Time for another weekend with PL-football, here are the games:
Today:[12.45] Stoke vs Blackburn
[15.00] Bolton vs Everton
[15.00] Chelsea vs Wolverhampton
[15.00]
Manchester United vs Newcastle[15.00] Norwich vs Queens Park Rangers
[15.00] Sunderland vs Wigan
[15.00] West Bromwich vs Tottenham
[17.30]
Arsenal vs FulhamTomorrow:[13.30] Swansea vs Aston Villa
[16.00]
Liverpool vs Manchester CitySome interesting games, Man United have a fairly good form in Premier League with some wins in a row, but all in all they haven't reached the "top team"-form yet, and Newcastle is the big surprise this year, so while I'm hoping for a Man U-win, I think Newcastle will put up a good fight, and if Man U doesn't focus enough, we might loose points. :/ (hopefully not!)
Chelsea has an important game against Wolves, AVB is one of the more questioned managers after a shaky start, the worst for them since Abramovich took over, and he isn't known for having patience with managers, so a win is very important.
I must say, personally I really like AVB and his training-style, wanting to play attractive football, but I think the problem is that Chelsea aren't good enough for that kind of football, they only have Mata that (IMO) is good enough for that quicker paced passing game, the rest of the players aren't bad ofc, but I feel like they are more suited for "boring" football.
Some London-teams are in focus, Tottenham are playing against W.Bromwich, a tough away game, but their form has been rather brilliant since the shaky start, and I'll be surprised if Tottenham doesn't win with a few goals margin.
Arsenal are playing Fulham, and from the rumors I've heard, Wenger might be resting some players for the game, I've heard that Diaby might start instead of Ramsey, Arshavin instead of Walcott and Park or Chamakh instead of Van Persie, I can't promise anything, but it will be interesting to see.
Apart from Man City, Tottenham and Arsenal probably has the best forms, so I do think Man United, Chelsea and Pool (three other candidates for the CL-spots) need to step up a bit.
Pool - City tomorrow promises to be the BIG game of this weekend, I'll be rooting for Liverpool so hard that hopefully they will snatch 3 points, I think it's important for the league that City looses a game so that the other teams get more energy.
Didn't comment on the CL-games during the week, but it's interesting how Man City are pretty much 90% out of the tournament, Man United and Chelsea are almost out as well.
I think Man United might go further, but City and Chelsea are pretty much bye bye.
The interesting part here is that the highly criticized Arsenal was the first English team to qualify for the next round, and maybe they'll be the only team as well, the others have some tough games and scenarios ahead.
Arsenal also had the hardest group (after Man City) with teams like Dortmund and Marseille being very tricky, but they managed to do really well.
My guess before Cl started was that Real Madrid would win it, and I have no reason to change my theory, they have (IMO) the best squad by far, the most variety and the best players, and they are playing fantastic football at the moment.
Barcelona looks much weaker, they barely won over old Milan, the fact that Xavi had to dive for a penalty says a bit about how much trouble they had.
Still, Barcelona will probably make it to the last 4 (or 8), if not by themselves, then with some help from the referees.
Real Madrid - Bayern Münich would probably be the best final IMO (as a neutral fan).
Last, Van Persie is close to beating Alan Shearer's goal record of scoring 36 goals during a "calendar-year" (from January - December), RVP has 31 goals right now, Shearer's record is at 36, so that means 5 goals in (6-7?) games, and I think he'll beat it.
He's in a sick form.