Football

In the Premier League there’s interesting encounters for strugglers Chelsea and Manchester United on Saturday. Both face tricky fixtures against relegation strugglers Newcastle and Sunderland respectively. Newcastle have turned in to a bit of a bogey team for the Blues at present. They have been improving steadily under McClaren and it might turn out to be another difficult day for the Blues if they underestimate the Magpies.

Also, Sunderland and Sam Allardyce will be well up for trying to heap more pressure on United’s young and inexperienced players and LVG. If they win today and City dont on Sunday, then the gap will be reduced to three points (currently at six points). In terms of the end result all I know is I would not want to back United at odds on away from home at present against a team who are fighting relegation and who will try and run them ragged.

In terms of the title race however, all the big action is on Super Sunday with the current top four all in action against each other. Arsenal face leaders Leicester at the Emirates and are warm favourites to win, while Leicester who have been the best away team this season in the league, are close to 4/1 which is a surprise.

This game should be a really exciting spectacle with several goals likely. Its a tough result to call with the Gunners being so strong at home and Leicester having the league’s best away record so far this season. I see both teams scoring with all the attacking talent on show so goals and/or goal scorers might be the way to go as there were 7 goals in the reverse fixture, which the Gunners won 5-2.

The other big Premier League clash on Sunday is between fourth placed Manchester City and Spurs. City have been lacking in real grit, fight and determination this season and this is not a good time to be facing an in form hard working team like Spurs.

After all the recent Pep Guardiola speculation surrounding City I imagine it’s not a good time to be City manager Pelligrini, who looks like he may have lost the confidence of some of his senior players. Hopefully all the press speculation will blow over soon and City can get back to concentrating on winning football matches again and challenging for the title. However, I don’t see that happening quite yet and the worrying thing for City is if they play like they did against Leicester who thrashed them 3 -1 they could end up smarting again as Spurs are more than capable of dishing out the same treatment.