The first Premier League fixtures of the New Year take place on Saturday as the top three in the table are all in action to kick 2016 into life.
January begins with a lunchtime clash between West Ham and Liverpool at Upton Park before a raft of 3pm matches which sees Arsenal hosting Newcastle, Leicester taking on Bournemouth, Southampton heading to Norwich, West Brom welcoming Stoke to The Hawthorns, Man Utd play Swansea and Sunderland host Aston Villa in a basement battle. The day concludes with Man City heading to Watford.
It isn’t often I get stuck in from the beginning but Liverpool look a little vulnerable to me in the early kick off. They were playing in heavy conditions at Sunderland on Wednesday night and barely 60hrs later have to compete against a slick West Ham side in London.
That won’t be easy it has to be said and Jurgen Klopp might need to rotate his personnel to ensure everyone is up and at it. Jordan Henderson might miss out here but Daniel Sturridge is in line to play a rare game.
West Ham are expecting to have Dimitri Payet available again which will be a real boost. He’s been one of the best players in the league this season and would improve any side he was playing for. Slaven Bilic has a good record against Liverpool as a manager and given West Ham’s freshness and confidence having returned to winning ways on Monday I think such a price on them on a +0.5 Asian line is too much to ignore.
Arsenal and Newcastle often play out high scoring matches and I’m expecting another one from them here. Arsenal are going well again at the minute but they showed on Boxing Day that there is still a flimsy side to them.
Newcastle have been opened up too easily all season but they’ve shown as the season has progressed that they can nick goals in the bigger matches. They took care of Liverpool not so long ago and won at Tottenham so there is enough to think there will be more goals here.
The last four at Arsenal have been 2-1, 7-3, 3-0 and 4-1 and there was a 4-4 at Newcastle not so long ago so fireworks arrive when these two collide and I expect someone to light the match here too.
Leicester didn’t have the Christmas that they wanted but they have the chance to make up for it against Bournemouth on Saturday. Bournemouth were beaten at Arsenal on Monday night and face another tough match here.
Although the Cherries had some good results against some big named sides recently you have to wonder all things being equal just how good their results against Chelsea, Everton and Man Utd were given what those three clubs have produced in recent times.
Leicester certainly can’t have that accusation thrown at them. They have been a joy to watch. They have gone on the front foot and attacked and that is how I expect them to play here with the likes of Vardy and Mahrez opening Bournemouth up regularly.
It was like the Foxes adopted a ‘we won’t lose’ mentality against Man City in midweek and why wouldn’t they given their respective league positions but this is a match they can attack and generally this season when Bournemouth have been attacked with pace and quality they’ve been exposed. That can happen again here.
Finally I just can’t have a game at Old Trafford where I can’t take Man Utd on even this weekend when they face Swansea. Granted Swansea aren’t the best side going around but they were seconds away from holding a rampant Man City side at the Etihad not so long ago and edged out West Brom over Christmas to boost their survival hopes.
United are under all sorts of pressure at the minute and haven’t looked like scoring too often in recent times. If those struggles continue it might be that Swansea nick one somewhere and take advantage for a massive three points at a big price.
In the other matches I’d expect Southampton to be too good for Norwich but they’re up and down like anything. Sunderland and Aston Villa have me screaming for the hills and I’m just not quite sure about taking Watford to see off Man City given how well the away side played in midweek.
Back West Ham (+0.5AH) to beat Liverpool for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with BetVictor
Back Arsenal vs Newcastle – Over 3 goals for a 4/10 stake at 1.87 with BetVictor
Back Leicester to beat Bournemouth for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Sportingbet
Back Swansea to beat Man Utd for a 1/10 stake at 8.00 with BetVictor
