EPL 2016/17 - Game Week 23

Chelsea are in prime position and could not ask for better favours from the chasing pack. Liverpool has everything - home ground against the worst team but lost. Manchester United nearly lost but drew. Manchester City and Tottenham made no new ground with a draw. Arsenal scraped a last gasp winner. Chelsea are now clear favourites and another exciting week lies ahead but no matches during the Lunar New Year and only from 1 February. Sigh.

Bournemouth v Crystal Palace - The Cherries have been rather poor in their last three outings and saw them dropped to 12th place. The consolation is that they are playing host to Palace who have not won a league match nine games ago in early December. Sam Allardyce and his Palace were really unfortunate to concede a late goal in the 87th minute to Everton last week. While Bournemouth is good their current form suggest that Palace could get a bit of reward here with a point. Perhaps Callum Wilson and William Zaha could score one apiece. 1-1. 

Arsenal v Watford - The Gunners struggled to beat Burnley. They gave away a late penalty in the 90th minute for Burnley to level and then got their own penalty to win immediately after and are now in second spot. What drama! In between, Arsene Wenger pushed the fourth official and is now in trouble. Question is are Arsenal back in the hunt and breathing down Chelsea's neck or was that an indication of stalling again? It shall be addressed in this match. Watching the Gunners about their business in the F.A. Cup, you must believe that they could do something more as they welcomed back Danny Welbeck who has been absent what seemed to be ages ago and he scored a beautiful brace and a Theo Walcott  hattrick away to Southampton who made Liverpool sweated over two legs in the League Cup and won both home and away. 0-5 to Arsenal. Impressive! Watford did well at Bournemouth but faltered at Milwall in the F. A.Cup. A loss or even a draw would be a big surprise. Arseanl win.  3-0.

Burnley v Leicester - Burnley played very well when they visited the Emirates but lost by a whisker but Leicester seem to be their bogey team as they have never beaten them in the last ten. The Foxes' last four visit to Turf Moor ended in victory. This could be encouraging but when I saw Leicester's defeat by Soutahmpton. I thought they looked really bad. They will need to scrape for points even just for one. 1-1.

Middlesborough v WBA - Boro's last league match was to crash 1-3 against a resurgent West Ham while the Baggies recovered from that sound 4-0 spanking by Tottenham to register a 2-0 win over Sunderland. History are against Boro and they continued to being not able to convert their good play into points. The home side can pull off a draw but WBA are in proper gear to  get a win. 1-2. 

Sunderland v Tottenham - After escaping relegation so many seasons at the last minute, you can say that they are the most experience team at the rear end of the business. However, the Black Cats must not temp fate and they have to grab whatever points that could be salvaged and the problem now is they have not beaten Tottenham in 13 meetings previously with the last four all losses. At home, Sunderland, David Moyes will try to be brave and make it tough for their visitors but Tottenham is too good. Only thing is that Jermaine Defoe is capable of popping one in. 1-3.

Swansea v Southampton - The Swans has escaped the lowest three by two points thanks to that precious win over Liverpool. Question is - was Swansea really good when they surprised everyone and even themselves when they had Liverpool beaten 3-2 at Anfield since Liverpool is capable of tripping? I must say while Liverpool tripped, you must give credit to Paul Clement and hi Swansea team for a truly great performance. Meanwhile, the Saints after thumping Leicester and beating Liverpool away in the League Cup was completing torn apart 0-5 by a visiting Arsenal where a returning Danny Welbeck scored a marvellous brace with a Theo Walcott hattrick. Southampton has a superior head to head record but surely after winning at Anfield, the inspiration would be sustained a bit longer. 1-0.

Liverpool v Chelsea - Fact - Liverpool have not won this year. Chelsea continued to look dominant. The Reds'collapse at Anfield to Swansea was spectacular. 2nd in position taking on the rock bottom team with low morale at home and they crashed. It is one thing to concede due to the opponents brilliant attacking move but yet another to concede silly goals. It is never easy to come back from two down which they did and then promptly conceded yet another. They followed that by crashing to Southampton at home in the second leg League Cup tie and continued the downward spiral with a home 1-2 loss to Wolves in the F.A Cup. Earlier in the season, Liverpool was everyone's second favourite team because they were playing beautiful, exciting soccer. I have mentioned that at times they were unplayable, meaning when they turn it on no one could stop them. They could beat anyone. But not anymore. Now you are thinking when will they win.

Liverpool have a good record against Chelsea and in their last match which was a trip to Stamford Bridge, they gave an outstanding display and won 2-1 but that was in September. Base on current form and confidence level, many will take Chelsea. But we need to remember that Liverpool often excels against the big teams. Mane will be back, just not sure if he is jet-lagged and fit. Chelsea shall be more cautious too and not attack with abundance. Costa and Hazard are in fine form and could destroy Liverpool in a jiffy. Firmino, Mane, Lallana and Coutinho will have to be at their best. This is an important test as now Liverpool have only the league left to focus on. 2-2.

West Ham v Manchester City - Dimitri Payet, who had such a great last season with the Hammers is no more a he was finally sold to Marseille for 25 million pounds. He was so good that it took a fantastic season of Riyad Mahrez of Leicester to pip him as the Player of the season and West Ham have recovered from their early start and now have Andy Carroll buzzing and scoring for fun. When they last met in the cup, City won 5-0 away. In form Carroll will be a threat but City may be too strong for West Ham at the moment unless Guardiola makes a bad judgement and the Hammers play above themselves. 1-2.

Manchester United v Hull - This is a repeat of the two legged league cup ties. United won 2-0 at Old Trafford but lost 1-2 at Hull. Hull's record against them is dismal. While the Red Devils are improving they are not getting the results as they pleased. Hull have shown that they can be beaten and they need the points for survival. Will the loss of Robert Snodgrass weaken them? Ibrahimovic should start scoring again. Meanwhile, to those who saw Rooney crashed in that goal in the 90+ minute to earned a point from Stoke and beating Bobby Charlton's record with his 250th goal must admit it was a world class beauty and worthy of the record. This was achieved after he had also beaten Charlton's England record of 49 goals where luminaries like Alan Shearer, Gary Linker did not achieved. Rooney started young and at 19, he terrorised European defences in the Championship. He was touted to be in the class of Messi and Ronaldo. Except for Euro2004, I could not agree. Anyway, the record stays with him and he may come in and pop another. 2-0.

Stoke v Everton - Stoke broke Mourinho's heart leading United till Rooney broke theirs with that exquisite goal. Everton gave City a real spanking and followed up with an away goal at Palace. Peter Crouch, Arnautovic are on form. So are Lukaku and they have a Tom Davies, remember? 2-2.