Friday, March 23rd, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
Premier League Preview: Week 30
By Arun
A lot of things have changed since last weekend in the race for the remaining CL spots. One of the ‘title challengers’ is trying to save their berth for the CL spot and the Untold analysis of referees suggests that one team in particular is getting a lot of help from the referees.
Arsenal had a magnificent midweek as we finally moved to the third place and with Chelsea losing we are 6 points clear of 5th place. Liverpool’s disastrous run continued as they threw away a 2-goal advantage to a battling QPR side ending any hope of champions’ league football, if there was any left. Perhaps, they are still busy celebrating the victory over Cardiff.
So, after an eventful mid-week, the league continues as we enter into the 30s. So, what’s in the store this weekend, let’s find out.
1. Chelsea (5) v Tottenham Hotspur (4) [ Saturday – 12:45]
It’s got to be the match of the weekend and stakes have been raised a lot due to recent performances by both of the teams. Wednesday saw the end of ‘the invincible’ streak of Chelsea under RDM as they lost to the returning hero of City Tevez. Their opponents who surrendered Europa league to focus on the premier league are yet to recover from their excitement of ‘magical 39 minutes at the Emirates’ (have they released the DVD yet???) but finally gained a point last week as they stopped their run of 3 straight defeats. Their last win in the league came back nearly one and a half months before.
Spurs are yet to win away from home this year in 4 away games losing 3 and 1 ending in a draw and they will not enjoy the prospect of meeting Chelsea during this slump considering that their 4 of last 5 visits to the Bridge have ended in a defeat.
A defeat for Chelsea might prove deadly for their hopes of Champions League football as they may find themselves 8 points off that elusive fourth place. Both teams will be keen on winning the FA Cup this season and might be their main aim if one falls too much behind in the race for the CL spots. Both teams also have to play in the mid-week as Chelsea visit Benfica and Spurs play their rescheduled cup tie against Bolton.
It’s going to be a difficult game to predict but I think Chelsea has the edge in it being the home team and their recent home performances against spurs. A draw will suit us the most though.
2. Arsenal (3) v Aston Villa (15) [Saturday – 15:00]
Arsenal finally won a game without going behind and we failed to produce a comeback victory. Well, ignoring comebacks we have won 6 games in a row and Villa have lost 2 of their last 3 games on the road. But they won here last year thanks to a ruled out perfectly valid Chamakh header and a non-awarded penalty to Arsenal.
But their hero on that day Bent is not gonna be here and Arsenal are yet to lose a non-televised game lasting a stretch of 18 months.
Villa are currently 15th in the table but their fans must worry about their remaining fixtures as they include the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U and Tottenham. But they are 10 points clear of the drop zone and should have no problems in the battle to stay up.
Villa haven’t got much to play for in the rest of the season but they must produce something special to get anything at Arsenal this weekend as they have won only one of their last 6 games in the league and 3 victories on the road in 14 games do not sound impressive either.
But they are the king of draws having played 12 already with 8 draws in away games. Overall, they have lost only 1 game more than Arsenal but Arsenal have won 10 more games than they have done during this season.
We won the reverse fixture thanks to a last gasp header from Yossi Benayoun but this time looking forward to an easy victory.
This game will be shown live in India after some great efforts were put by Arsenal fans to make sure that we got to watch the Everton game live, well done lads and we showed them that there are a lot of Arsenal fans in India and our voices can’t be ignored.
3. Stoke City (11) v Manchester City (2) [Saturday – 17:30]
City produced a good performance against Chelsea to avoid their 2nd defeat in a row while Stoke nearly extended Tottenham’s misery. Stoke has not been a good ground for Man City in the past with City yet to register a victory at the Britannia Stadium in the league since stoke were last promoted.
Stoke has failed to impress at home this season with only 6 wins out of 14 whereas Man City have lost 4 away from home all season long. Although Stoke have won their last 2 home games but these were their only victories in 9 games and before that they had not won at home since defeating Spurs. This fixture in the last season ended in a draw with Stoke city netting the equalizer in the 92nd minute.
Man City will be looking to go top, at least temporarily, with a win and they are the clear favourites to do so in the betting market and they have got their past messiah, Carlos Tevez back. It seems like he was bored of playing golf and wanted to play football again. Apparently, the same fans who threw their Tevez shirts in the trash container gave him a hero’s welcome in his return and hailed as been the man to give city the edge in the title race.
Another interesting thing to mention is the gap between the two matches against Chelsea and now Stoke with only 3 days whereas the rivals get a whopping 8 days to rest. I must say “Well done, Sky and FA”.
4. Manchester United (1) v Fulham (12) [Monday – 19:00]
Man U always get rest when they want it and this year it’s continuing like ever before. There really nothing to write in this preview as it is going to be a victory for Man U no matter how bad they play, no matter how good Fulham plays. Media will be just too busy praising them never mentioning the favour they receive from the referees.
But I will leave with the last stat that Fulham has only once managed to get all 3 points on the road in their last 9 games (against QPR) and only thing that is going to change this weekend is the increase of 9 to 10 games.
Enjoy the weekend as Arsenal increases their stronghold over the third spot.
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Our last match – how the referee did. Everton 0 Arsenal 1
Wrong calls by the refs. We compare Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man C, Man U, Tottenham
The season so far: Liverpool or Arsenal – which club is in the better position today?
How well do you know your Arsenal History? There are five quizzes about the 1971 Double on the Arsenal History Society site.
The Arsenal Way: the unique style of playing evolved under Mr Wenger