Captain's Blog Premiership Preview 1
The internationals are over, the flights to Poland are booked after the great performance put in by the boys in green to demolish Estonia and now it’s back to the important stuff. The Premiership returns with a bang this weekend with some great games to look forward to. It’s always an interesting set of fixtures after an international break and usually throws up some surprise results and I’m expecting no different this week.
Norwich host the Gunners in the 12.45 kick off on Saturday with Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie in flying form. I’m expecting plenty of goals in this one with two very attacking teams who have had a total of 78 goals in there premiership campaigns so far.
Wolves travel to Goodison Park to take on an underperforming Everton team who need to start picking up some points soon. Mick McCarthy’s lads are coming off a good win against Wigan and are well capable of taking something from this game as well.
Table-toppers Manchester City will have a decent test against a Newcastle side who are still unbeaten after 11 games. For me Newcastle have been the biggest shock this year and it’s great to see a team other than the Big Four (Five?) sitting in third place in the table. Can they keep this unbeaten run going or will the likes of Balotelli, Aguero, Dzeko and the other hundred strikers Man City have in their ranks prove too much?
Stoke have been on a three game losing streak but I think they will put this right today at home to Q.P.R. Although the Queens Park boys have been playing some good stuff of late they have yet to travel to the fortress that is the Britannia Stadium.
Sunderland v Fulham looks like a tight game to me. Both teams are coming off defeats and sitting down the wrong half of the table. If there was a gun to my head I’d lean towards a home win.
The Baggies have a home game against Bolton. Bolton have been the biggest disappointment for me this year but showed some signs of life in their last game smashing Stoke 5-0. West Brom are coming off two hard tests against Liverpool and Arsenal and will be looking to get back on track today.
The bottom two clubs face off today as Wigan host Blackburn. Two bad teams sometimes can spell exciting game. Both bosses are under real pressure and will have their troops rallied for this one. It’s still early days but both of these teams need to start picking up points asap.
The 5.30 kick off today sees the red devils making the trip to Wales to face Swansea. Swansea were unlucky to only come away with a point against Liverpool in their last game and will be well up for this one. United have not been playing at the standard we are used to seeing from them but are still getting the right results. Rooney will be well rested and Sir Alex will be hoping he can pull them through this one.
The Super Sunday game is a cracker; Chelsea welcome Liverpool to The Bridge to see what these teams are made of. I can’t be having Chelsea at the minute and think Liverpool can take all three points in this one. An aging Chelsea team against a Liverpool team who have made some great changes to their squad for this campaign. It’s a no brainer for me. There is the added excitement of Torres playing against his old club as well. I will be sitting in my favourite seat in my favourite pub to enjoy this one on the big screen.
