Manchester City V Arsenal
The top two teams in the Premier League, both teams flying, been very impressive in the last few weeks although Arsenal is edging it at the moment, the victory over Manchester United was a real statement of intent – especially with Manchester City laying down a psychological marker winning their game earlier in the day. Arsenal came through it, and now they meet at the FA Cup, which is brilliant football.
I think Pep’s intent in the FA Cup, is strong, as we saw against Chelsea fielding his first eleven, I know he has the great luxury of squad depth, but he still could have picked kids if he wanted to but he stayed away from it. The problem with Arsenal going into the game, I think, Mikel Arteta will want to keep the momentum with his team, and I know he has played a lot of the players in a lot of the games, things haven’t really changed in the last five games – Martinelli and Saka played 94% of the games and Odegaard played 89%. They are really creative players, but they will need some resting at some point in the season whether he chooses to rest against Manchester City remains to be seen. I think it’s a really big psychological gamble to lose that momentum and certainly lose against Manchester City.
So I think that Arsenal will go strong, I think it’s set up to be a fantastic game although City can be a bit mundane and boring with how they get about their game, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t get the job done so expect very much of the same from City – pass, pass, pass and pass. Arsenal I think, will play on the counter and be aggressive and dominate the ball, get Odegaard in good positions between the lines and capitalise on a relatively shaky City defence this season. This time last season I don’t think that they conceded half the goals they have this season. Maybe Haaland playing as an out-and-out number nine has played into that as well – so its a concern for them.
For the result, I am gonna go for a narrow Manchester City win of 2-1 at 7/1 (8.00)
Liverpool V Brighton
After a shaky start De Zerbi has done a fantastic job, especially after the return to the Premier League after the World Cup – one defeat in their last five or six games. A little bit of a nightmare scenario for Brighton obviously with Trossard leaving, really good player very creative although his stats really show this but he is very influential. They take on Liverpool, who in a couple of weeks before, dismantled Jurgen Klopps team in what has been one of the worst performances during his tenure. After the game, Liverpool only had 32% of possession which is something unheard of. The midfield which has been highlighted over the past few weeks , really really struggled to gain any control over the football which where duly dispatched by a very efficient Brighton. The Seagulls will be buoyant as McAllister has been firing on all cylinders ever since he won the World Cup.
For Liverpool, this will be the real chance for Silverware this season, with one eye on the Champions League, they have competed really well in that competition in the last four or five seasons. Even when they are not really playing well they turn up and get results. So I think Jurgen Klopp will go strong he has played a younger midfield in the last couple of games against Wolves, Harvey Elliot has moved up the pitch together with Cody Gakpo and Salah, so that would be great to bring more energy and enthusiasm into the team.
I’m gonna go for a Liverpool victory of 3-1 against Brighton this weekend at 16/1 (17.00)
My LV BET treble for the FA Cup this weekend:
Manchester City to beat Arsenal, Liverpool to beat Brighton, and I am gonna go for an upset, im picking Preston to beat a very inconsistent Tottenham this season.
Title Race
After the weekend’s victory, we are now in a two-horse race, Arsenal and Manchester City who are ahead of everyone and showing great form. Manchester United showed where they were against Arsenal at the weekend, I still think that they are three or four players short of where Ten Hag wants to be and compete at a high level. He will feel that a few mistakes at the weekend have cost him but I think the gulf in quality was there to be seen, and I rule out Manchester United of the title. Newcastle they have not been going well in the last weeks, losing Bruno Guimaraes has impacted them and if you take three or four players out through injury or suspension and they are really really gonna struggle. They have had a fantastic campaign but I don’t think that they can challenge either, Tottenham, Chelsea, and Liverpool are out of it so that really leaves it at Manchester City and Arsenal.
It’s gonna be a fantastic battle, we spoke about it before, being halfway through a marathon although Manchester City have run plenty of marathons and Arsenal haven’t. The Gunners will have to overcome the psychological battle of being hunted down certainly around that April time when the pressure and the stress really mount on the players. I still think that Manchester City are gonna nick it at this stage, but I have been really impressed with Arsenal.
Relegation
The relegation picture is really showing that anyone from 14th down are in the fight. There is obviously a lot of football to be played between now and the end of the season, but if you look right now the clubs that are struggling and looking for new managers are Everton who everyone is talking about. The inevitable has happened, I don’t think that Frank could have survived much longer after 11 defeats in the last 14 games so that really really hurt his ambition to steer Everton out of the relegation places.
I think although Southampton are in a upturn at the moment they still are in trouble – I think they could be facing relegation. Obviously, you have Everton but a new manager could provide that bounce affect that gets them away from relegation. Nottingham Forest look like they have pulled away, Leicester have got enough to stay. As it stands I am gonna go with Everton, Southampton and Bournemouth to go down.