SoccerNews prediction: 0-3

Sunday 23rd August

Burnley are looking for survival and Everton are looking for Europe. In those circumstances it would seem foolish to predict anything other than an Everton victory. However, when you consider that in the past seven days Burnley have beaten Manchester United and Everton have lost 6-1 at home, it suddenly becomes a bit less predictable.

It will be hard for Burnley to produce the same sort of battling performance they managed against United so soon afterwards and Everton had a very good win in Europe in midweek to get them back on track. I think the normal order of things may get restored in this game.

SoccerNews prediction: 0-1

Always difficult to predict a local derby like this but Chelsea were irresistible at times against Sunderland the other day and they will be firing on all cylinders.

Fulham had a decent win at Portsmouth and then a comfortable win in Europe and look destined to have another pretty good season. They will be without Andy Johnson who was ‘taken out’ in the European game much to the anger of Roy Hodgson, but they are a well organised and hard working side.

I don’t think the organisation and hard work will be enough in this one.

SoccerNews prediction: 0-2

Another London derby between two teams who have a lot of history and sets of fans between whom there is little love lost.

West Ham had a good win at Wolves and Gianfranco Zola has got them playing some good stuff and producing to the maximum of their ability.

Tottenham have beaten Liverpool and thrashed Hull and look like genuine contenders for a finish in the top six. They are great going forward and Bassong seems to have tightened them up considerably at the back. They may just be too strong for the Hammers.

SoccerNews prediction: 1-2

Monday 24th August

On the first day of the season these two teams had a bit of a reality check. I still fancy Liverpool for the title but they were outplayed by Tottenham and despite Rafa’s moaning they deserved to lose the game. As for Aston Villa, they were pretty woeful in their defeat at home to Wigan.

Liverpool bounced back with a comprehensive win against Stoke in midweek whereas Villa had a disappointing 1-0 defeat in Europe. Liverpool played on Wednesday and Villa played on Thursday.

It all points to a Liverpool win and I’m not going to go against the flow.

SoccerNews prediction: 2-0