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Premier League Preview: Matchday 27

Deke Hardman in Editorial, English Premier League 27 Feb 2016

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Leicester City can open up a five point gap at the top of the table with victory over Norwich City on Saturday

Leicester City can open up a five point gap at the top of the table with victory over Norwich City on Saturday

Leicester City can open up a five point lead at the top of the Premier League this weekend as they welcome a struggling Norwich City side to the King Power Stadium.

The Foxes saw their seven game unbeaten run ended by fellow title contenders Arsenal a fortnight ago but with the Gunners and second place Tottenham Hotspur both not playing until Sunday they will be keen to tighten their grip on first place.

Relegation scrap

At the other end of the table, Norwich begin the weekend outside of the bottom three on goal difference but could go in to the game beneath the dotted line with Sunderland, who are just a point behind the Canaries in action against West Ham United in Saturday’s early kick-off.

Having gone four games without a win Sam Allardyce’s men beat Manchester United last time out to move them to within a point of safety.

Race for Europe

That result allowed the Hammers to move to within a point of the Red Devils after they came from two goals down to get a share of the spoils against Norwich last time out in the league, and they will move to within four points of the top four with victory this weekend.

Southampton are level on points with Slaven Bilic’s side after stringing together a six game unbeaten run, and they have not conceded a single goal in that time.

Their opponents this weekend are Chelsea who themselves have not lost in the league since mid-December though they remain well off the pace in the race for European qualification.

Level pegging

Two other sides level on points are eighth place Watford and ninth place Stoke City, who have home games against Bournemouth and Aston Villa respectively.

Having recently lost four league games in a row the Hornets have taken seven points from the last twelve available to keep themselves in the top half while Bournemouth are looking to bounce back from back-to-back league losses.

Stoke were the last team to beat the Cherries and that was their first win in six in all competitions and they will feel confident against a Villa side who are eight points from safety, haven’t won away from home since the opening day of the season and shipped six goals to Liverpool last time out.

Saturday’s late kick-off sees West Bromwich Albion face Crystal Palace – another two sides level on points, both eight clear of the bottom three with twelve games to go.

The title race is set to heat up on Sunday with both Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal in action before Liverpool face Manchester City in the League Cup final at Wembley.

Spurs host Swansea City, while the Gunners face a trip to a Manchester United who could be as low as seventh place by the time the game kicks off.

Will Manchester United qualify for Europe?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Deke Hardman


Freelance football writer with a love of the game that goes back to the mid nineties when both his beloved Nottingham Forest and England had genuine hope of acheiving some level of success. A regular contributor to both SoccerNews.com and FreeBetting.com, Deke also dabbles in music journalism with his heart and head still stuck in the latter years of the twentieth century.

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