Andy's Sunday tips - Chelsea will recover
The fight for fifth and relegation battle are likely to take plenty of twists and turns on Sunday with five matches taking place. Here's how I see it all going...
Chelsea v Newcastle
There's not much Chelsea can do now other than just trying to finish the season as well as possible. Results this year this may mean a change of manager over the summer and if that's the case all the players on show will want to put in good performance because they can be pretty sure any new boss will be watching a video of this game.
Besides, it's the last home match of the season and they'll want to provide good entertainment for the fans, who have supported them well throughout a campaign that must ultimately be viewed as a poor one.
There will be an inquiry over the summer into how a side who started the season so well ended up winning nothing and the form of Fernando Torres will be a whole other issue.
All those are concerns are for another day though and whatever went wrong elsewhere, Chelsea's home form against mid-table teams was actually pretty good. With not much to play for themselves and the summer break on their minds, I think Newcastle could be on the wrong end of a pretty convincing defeat here.
Recommended Bets:
Back Chelsea to win at [1.25]
Back Chelsea to win 3-0 at [10.0]
Back Chelsea to keep a clean sheet at [2.0]
Arsenal v Aston Villa
I think I've spent more time on this site trying to work out what went wrong with Arsenal this season than discussing anything else.
Everyone will have their own views and I suspect Arsene Wenger will have his own ideas too but the truth is that a team with as good a manager as the Frenchman and a side as richly talented as this one just can't go on this long without winning something. Or at least they shouldn't be allowed to.
Unlike Chelsea or Newcastle though, Arsenal have plenty to play for in this match. If they were to finish fourth they'd have to try to get into the Champions League via the play-off route and you never know who you might end up facing in that.
The likes of Bayern Munich could well end up being their opponents at the last hurdle and that's not really the sort of team you want to be facing at any time, let alone that early on in the season.
Arsenal were massively disappointing on Sunday against Stoke and few would argue the home win wasn't a deserved result. I think the Gunners have got one big performance left in them this season though and I fancy them to beat a Villa side, who rather like Newcastle, may already be thinking about sunny beaches rather than 90 minutes of chasing shadows on a warm afternoon.
Recommended Bets:
Back Arsenal to win at [1.4]
Back Arsenal to win 2-0 at [8.0]
Back Theo Walcott to score at [3.6]
Andy's predictions for Sunday's non-televised encounters...
Birmingham v Fulham
I expect a home win against a side low on confidence after a horror performance against Liverpool on Monday.
Recommended Bets: Back Birmingham to win at [2.18]; 2-1 at [10.0]
Liverpool v Tottenham
There are no prizes for guessing who's in the better form going into this match and I think that will have shown by the time the final whistle has been blown.
Recommended Bets: Back Liverpool to win at [1.8]; 3-1 at [17.0]
Wigan v West Ham
This is a six-pointer if ever I've seen one and one in which Wigan should come out on top. But will it be enough?
Recommended Bets: Back Wigan to win at [2.2]; 1-0 at [10.0]
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Published: 14 May 2011
gary (May 14, 2011 7:01 PM) said:
A CHELSEA PLAYER ANALYSIS:
Players that never were top quality: Ferreira, Bosingwa
Players much slower than they once were: Terry, Essien, Lampard, Malouda, Drogba.
Players that are over-rated: Kalou, Mikel, Zhirkov, Torres.
Players that are under-rated: Benayoun.
Players that are selfish in possession: Torres, Drogba, Anelka, Malouda.
Players that should still have a long future at Chelsea: Cech, Luiz, Cole, Ivanovic, Ramires.
Players that would inspire Chelsea: Subotic (centre back), Van De Wiel (right wing), Neymar (striker).
-If Torres was signed in place of Neymar, the mistake must be corrected quickly.
-A play-maker in a similar class to Silva or Modric is needed.
-A big summer clear-out will be dangerous, but brave changes are needed.