Premier League whopper weekend 12/13 December

Saturday, 12 December 2009
Birmingham v West Ham
Bolton v Man City
Burnley v Fulham
Chelsea v Everton
Hull v Blackburn
Man Utd v Aston Villa
Stoke v Wigan
Sunderland v Portsmouth
Tottenham v Wolverhampton

Sunday, 13 December 2009
Liverpool v Arsenal

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Some very good games once again in the Premier League this weekend.

The early game on sky sees a tense atmosphere in the home dressing room no doubt after a potential season killer story came out about a boxing/naked fight between Pulis and Beattie this week. Remarkably though a win for Stoke would put them a only a point behind Liverpool.

Man City will be on a high after a fantastic week, beating Arsenal comprehensively in the cup and then getting a big win against Chelsea. They go to a side who must be considered strong favorites for the drop this season, Bolton's squad is very poor and in recent weeks they've lost to Wolves and Blackburn - teams you'd expect to be in the scrap for survival at the end of the season.

Chelsea have had a bit of a wobble, getting knocked out the carling cup and losing to City before a pretty mediocre performance in the Champions League (not that it will bother them too much). They have a perfect game to get back on track this weekend against an Everton side who although produced a great comeback against Spurs last time out, are still without a win in the league in 4 games conceding 10 in the process.

United Vs Villa will be a close game IMO, Villa had a great weekend last time out, they're scoring goals whilst not conceding many, if they could get a result then they have to be considered serious contenders for that 4th spot.

Then of course perhaps the game of the weekend on sunday, this fixture last year was one of the games of the season, this time I think it will be a different story, Liverpool are badly lacking confidence in a disasterous season but if they can win this then Arsenal may be drawn into a battle for 3rd to 5th rather than a title challenge. Torres may start which will worry Arsenal as he's done very well against them recently.

MoTD looks worth watching on the Saturday for once

'cept I'm out

Spurs are practically guaranteed three points so the onus is on Villa, Citeh and Liverpool to get something out of their games.

Agree with that. Fully expect Spurs and City to get 3 points and a lot of goals.

Liverpool's game with Arsenal is crucial really, I can't think of any game this season where we've played brilliantly and that's worrying. If Arsenal perform we could get humiliated. I'm going, looking forward to it, been to some cracking games against Arsenal in the league and cups over the last few years.

Expected team:

-------------Reina-----------

---Johnson----Carra------Agger-------Insua

-------------Masch------Lucas--------------

----Kuyt-----------Gerrard-----------Riera/Aurellio

----------------------Torres------------------------

Bench: Cavlieria, Skrtel, Kyriakos, Aquilani,Ngog,Benayoun, Riera/Aurellio

Citeh will most probably draw. That would be a typically cityesque thing to do.

We could actually get 3 points this weeked!

Tweesus wrote:Citeh will most probably draw. That would be a typically cityesque thing to do.

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Got to think we've as good a chance as we'll ever have to get a result at OT, what with their injuries. Esp if Rooney is missing, as he usually scores against us.

Im off to the reebok not got the best record there and would be typical to drop points there but im confident we can do it. Only cost me £23 for lower tier, over the last 4-5 years ive spent £35 at least going there...should be good....i hope.

Fernando Torres and Alberto Aquilani could both start against Arsenal this weekend, Rafa Benitez today confirmed.

Related Links
Click here to watch our exclusive chat with Rafa>>

The boss will make late decisions on whether the pair are ready to begin the clash with Arsene Wenger's men after injury lay-offs.

Aquilani came through 75 minutes against Fiorentina on Wednesday after eight months out, while Torres was given 25 minutes following a groin problem.

Benitez said: "It was important for us to have Fernando back in midweek. We wanted to give him some minutes. He was quite sharp and felt okay after the game.

"We know he's a player who can make a difference, so we will decide in the next training session on Saturday.

"He has been working with the physios and training very hard."

On Aquilani, the boss added: "We always try to decide on the day because we want to see how the player trains first, but why not? We have to keep working and we will decide after Saturday's training session.

"Aquilani showed the quality he has against Fiorentina. The match fitness still has to improve but in terms of his vision, his passing was very good. We will see.

"He is a different type of player to what we have at this moment and we have to keep working with him."

Nabil El Zhar, Albert Riera and Martin Kelly are all out of Sunday's fixture.

Your season starts here...this is your weekend...and if it's not then next week is your week, or maybe next month is your month...is 2010 your year? is it time to start this season fresh again? If you win will you have turned the corner?

Our season is about getting to 4th place lrd, we all accept that and a win on sunday will go a long way to ensuring that does happen.

Just heard Rafa talking about starting fresh and again and hopefully a win will turn the corner, i just thought i had that 3 times already...and it's only december.

Anyway good luck on 4th, a loss will go a long way to ensure it doesn't

L r dd wrote:Just heard Rafa talking about starting fresh and again and hopefully a win will turn the corner, i just thought i had that 3 times already...and it's only december.

Anyway good luck on 4th, a loss will go a long way to ensure it doesn't

4th right now would be a great achievement, we've had awful injuries not in just one area of the pitch however all over, we also have the 5th highest wage bill, invested net spend -£0m this summer, lost a key player aswell.

It was always going to be difficult when we had overachieved last season to do anything but underachieve this season, particularly when considerng our injuries this season.

We are a top 4 team, financially we are a top 5 team....

We should learn to accept this and alter our expectations of the manager.

Festive Genius wrote:

L r dd wrote:Just heard Rafa talking about starting fresh and again and hopefully a win will turn the corner, i just thought i had that 3 times already...and it's only december.

Anyway good luck on 4th, a loss will go a long way to ensure it doesn't

4th right now would be a great achievement, we've had awful injuries not in just one area of the pitch however all over, we also have the 5th highest wage bill, invested net spend -£0m this summer, lost a key player aswell.

It was always going to be difficult when we had overachieved last season to do anything but underachieve this season, particularly when considerng our injuries this season.

We are a top 4 team, financially we are a top 5 team....

We should learn to accept this and alter our expectations of the manager.

Or....stop making excuses.

His net spend = Higher than Man Utd's and Arsenal's. Both this season and from the time he took over.

You have a squad of 150 players why does a few injuries matter? If Rafa overloads on junk his fault.

Man Utd had numerous injuries and still beat Wolfsburg away. While with aqua gerrard torres carragherand co all playing you still lost at home to fiorentina.

The other part i agree but for you it's hindsight really it's lrdsight....i said all this at the begnningof this season end of last. You overachieved so you'll struggle to match it.

While Glenn and co...we finished 2nd last season only a few points behind and now Man Utd lost Ronaldo and Tevez we'll surely grab the title....i don't think so.

Just a win will do, we've lost 4 points in the last 2 games, and whilst it looks like a home banker on paper, I'm still scarred by what happened against Stoke.

1-1 Stoke/Wigan after a dull first 35 mins the past five have been very entertaining.

Tuncay

I'm still amazed Fuller's still at Soke, usually when you slap your teammate on the pitch, it doesn't end well.

1-1 at halftime, glad to see Pulis hasn't tried to nakedly headbutt anyone yet.

Tuncay's a very talented footballer, good finisher, fearless and tricky to defend against. I think Stoke could be a really dangerous team if they added a bit more creativity. We know they're strong at the back and they have some physically tough players but a playmaker in midfield is something Pulis should be looking at.

Amazing goal from Figerau or how ever you spell it.

1420: TEAMS Birmingham v West Ham
Birmingham: Hart, Carr, Roger Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell, Larsson, Ferguson, Bowyer, McFadden, Jerome, Benitez. Subs: Maik Taylor, Phillips, Fahey, McSheffrey, O'Shea, Carsley, Vignal.
West Ham: Green, Faubert, Gabbidon, Tomkins, Ilunga, Stanislas, Parker, Noble, Kovac, Diamanti, Franco. Subs: Kurucz, Dyer, Spector, Da Costa, Nouble, Collison, Payne.
Referee: Lee Mason (Lancashire)

According to announcers Sorenson saved 5 out of 6 last penalties, incredible, this time he stopped Rodallega in 90th minute with 2-2 being the score at Britannia Stadium.

More FF points for most of us.

Green stopped I think 6 straight acouple of years ago.

Neill and Heitinga versus Anelka and Drogba, this won't be any fun

Spurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs

oooooooo! Everton score, peanut!!

Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaha. And Cech too .

May be a Cech own goal!

hahaha Bolton beating City!! could this be a day of shocks