City of Manchester to be united by wins

PREMIERSHIP

Chelsea vs Hull
With Hazard, Willian and Terry rested from midweek Champions League chores, and a few others lacking match practice given a much welcome run-out (Schurrle for one), Chelsea will be fresh enough to hand out to Hull the backlash expected from the arguably premature and hugely painfully loss of their unbeaten record. Along with Southampton and Stoke, Hull have had a quite gruesome fixture list lately and, despite clearly being better than their results from therein, I am afraid there will be no improvement in those stakes this weekend. Home win

Leicester vs Man City
Here is a small window of opportunity for struggling Leicester to cause a huge upset and shake up the Premiership the way they did early on in beating Man United.

That window is slightly ajar because of Man City’s huge injury list and especially the loss of goal machine Sergio Aguero, as well as the midweek trip to Rome and the physical and mental exertions in Europe for the English champions. Somehow though, I doubt that Leicester will seize that opportunity. Away win

Arsenal vs Newcastle
One might be tempted to give Newcastle a big chance following their heroics against Chelsea last weekend and the confidence they must have drawn from that performance and result, until one recalls that the Magpies always seem to produce their best against the Blues up north at St James Park. Down in North London at the Emirates, it is highly unlikely that they will replicate that defensive application and clinical finishing, against an Arsenal team that will be pouring forward desperately and relentlessly. Home win

Man United vs Liverpool
Contested extremely passionately, over the last decade or so this derby of the reds has always been turned on its head by stuff out of the blue. Red cards (Vidic, Mascherano, Hyppia), unexpected goal heroes (Forlan, Ferdinand, Rafael), set-piece expertise (Murphy, Gerrard), controversial refereeing calls, individual genius (Luis Suarez) etc; although on some occasions it has been decided by natural born goals scorers (Owen, van Nistelrooy, Torres, Chicarito, Van Persie and Sturridge).

Makes it hard to predict, and rarely goes according to form. I will say more about these two in my column in the SCORE magazine in tomorrow’s paper, but after putting their vulnerabilities and weaknesses into consideration, I am tempted to go with United only because of Liverpool’s struggles in front of goal. Home win

BUNDESLIGA

Augsburg vs Bayern
Bayern were able to rest a few bodies for the CSKA Moscow game in midweek because they had sealed their Champions League fate earlier. They are not being allowed to enjoy themselves in front of goal as much as their firepower would warrant, but they are still getting the job done. Away win

Hertha Berlin vs Dortmund
With the stubbornness I had professed to earlier, I called for Dortmund to beat Hoffenheim last weekend and then watched heart-in-mouth as they somehow managed to shut out such a high-scoring team while continuing to miss chances of their own.
They eventually edged it, and could surprise with a second on the trot with similar spirit, against inform Kalou, Scheiber and co. Away win

Schalke vs Cologne
Home win & Over

Hoffenheim vs Frankfurt
Over

Wolfsburg vs Padeborn
Home win

SERIE A
Juve vs Sampdoria
They couldn’t find the back of the net (again) in the Champions League, this time against a tough Atletico Madrid side, but don’t count on that happening in the Serie A very often. Certainly not this weekend.
Home win

Genoa vs Roma
Draw

AC Milan vs Napoli
Draw

Chievo vs Inter
Away win

LA LIGA

Almeria vs Real Madrid
Not enough respite for the La Liga leaders after their Champions League errand on Tuesday night, but they won’t be any respite for their hosts either in this Friday fixture. Away win

Getafe vs Barcelona
The big three – Messi, Neymar and Suarez – are finally getting onto the same wavelength. Bad news for all in La Liga and Europe. Away win

Valencia vs Vallecano
Home win

Sevilla vs Eibar
Home win

Ateltico Madrid vs Villarreal
Home win

Sociedad vs Bilbao
Draw

LIGUE ONE

Guingamp vs PSG
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani and company are destined to vent out all their frustration from the midweek loss to Barcelona on their hosts this weekend.
Away win

Monaco vs Marseille
Marseille will look to take advantage of their good rest against midweek Euro heroes Monaco, but in the Principality home comforts could count for something too. Draw

Lyon vs Caen
Home win

Nice vs St Etienne
Away win

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