Premier League round-up & predictions

Morning.

There was Premier League action last night, and I decided I’d watch Sp*rs take on Newcastle at home. Not as a hate watch, although obviously there’s an element of that, but I thought it might actually be quite an entertaining game. It wasn’t really, although Newcastle were all over them in the first half.

11 shots to 4, one disallowed goal for a whisker-tight offside on former Gunner Joe Willock, and a 1-0 lead when they scored just before the break. There were resounding boos when the half-time whistle went. It did get to 1-1, but within a couple of minutes Newcastle took the lead again, and that’s how it ended up. If the boos at half-time were loud, the ones at full-time were … well, not quite as loud because half the crowd had already gone home, having spent some time singing about how their own manager was getting sacked in the morning.

Genuinely, it wouldn’t surprise me at all of if they got rid of Thomas Frank because their next game is against us and they’ll make a desperate play for the ‘new manager bounce’. They might also sack him because they’re getting dragged into a relegation fight. Only a late, late goal from Man Utd away at West Ham prevented the gap between Sp*rs and the relegation places being just 3 points this morning. Curse you Benjamin Sesko.

Elsewhere, Chelsea dropped points at home to Leeds, Bournemouth went to Everton and won 2-1, and as mentioned, Man Utd salvaged a last minute draw which ended their four game winning run. At this point, the big woolly-headed lad who won’t get his hair cut until they win five in a row either has to admit defeat, or start negotiations with some kind of industrial sheep shearing company because by the time that happens he’s going to look like curly Cousin It.

There are more games tonight, and here are my predictions.

Brighton v Aston Villa: Brighton have won just 2 of their last 13 games, but Villa have been a bit flaky of late. They have some problems in midfield after big John picked up a serious McGinnjury, but I think they’ll win this one. It’ll be something mad though, a 4-2 victory despite the fact they’ll have a negative xG, and Brighton will hit the bar about 5 times.

On Match of the Day this weekend you could see the Brighton owner was not at all happy at the end of their defeat to Crystal Palace, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was considering the future of Fabian Hurzeler. I see Roberto de Zerbi has been sacked by Marseille, maybe there’s a reunion on the cards.

Crystal Palace v Burnley: Having won their first Premier League game since December, Palace will be confident of building on that at home tonight. Their squad is stretched very thin, but Burnley are quite bad indeed. They just have so little about them as an attacking force, it’d be nigh on a miracle if they got something from this.

Man City v Fulham: The game between these two at Craven Cottage earlier in the season was mad. City were 5-1 up, Fulham got it back to 5-4, and put the frighteners on them in the final stages. I can’t see a repeat of that tonight though. Obviously I’m hoping our former Gunners can do us a favour, but I can’t help feeling Marco Silva is one of the most unlucky managers in the world, and even if they do stay in it, they’ll find a way to concede in the last minute to lose. Mostly though, I think City will turn them over with ease, and that’s something we’re going to have to contend with ahead of our game tomorrow night. I repeat, there’s no chance at all that this is anything other than a home win. Zero possibility. None. Mark my words.

Nottingham Forest v Wolves: A win for Forest would put them level on points with Sp*rs, heightening their relegation anxiety, so obviously Wolves will somehow win this one.

Sunderland v Liverpool: This could be a tasty one. On paper Liverpool are better, but Sunderland have been very good at home this season, and the way they put you under pressure with their physical intensity might cause the visitors some problems. Defensively they’ve been quite suspect this season, as their last game showed (grrr), and they’ll have to withstand plenty from Sunderland this evening. I still think they’ll just have a bit too much at the business end of the pitch though, but let’s see.

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So, we have all that to ‘look forward to’ later, as well as Mikel Arteta’s pre-Brentford press conference which takes place around lunchtime. We’ll have all the stories, if there are any beyond that annoying bloke from Sky trying to make it all about him with his insufferable gimmicky way of asking questions which makes everyone’s toes curl, on Arseblog News, and we’ll look ahead to the game properly with a preview podcast over on Patreon.

For now, have a good one.