The English Premier League’s top two sides go head-to-head this weekend, as the EPL returns in full following a weekend off for the FA Cup Third Round.
Manchester City and Chelsea square up at the Etihad Stadium for the Saturday lunchtime kick off, with the hosts having prized open a yawning gap at the summit in recent weeks thanks to an insatiable 11 wins on the spin.
Four draws in the last five for Thomas Tuchel’s Blues have just about kept them second, albeit now ten points adrift of Pep Guardiola’s defending champions.
There was supposed to be a North London Derby to get stuck into at the other end of the weekend, too, with plenty more than pride riding on the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium contest between Spurs and Arsenal.
Antonio Conte’s hosts would have gone above the Gunners into fifth with a win, not to mention the two games in hand in their back pocket, only for Covid-19 to rear its head in the Arsenal camp.
Liverpool are also pressed into Sunday service at Anfield, with the goal to take advantage of any Chelsea or Manchester City-related slip-ups down the M62.
Brentford are the opposition for Jurgen Klopp’s Reds, who also have a match in hand on those around them.
West Ham and Leeds complete Sunday’s hat-trick of EPL fixtures when they renew hostilities at the London Stadium, with the Hammers having come out on top of Marcelo Bielsa’s side in the Cup last weekend.
Manchester United hit the road for the Saturday evening kick off when they go to Aston Villa.
The top four charge has stalled in recent weeks for boss Ralph Rangnick, with Steven Gerrard the Red Devils’ old foe in the home dugout.
A rival clash between Brighton and Crystal Palace starts the weekend’s programme on Friday night, as the south Londoners head down to the Amex Stadium on the south coast.
Four more Saturday afternoon fixtures, meanwhile, see Wolves continue their top six chase with a home game against Southampton at Molineux.
Everton can only dream of such ambitions as they limp along under Rafa Benitez but, bolstered by several January transfer window signings already, the Toffees go to Carrow Road to play a Norwich side that can’t buy a goal, let along a Premier League win.
Burnley are also deep in the relegation dogfight and had a job on their hands with Leicester visiting Turf Moor, only for a Covid-19 outbreak to see the match postponed.
And surely Newcastle can’t be as bad as they were at St James’ Park last weekend, can they?
We’ll find out if you can see through the tension, as Claudio Ranieiri’s ailing Watford limp up to Tyneside with a bit of hope after League One Cambridge dumped the Toon Army out of the FA Cup a week ago.
English Premier League predictions for 14 – 16 January
Prediction methodology explained: The expected win percentage is based off publicly available odds. For example, if a team’s odds are 2.30, the expected chance of winning is 43%. If the odds are 1.62 the expected chance of winning is 62% and so on. These are accurate at the time of writing but are subject to change. Where there is no value listed, the odds were not available at the time of writing.
