Chelsea can put the final nail in Man City’s coffin, Arsenal could do with ending a sh*tty week on a positive note and watch out for a cracker on Tyneside on Sunday.
Can Chelsea put the final nail in Man City’s coffin?
The vast majority of people – including a couple of high-profile bookmakers – have already conceded that the title is going to the red half of Manchester, but after what happened last season, cautious United supporters will not rest easy until it is a mathematical certainty or at least until the prospect of City coming back becomes impossible even to contemplate, which could happen this weekend.
If United can get over QPR at Loftus Road on Saturday and Man City fail to take all three points against Chelsea a day later, then you can declare it officially over as a contest because Roberto Mancini’s side will have fallen either 14 or 15 points behind with only 11 games left to play. If that scenario does materialise and even if City acquired maximum points in their remaining games, United would have to drop more points than the 13 they’ve lost in the entire season to date and that seems very unlikely indeed.
With their hopes of regaining the title hanging by a thread, City could have asked for easier opposition than Chelsea, who are still only four points behind the Champions despite two draws and a defeat in their last five league games. Chelsea certainly have the personnel to hurt City, but it could also be argued that they have performed better away from home under Rafael Benitez than they have at Stamford Bridge.
The 4-0 thrashing of Stoke, the brushing aside of Sunderland and, in particular, the victory over Everton just before Christmas have been up there with the Blues’ best performances under their stand-in manager and one more on Sunday afternoon could end the title race for good.
Arsenal all out to avoid a sh*tty end to a sh*tty week
Depressed as Arsenal supporters have been this week, their mood will reach an even lower ebb if they fail to overturn Aston Villa at the Emirates on Saturday. This time last week, the Gunners were in competition on three fronts and now they’re out of the FA Cup, are all but out of the Champions League and if they don’t win on Saturday, achieving Champions League qualification becomes a very difficult task indeed.
It’s been that sort of week for Arsenal fans
Arsenal shouldn’t get too downhearted about what happened during the week; yes, their own performance was below par but Bayern looked like Champions League champions-in-waiting and although Villa are mediocre at best, they’ll be eager to take advantage if the hosts are still feeling in any way sorry for themselves this weekend.
Paul Lambert’s side have had a bit of fight about them in recent weeks but they are still very limited and if Arsenal are anywhere near their best they’ll get a result.
Lord knows they need it.
Battle of the form sides at St. James’ Park
To call Newcastle and Southampton ‘form’ sides is stretching things just a bit – Newcastle have won two out of their last three and Southampton beat City last time out – but there has been a definite increase in the level of both sides’ performance in recent weeks.
Buoyed by the arrival of half of Ligue 1, Newcastle are beginning to look like the team that threatened to challenge for the Champions League places last season, with an excellent win over Chelsea and a more than decent showing in defeat to a Gareth Bale-inspired Spurs at White Hart Lane.
As for Southampton, while Nigel Adkins’ removal remains a controversial one, the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino hasn’t done any harm. As well as beating City, the Saints have earned draws with Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton since the turn of the year and should really have taken a point from Old Trafford last month.
The precarious position of both sides in the table – they are both four points clear of the relegation zone on 27 points – may dictate otherwise, but if they can shed their inhibitions, the contest on the undercard to Man City v Chelsea on Sunday could be as good, if not better, than the main event.
Watching all this football will make you hungry and lazy, so no need to leave the couch, just let the lads at Justeat.ie sort out your grub this weekend.
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