A full complement of ten matches lie ahead in Game Week 27 and the race to second hits fever pitch when Leicester host Manchester City.
Other standout matches include Saturday night’s opener between Chelsea and Spurs, and a ninth-place showdown between Arsenal and Everton.
What a way to begin the weekend’s fixtures. London Derbies don’t come much bigger than this, certainly these days, and there’s a lot more on the line when Chelsea host Spurs on Saturday night.
It’s still not a premiership, but Chelsea’s performances under Frank Lampard have been far more comparative to a European-quality side and they enter this fourth on the ladder, with scope to continue the climb. A win over Tottenham would see them go four points clear of fifth and realistically, could make all the difference come season’s end.
Spurs are the formed side of these two, however and are seeking a fourth win in succession. A scrappy win over the lowly Villa last week does leave a lot to the imagination though, and they’d need to improve tenfold to take all the points here.
Palace and Newcastle have both been pretty bloody awful recently, but that probably means that we’ll be treated to a competitive match at Selhurst Park this week.
Things are dire for the Eagles – they’re winless in their last seven league matches and really have only been saved by how bad everyone else is at this end of the table. To be fair, their last couple of games have been against tough opponents and this does represent an excellent opportunity for them.
Newcastle are winless in three and were flogged by Arsenal last week, having just scraped past Oxford United in the FA Cup the week prior. Yuck, yuck, yuck.
Maty Ryan and Aaron Mooy’s Brighton travel to Sheffield Game Week 27 and surely, will need to be at their best to steal a win.
The Blades have been nothing short of outstanding during their first season back in the Premier League and remain a realistic hope of nicking a Euro berth. They’ve won two in a row leading into this and only leaked a single goal against City three back.
Brighton haven’t been the most trustworthy side again this season and they remain a live hope of demotion. To their credit, they’ve only lost one of their last four matches, but they are also winless in that time.
More than happy to be with Sheffield to make it a hat-trick.
Sunday morning’s Burnley vs Bournemouth match at Turf Moor looks like being this week’s fixture that could be anything.
The Clarets have won three of their last four, drawing on the other occasion to lift themselves away from danger for the time being. Another victory in this would be enormous for their season.
Bournemouth meanwhile remain perilously close to the drop zone after suffering another defeat last weekend. This time it was Sheffield United, which is probably a fair result, and they were victorious at their two matches prior to that.
Though I sincerely believe either side would win this, I think that Burnley will want it more. Happy to take the value around them as favourites.
Southampton aren’t very good, and Villa are even worse. This will be an absolute snooze fest for the neutrals, as well as the fans of these two clubs.
The Saints were understandably destroyed by Liverpool two back but squandered an excellent opportunity to bounce back when they lost to Burnley at home, last week. This isn’t any harder than that but boy, are they hard to trust.
Villa are a single point outside of the bottom three and for mine, will eventually be one of the three clubs relegated to the Championship this time around. They did muster a competitive performance against Spurs last week and a repeat of that would find them tough to beat here, but I’m not sure they can do that two weeks in a row and away from home.
One of the more intriguing matches of the round takes us to King Power Stadium on Sunday night, where the third-placed Leicester host the second-placed City. A win for either side would go a long way towards securing the ‘best of the rest’ tag, behind Liverpool.
Leicester have obviously been a revelation again this season, it’s just a shame that it has happened in a year when Liverpool are unbeatable. They look good to play European football again.
City haven’t been a shadow of their usual selves all season and this Champions League farce is sure to still be burned into their minds.
I can’t figure out why Leicester have been priced as long as they have, and I’m actually eager to have a throw at the stumps.
Wolves are offered a soft kill in the form of the bottom-placed Norwich City early on Monday morning.
Wolves’ presence in England’s topflight really hasn’t wavered since they returned and they are on the short and narrow towards another top ten finish. They’re actually winless in their last three league matches, but clearly this is their best opportunity to bounce back into the winner’s stall so far.
Norwich’s fate is nearly all but sealed and a return to the Championship will probably be the best thing for England’s noted yo-yo club. They only leaked the one goal to Liverpool last week, but they surely won’t manage a result better than that in Wolverhampton.
Manchester United hold winning form and look well placed to continue that past Watford in Week 27.
United are a massive shambles, but their win over Chelsea last weekend was class and prior to that, it was a credible draw with Wolves. Love them or hate them, there’s no denying that have a massive edge over the Hornets.
Unfortunately for everyone at Watford, a return to the Championship looks to be on the cards. They haven’t won in four league matches now and it’s tough imagining them reversing that this week.
The consistently consistent Arsenal and Everton lock horns in the week’s penultimate fixture and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it looks like being one of the better matches of the week.
Obviously neither has been setting the league on fire, but they’ve also not been losing, and each enter this off the back of a quality win.
It’s tough imagining either side really taking this one by the scruff of the neck and I’m happy to sit on the fence.
Wowee.
Surely no one has anything to say about this one, other than West Ham won’t be the first team to defeat Liverpool in the league this season.