Brighton 2-2 Chelsea
Over Xmas, Chelsea won at Spurs and Arsenal – yet lost at home to Bournemouth and Southampton. So, it’s hard to know which Chelsea will show up…
Burnley 2-0 Aston Villa
Given the hard years they have had you would think that this would be the one Xmas Villa fans would be happy.
Yet talk is they want Dean Smith out, despite being the man who got them back into the Premiership. Defensively they are not good enough for this level but have enough firepower to stay up.
Newcastle 0-2 Leicester
It will be fascinating to see how both teams approach this. Leicester like to counterattack but how positive will Newcastle be? The Foxes may have to change their approach…
Saints 2-2 Spurs
If this was a month ago, I would have called this an away banker. Yet this is the most confident the Saints have been all season, especially with Danny Ing’s scoring form. Having someone who can get you 12-15 goals can be the difference between relegation and survival. If Spurs play like they did at Norwich they will drop points.
Watford 1-1 Wolves
Watford clearly needed just that one result to boost their confidence, and I think they will now put a run together. Wolves have put a lot into their last two games, so it might be a good time to play them.
Manchester City 2-2 Everton
The reason City have not been able to compete with Liverpool is they keep having moments in defence where they will do something silly. I also think the standards Pep Guardiola sets are so high it’s hard to maintain every year. Everton, suddenly confident under Carlo Ancelotti, will believe they can trouble the Champions back 4.
Norwich 2-1 C Palace
This is a game which Norwich should be on the front foot. They realize they are not good enough to be parking the bus. Attacking football nearly got them the win over Spurs and with a bit of luck it will here.
West Ham 1-0 Cherries
So West Ham have appointed the manager who wasn’t good enough the last time he was interim boss and 18 months feels like a compromise. Moyes will keep them up (which I think Pellegrini would have) but we will be discussing in the summer his negative style of football.
Arsenal 1-0 Man United
It’s so nice to actually be gutted to lose a game because we played so well, which didn’t happen enough in 2019
That’s why I’m fairly positive after the Chelsea defeat, there’s such a thing as how you lose, if we play like that every match, we will be fine. It’s nice to see us have some kind of identity and a plan which will only get better the longer Arteta has to work with the group. The only worry is how quickly we tired..
Liverpool 1-0 Sheff United
Liverpool have picked up the knack of winning games without playing well. They easily could have dropped points at home to Wolves. I can see that carrying on here against United who have, so far, been one of the closest sides to beating the Reds in the League.