It's another match week of Premier League, and last match week almost every top team failed except Tottenham and City. It's time for the rest to bounce back if they want to stay in the top four. The most interesting about mid-week games is that you never really know who the managers will play, especially after most of the teams failed. We might see Giroud, Zlatan, Wilshere, etc play from start. Nobody knows. Here's a review of three of this mid-week matches. Take a look, and feel free to share your thoughts.
Burnley - Stoke
Not an interesting match to do a preview for, but as it's the first match of this match week, I thought it would make sense. Heaton is still out with injury, but that has proven to be no problem for Burnley. Pope, together with the Burnley defense, has shown what they are capable of. Five clean sheets out of eight matches at home is a truly amazing accomplishment for a team like Burnley. Mee should be back in the defense, which is another boost for Burnley coming into this match. A victory against Watford gave Burnley a boost and a belief that they can now enter the top 4. Meanwhile, everything seems perfect in Burnley, it's the opposite in Stoke. Jese is still not back, and Shaqiri seems like the only player able to do the job for Stoke. Unfortunately, he couldn't do it all alone against Spurs. Stoke lost 5-1, which has given them the worst preview for another away game they could have imagined. I think we will see a low scoring game, with the chances of a Burnley clean sheet way bigger than a Stoke victory. Defensive players from Burnley seems like the only players to buy, and Shaqiri in case Stoke finds the back of the net. I expect a 1-0, adding another clean sheet to the tally.
Missing or doubtful players: Heaton, Brady, Marney, Walters, Mee, Lowton (Burnley) and Ireland, Indi, Jese (Stoke)
Swansea - Manchester City
Coming straight from a derby victory, Manchester City has another away match, but this seems like it's just a bit easier. Especially when you take in mind, that Manchester City didn't play Bernardo Silva, Agüero, and Danilo who are set to play this one. This shows the immense depth of Manchester City. I expect Manchester City to dominate from the very first minute until the end. As mentioned Agüero, Bernardo Silva, and Danilo are likely to start, but we might also see Toure, Mangala, and Gündogan, as Guardiola is set to rotate quite a lot. These players are just a gamble to buy, as you don't really know if they will only play this match in the coming fixtures. Probably not, but the only players who seem certain to get a decent amount of minutes are De Bruyne, Silva, Ederson, Jesus, Agüero, Sterling, and Sane. That's it. The rest is a gamble. I would not suggest you buy any players, as this is a mid-week game, and they are always hard to predict. Even though Guardiola is set to change his starting eleven quite a lot, I still predict a City victory with at least a two-goal margin.
Missing or doubtful players: Bartley (Swansea) and Mendy, Stones, Kompany (Manchester City)
West Ham - Arsenal
It will hurt my heart doing this preview. West Ham is coming from an incredible victory against Chelsea, while Arsenal comes from a disappointing draw against Southampton. Because of these results, this is likely to be a very interesting match, where I actually don't see Arsenal win. I, of course, hope so, but there are certain factors that are working against them at the moment. Ramsey is out, making it likely for Wilshere to have his first Arsenal start in Premier League for a long time. Mustafi is still out, and after Mertesacker's bad performance, we might see Holding play. And...Holding is shit. Bellerin also seems far from his best, and so did Koscielny against Southampton. West Ham, on the other hand, has finally found their way after being lost for quite some time. West Ham is a hard-working team with players like Antonio, Noble, etc who will run until they collapse. Still, it might just be too tough of a challenge for Noble, Antonio etc to play two London derbies within 4 days. This derby might be more interesting than the one they just won, as minimum three goals have been scored in the last six encounters between the two teams. I expect 2-2.
Missing or doubtful players: Byram, Fonte, Collins, Kouyate (West Ham) and Cazorla, Ramsey, Mustafi, Walcott (Arsenal)
Match Prediction Game
The Match Prediction Game is simple. For all the matches you will have to predict the outcome.
For example:
Arsenal - Leicester
1- Arsenal will win
X - Draw
2 - Leicester will win
Copy Paste the text below and add your predictions in the comment!
Burnley - Stoke
Crystal Palace - Watford
Huddersfield - Chelsea
Newcastle - Everton
Southampton - Leicester
Swansea - Man City
Liverpool - West Brom
Man Utd - Bournemouth
Spurs - Brighton
West Ham - Arsenal
Overview post of gw16 and payouts are delayed due to transactions requiring key input on each transaction nowadays which takes up a lot of time. Will be sent off in a batch soon once.
