When they used to get on
A London derby between two teams having very different seasons. Arsenal sit third and have a realistic chance of winning the title whereas West Ham sit fifth from bottom and have a realistic chance of getting relegated.
Arsenal have just two defeats at home, to Chelsea and Manchester United, whereas West Ham have just one away win and that came on the opening day of the season. Although West Ham have got a little bit better they can’t expect to match Arsenal in any area of the pitch.
SoccerNews prediction: 2-0
Another top against bottom clash here as Villa, who are trying for fourth place, take on Wolves who just want to stay up.
Villa haven’t suffered the horrid loss of form they did this time last year and they look pretty good. Wolves have been struggling but they had a crucial win at Burnley last time out.
I fancy Villa, but it is a midlands derby and it won’t be easy.
SoccerNews prediction: 2-1
Everton’s charge up the table was slightly halted last week when they got, an albeit creditable, draw at Birmingham. They were 2-0 up and dominant and will have been very disappointed not to win the game.
With two wins in their last three, Owen Coyle is slowly but surely making Bolton safe. They are a lot more difficult to score against now but I fancy Everton to manage it.
SoccerNews prediction: 2-0
Although Burnley have a legitimate claim this may well be the game between the worst two teams in the league.
Iain Dowie will be looking for a winning start with Hull and he’ll never have a better chance. Pompey will be looking to, well, just avoid further embarrassment I suppose.
It isn’t really possible to predict a win for either of these.
SoccerNews prediction: 1-1
Tottenham have some tough games coming up and this one is no exception. Everyone knows how Stoke play but few teams are able to stop them.
Stoke’s home record is pretty similar to Tottenham’s away record and this game could go either way. If Tottenham can keep out the long throw they should have enough to win this one.
SoccerNews prediction: 1-2
At the start of the season hopes were high for Sunderland whilst Birmingham would have been very happy with simple survival.
As it has turned out, Birmingham have had a wonderful season so far and sit eighth in the league. Sunderland have had a worrying slide towards the drop zone although five points from their last three have steadied the ship a little.
There won’t be many goals but any that there are, I expect to come from the away team.
SoccerNews prediction: 0-1
A local derby between two very unfashionable and not very good teams.
There will be a great deal of endeavour and passion, but there won’t be too many clever passing moves! It certainly won’t be filmed by anyone for the purposes of teaching coaching or to advertise the beautiful game.
SoccerNews prediction: 0-0
Sunday 21st March
Ewood Park is never an easy place to go to and a Chelsea side smarting from their European exit would have chosen somewhere else to be going if they could.
Blackburn will be in Chelsea’s faces from the kick-off and if there is any European hangover you can be sure that Blackburn will be fired up to take advantage.
In the end, Chelsea are much better than Blackburn and that fact will probably decide the game.
SoccerNews prediction: 0-2
A team with no money going quite well against a team with more money than everyone else put together, also going quite well.
Everything says that the neutral would want Fulham, a club who do things the right way, to win this one. The fact that Fulham are pretty decent at home and City aren’t great away would suggest it will be close.
I fancy City’s extra class to be just about enough.
SoccerNews prediction: 0-1
These games are notoriously difficult to predict. In recent times Manchester United haven’t been very good against other top four sides but as Liverpool aren’t one of them anymore that is somewhat irrelevant.
United will stay top if they win and Liverpool will be looking to stake a claim on fourth place. It will be a passionate and rousing game although there may be a lack of any real quality football.
The bottom line is that United have only lost once at home and Liverpool have lost seven times away. If Vidic isn’t too terrified by Torres, it has to be a home win.
SoccerNews prediction: 2-1
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