Christmas is approaching and on Saturday a number of sides will be looking to secure important positions in the table which hold historical significance. Being top at Christmas is a nice thing to have behind you while being in the relegation zone is a dangerous place to be so an interesting day awaits us.
There is no early match on Saturday so there are no prizes where most eyes will be to begin with. That is at Stamford Bridge where a now Jose Mourinho-less Chelsea host Sunderland in a match which is suddenly a lot bigger for the home side than it should be.
Elsewhere at 3pm Man Utd play host to Norwich while leaders Leicester head to Everton in one of the matches of the day. Former Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino returns to St Mary’s with his Tottenham side and Alan Pardew takes his Crystal Palace team to take on Stoke. West Brom and Bournemouth complete the traditional slot kick offs at The Hawthorns.
After all that there is a big match at the bottom of the table where Newcastle host Aston Villa in a crunch game for both sides.
I’m not getting involved in many in the 3pm matches. Who knows how Chelsea will react to a frantic week off the field. I was very close to backing Crystal Palace on a handicap of some kind at Stoke but respect to Stoke, they don’t concede many and have just beaten Man City at home. Bournemouth were another I considered briefly.
In the end I have gone with just one bet in the 3pm matches and it comes at Goodison Park where the two hottest strikers in the Premier League will share the same pitch in Romelu Lukaku and Jamie Vardy.
Both Everton and Leicester are about more than just them but it has to be said that defence isn’t strong for either side at least in terms of goals conceded. Both sides like to get the ball down and attack. Everton like to apply pressure to sides while Leicester love to counter attack so this looks well set for an exciting game. Most games these two are involved in contain a number of goals and I expect at least three in this one if not a whole lot more.
In the later game it is very hard to ignore Newcastle at odds against. In fairness to Steve McClaren he did say when he arrived that it would take time for him to hammer down his philosophy on his players but the signs are appearing that he might finally have done that.
In the last two weeks Newcastle have beaten Liverpool and Tottenham and will be eyeing up a third straight win which will ease an awful lot of pressure.
Aston Villa look like a side who know their fate to me. Arsenal were far too good for them and there were periods in that match last week where the midlands side looked like they had given up for the season.
They can’t be as bad as they were in that first half again but that doesn’t mean that they will be good enough to get anything from this match. They still get opened up far too much in defence and still offer little the other way.
Newcastle haven’t had many comfortable wins this season but one they did have was against a similar strength Norwich side and that adds to the confidence I have in them here.
Back Everton vs Leicester – Over 2.75 goals for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
Back Newcastle to beat Aston Villa for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with Betfred
Blog football YTD: -58.87pts
