Considering regular mid-week rounds give me headaches, you’ll forgive me for being completely at odds as to what is going on with Week 33 of the Premier League.
There’s a couple of clubs playing twice, some matches are supposed to have been this weekend and there’s a bunch that were postponed earlier in this season that will now be played here.
Who really knows what is doing, but there’s eleven matches spanning seven days and plenty of opportunities to get involved.
Fancy if this is as good as it got in Week 33. You’d call it all off and never watch again. Thankfully, it’s just about as bad as it gets in Week 33, certainly during the working week anyway and you’d almost be able to hold your breath and it’ll be done. I can’t find an angle I’m particularly keen to pursue – Watford probably wins comfortably, but they’re far too short.
United are warming up for next week’s Champions League quarterfinal against Barcelona and I think they’ll want to make light work of this inconsistent Wolves outfit. Solskjaer is locked in and they’ve been terrific under his care; they righted a disappointing loss to Arsenal with a win over Watford most-recently and look well positioned for a strong run home. They’ve registered some excellent results but have remained capable of a shocker; case in point their 2-0 loss to Burnley last weekend. This looks a pretty tough task for them. There’s still plenty of meat on the bone and even money looks a nice bet.
Honestly, what chance do Cardiff fare of even competing in this? They’re struggling to get out of the relegation zone and are faced with one of the world’s best current clubs. City will be winning this one and winning well.
Spurs’ recent form reads worse that all but one other club in the Premier League. Four losses and a draw from their five most-recent league fixtures. At this point, you’d think Brisbane Roar could give them a competitive match. THAT bad. They do still remain third in overall standings, but anything less than a win this week could and probably would see them drop as low as sixth. They meet a Palace side that has been a thorn in the side of several big clubs this season, but who have also been mixing their form of late. Surely this is an ideal opportunity to snap the streak and regather a little confidence.
The David and Goliath round continues on Thursday morning and could Mat Ryan and co. have a real chance of continuing Chelsea’s reasonably lean run? No. Not really. Brighton’s run of two-consecutive wins was stemmed by Southampton last week, while Chelsea bounced back into the winner’s stall by beating Cardiff in Wales. There’s a pretty big class difference between these two sides and in London, it could be a long night for the Seagulls.
Liverpool will be attempting to leapfrog City back into the lead (at least for the time being) when they travel south into Saints territory on Saturday morning. Other than an understandable loss to City and a draw with the old enemy Everton, Liverpool’s record has been blemish-free for a long time and they’ll be eager to put on a show here, in the lead-up to the Champions League quarters. Southampton have actually been pretty bloody good of late and will be seeking a hat-trick of wins after knocking off Spurs and Brighton. This, however, is surely a bridge too far.
The bookies have been kind to the Terriers, I’m assuming only because they’re playing at home, but they are massive unders to beat Leicester at $4.50 and I can’t wait to box the Foxes up in about ten different multis this weekend. Huddersfield are all but assured relegation are have been offering little resistance in their matches all season. Leicester look set for a strong top ten finish and have won their last three league matches. They look good for another.
Certainly not two of the league’s better performers, but recently results and form suggest this will be one of the better contests in Week 33. Their incredible early season form is a bit of a forgotten memory, but they have still be doing enough to hang around the middle of the table and the Cherries simply will not be offered a better opportunity to return to winning form. Can Burnley pull off a second-consecutive win as outsiders? It’d take a braver man than me to predict it.
Less than surprising to see Newcastle entering a match off the back of a loss but to be fair, it was against a fair Arsenal side and Crystal Palace looms as a far better prospect for success. I think it’s fair to say that a lot will hinge on Palace’s performance against Spurs earlier in the round and I’ll be happy to watch that before fully committing to a result. Perhaps a little bit of early value in backing a low-scorer.
A pretty similar situation to that Palace match, but obviously a far better contest looks like materialising when the Gunners travel to Goodison Park. Arsenal pulled themselves back into third place after beating Newcastle on Tuesday morning and if they can produce something similar, they’d be a pretty tough task for Everton, even at home. Their recent form has been excellent and I’m happy to keep riding them until they fall over.
This will also be Chelsea’s second match of the round but come on, there’s a pretty clear class difference here.