The coming week’s Premier League Preview
By Arua
This article is mainly focused on giving the readers a short preview of what to expect when the premier league resumes for its 29th round of matches over a stretch of 5 days. The matches are arranged in the order in which they will be played. Since some ‘great performances’ have been produced by the referees this season, I have also included a link to it at the end of a given match (if I was able to find a link).
Let’s begin:
1. Wolverhampton Wanderers (19) v Manchester United (1) (Sunday ,13:30)
Wolves are down at the wrong end of table and Man U are at the top, so it looks like an easy victory for Manchester but Wolves are currently one position better than where they were last time when they ended Man U’s unbeaten run last year.
If the recent league form is anything to go by, then it’s definitely a victory for Man U given that they have dropped only 2 points out of last 18 available whereas Wolves have got only 4. Man U will be looking to bounce back from their Europa League exit with a victory and what better place than Wolverhampton to go! Wolves have lost their last 5 home games and 6 of last 7; their last victory at home was on 4th December last year. Overall, their home record stands at 3W-2D-9L and it’s highly likely that last column may go to double digits come this Sunday.
The only good looking thing for the Wanderers heading into this game is that they won the corresponding fixture at Molineux last year, but they have to be at their very very best to get anything out of this game.
Here is the ref review article : http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/17409
2. Manchester City (2) v Chelsea (5) (Wednesday, 19:45)
This is undoubtedly the biggest fixture of this round, by far. Manchester City is in a bad run of form at the moment having lost 2 of their last 3 fixtures in all competitions and an early exit from the Europa League came as a result. Chelsea is on a very good run with a perfect record for RDM so far as the manager. Maybe they should have appointed him at the beginning of the season and they could have found themselves in a better position.
Coming back to the game, it is going to be a very difficult game for Chelsea, as the home record for City stands at 14-0-0 conceding only 6 goals and Chelsea have only won 5 of their 14 games on the road. Surprisingly, none of the last 10 meetings between these two teams in the Premier League have ended in a draw with Chelsea winning 7 and 3 of those have come at the Ethiad , however city won the last game at the Ethiad thanks to a Carlos Tevez strike. City has got time to look at their bad form at the weekend but Chelsea will look forward to book a FA Cup semifinal berth on Sunday.
Both teams might face difficulty ahead if they don’t get the job done. City will be under extreme pressure to win it as they may very well find themselves 4 points off the pace in the title race and so will be Chelsea knowing that a defeat here may very well end their hopes of Champions League football next season.
3. Tottenham H (3) v Stoke City (13) (Wednesday, 19:45)
Tottenham have been on a bad run since they were ‘hit by an Arsenal whirlwind and blown out of North London’ and the media doesn’t use the word ‘title contenders’ any more whereas Stoke have lost their last 3 away games and are 4W-2D-8L on the road for the season.
Tottenham have a good home record this season with 10 wins out of 14 scoring 30 nearly at an average of 2 goals a game whereas stoke have scored only 9 goals away from home. Just like City-Chelsea, these teams are yet to play a draw since Stoke got promoted in 2008 with Tottenham winning 4 of the 7 meetings in total and 2 out of 3 at White Hart Lane.
Really, not much to say about this game but I have a feeling that the team winning at the weekend may nick it though Tottenham are the betting favourites.
Here’s the link to Chris Foy’s epic performance to screw Spurs:
http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/17607
4. Everton (9) v Arsenal (4) (Wednesday, 20:00)
After a wait of 9 days, Arsenal resumes the campaign with a visit back to Liverpool but this time to the neighbours Everton. Everton are a very hard working side and like Arsenal have been in good form of late until losing the Merseyside derby last Tuesday. They generally have a strong end to the season and will be looking forward to bouncing back from their defeat to Liverpool in the FA Cup tie with Sunderland, and a defeat there may leave them staring a hat-trick of defeats in all competitions. Arsenal is enjoying a great run of form of late with 5 consecutive Premier League victories including 4 comebacks and 3 second half injury time winners.
Coming back to the stats for this one I found something interesting information at the official website of the Premier league which tells you that Everton have won 4 of their last 5 games at the Emirates with the other being a draw; meaning that no Arsenal win! Hey, then in which game did Arsenal celebrate their 125th anniversary???
Against which team did RVP score a brilliant left foot volley???
Find out yourselves at http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/matches/2011-2012/epl.past-meetings.html/everton-vs-arsenal
Their previous site definitely sucked but such blunder errors at the new site, seems like they want to make sure that no one visits their site (by the way, it was my first visit to their site this season). It seems like they got the home team data first for the away team which is wrong and it also leads to an error in the total victories for a particular team.
Whereas at Everton Arsenal has won 3 of the last 5 meetings losing only 1. I still remember the memorable 6-1 win at Goodison Park on the opening day of 2009-10 season. Recent scalps at Goodison include City, Spurs and Chelsea but with the confidence sky high in the squad at the moment I think that we are going to make it 6 victories in a row.
Here’s is the link: http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/17313
Arun
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Our thoughts are of course with Fabrice Muamba. There is a very decent piece about him in the Guardian, including comments from Arsenal.
Thanks Arun. Is this part of the new series Tony spoke about last week or so? If yes, all the best.
I’d like to suggest that you use a simple Excel sheet or something to track stats about teams going forward; so at any point of time you have a ready reference, instead of looking up stats every week. Maybe start it off for just Arsenal and build it for say – the top 6 teams.
If there could be a structure in place before next season, that’ll be really cool. Just my thoughts..
Good write up, I’m sorry but this is off topic. Lots of news coming in about vertonghen preferring to come to arsenal. I’m not against it, I have to admit I don’t know him as well but from what I’ve seen he seems like a good player. But I don’t think we would go for him simply because we have so many defenders already, especially center backs. Plus if he does come he’s not going to want to warm the bench. We have vermaelen, koscielny, merteseackr, djourou, squilacci (though I think his days are soon up), ignasi miguel, etc. If he does come he would face a lot of competition, and who knows he could come out on top, but I feel wenger won’t go for him because we have so many cb’s already
*****Man U vs Wolves*****
I almost got my full house today:-
Penalty denied against opposition – tick
Red card shown to opposition – tick
Red card shown in first half – tick! This last one was a tough call, I figured Man U could’nt risk Wolves getting a goal and needed to win big so they could ‘erase’ from memories their poor european performances.
Man U given penalty – no! (though it was a rare occaision that they didn’t need it in addition).
It’s amazing how predictable these random acts have become. Man U have almost clinched their 20th title, playing poorly and increasingly unattractive football. Corruption 5 Vs Football 0.
Does anybody even take ManU seriously anymore?
@Shard, on this site? No.
The problem is, that the wider media will see them as a “great team that grind out results”. Instead of actually looking at why week after week there are some very questionable performances from the officials.
The media likes to heap praise on Fergie. Sadly there now feels like there are two media camps; the Anti Arsenal and the Manchester Mafia.
It would be interesting to see if the BBC’s tone becomes even more fawning now they are in Fergie’s backyard.
@none
I think it’s reached such a stage now that it isn’t just people here who notice. How can it be? The media can say what they want. And as a result some people will shy away from saying it like it is because nobody likes being branded ‘crazy’, ‘paranoid’, or a ‘conspiracy theorist’. However, even those who don’t say it, will definitely think of the possibility. Even people appreciative of ManU think it’s inexplicable how they are up there with the ordinary team they have. Some put it down to Fergie’s genius. But the fact remains people notice that the ManU team is at best ‘ordinary’. Not ‘great’ as the media like to proclaim.
I wasn’t even angry today because it is so very predictable. I knew they would win big because they want people to think that ManU being outclassed by Bilbao was an aberration, not the norm. At least 2, maybe 3 of ManU’s titles are not won by them fairly. What’s one more?
I’m not sure Shard, but Man U fans do take themselves very seriously. I find some of the football animated stuff bang out of order, but this one is quite funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSTjslSLFXQ&feature=related
LOL @Goona Gal
I was going to say something along the lines of- most people I know who are ManU ‘fans’ actually don’t know about football at all, nor do they watch it. But your video link did a better job at it. I loved it 🙂
As for the BBC, the infuriating Alan Hansen, almost found redemption last year when he dared to highlight on national TV how the mediocre Manc’s won the title. It was then of course nervously skipped over by the host and Man U fans put it down to sour grapes by a Liverpool fan. When the truth is that there are a lot of people out there who are angry by the farce. This clip is only a few minutes long, when in truth there are a lot more examples of the running joke. Different season, same storyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpWsLit5Wdc&feature=related
@ Shard, exactly! With Man U fans, winning is everything, winning with some respect and honour is not important. I am pretty sure that some Manc’s put on their CV that defending Man U as legitimate full time occupation.
Second attempt for last link..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpWsLit5Wdc&feature=related
I believe this to be our toughest fixture left this season.
@Goona Gal
Thanks for the link; not only has Don Fergus acquired a red nose, he has developed or always had a pretty thick skin as well. I think most fans – MU fans excepted – can see what is happening, but the blatant nature of the cheating still surprises me, there is nothing subtle in what goes on.
I’m wondering how they get away with some of these…lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ7ruZ49I_4&feature=related
whenever united get a dodgy decision go their way it doesnt suprise me one bit nowadays…it has become way too predictable take for the example the number of times these Scenarios happen
1: united losing by a goal deficit and things are not going their way…rooney/nani dive and the ref awards them a penalty to get them the equaliser. A number of questionable decisions follow and alas united win in the 97min eventhough there were no stoppages at all
2.the score is locked at 0-0 and united are being mauled. Out of blue a ref sends off the player of the other team questionably..united gain momentum and they go on to win
3.united leading 1-0 and they are really under pressure..they kick the opposition but ref does nothing and even denies blatant penalties for the other team..united hang on and the media harps about them “grinding out results”
bjtgooner,
That would be reptilian-thick skin. 🙂
Mahdain, Dogface, Walter, all,
Is there any way to search the ref reviews at hand and perhaps match reports from the Guardian/Yahoo sports to find how many instances of each of Mahdain’s 3 categories @10:05 above have occurred in the last 2 seasons?
Slightly off topic but I was hoping someone could clear something up for me. I had the TV on in the background and just before the first Man U goal the commentator said the ball went out for a Wigan goal kick and then the next thing Man U are taking a corner which led to the first goal.
I couldn’t find any footage to back this up either way, did anyone else notice this?
@Stuart – Carrick’s shot was blocked/deflected out for a United corner kick which led to their first goal. Perhaps your commentator didn’t realize that at first.
OK, maybe they had their eyes closed for that bit. Thanks for clearing that bit up.
@bob that would be interesting..lets see if someone rises to take the challenge…what say you walter and dogface?
@bob and mahadain, it’s impossible to find a mention of denied penalty to opposition in manu games in most of the newspapers especially guardian. I remember their game against chelsea at old trafford this season and i searched over 10 papers but couldn’t find a single one which said that their 2 goals were offside.
That’s my view but you can try at your own risk.:(