No more irritating international breaks. It’s EPL all the way from now until the middle of May as Leicester sit just seven steps from title glory. A case can be made that every one of the ten Premier League games this weekend can affect the title race, the chase for Europe and the invitation nobody wants, this season known as ‘Aston Villa plus two’. It’s time to try and point you the dear Fourthofficial.com reader in the right direction with another ‘Three for the Weekend!’
Arsenal 2 Watford 0
Three weeks after the Hornet’s recorded a famous FA Cup victory at the Emirates they return to North London in the league but the outcome should be different this time. Arsenal have all but blown the title and I’m still struggling to work out how Arsene Wenger can placate the fans for next season. He has had plenty of practice at that though over the years and one of the reasons the pressure on him usually wanes is they start to go on a run when it’s all too late for this season but shows great promise for the next one.
I think Wenger is going to struggle to remain in situ moving forward regardless but they can beat Watford who deserve huge praise for their FA Cup run and first half of the EPL campaign but are now tailing off badly; In 2016, Quique Flores’ men have the same amount of league points as Aston Villa! That is a terrifying statistic but yet the men in yellow and black remain all but safe thanks to their early season league results and still have a trip to Wembley and a winnable FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace to look forward to.
Norwich 1 Newcastle 2
File this one under ‘must win’ for Rafa’s Toon. Lose at Carrow Road and Benitez’ rescue mission will all but be doomed as Newcastle would be six from safety with seven to play. An away win though and their chances of survival take on a completely different complexion. The last two matches in East Anglia between these sides have finished goalless but the only time Newcastle have looked anything other than desperate this season was when they walloped the Canaries 6-2 at St James’ Park back in October when they scored with all six of their six shots on target.
Norwich deserve credit for how they have tightened up defensively in recent weeks, keeping clean sheets against Manchester City and West Brom but if Newcastle can translate the last 30 minutes of their derby performance against Sunderland to the full 90 in East Anglia, they can start their run to recovery.
Stoke 3 Swansea 1
The loss of goalkeeper Jack Butland for the season is a big loss for Stoke but they have looked really sharp in recently with 13 points from a possible 18 and should see of Swansea comfortably. A penny for Shay Given’s thoughts this week, he started the international break on the bench for Stoke and Ireland and now looks poised to get back the goalkeeping spot for both club and country ahead of Euro 2016.
I’m sure they’ll be plenty of “I feel terrible for Jack/Rob Elliott (Rep. of Ireland keeper, also out for the season)’ but Given, three weeks away from 40, can surely not believe his luck. The Swans, ten points from the danger zone will feel like they have already done enough for the season and Mark Hughes’ side should be looking to push for a Europa League spot as their impressive recruitment demands European football, if not this season, certainly next.
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