The English Premier League cracks on with three midweek fixtures and some big names in action, as the EPL keeps the show on the road on Tuesday and Wednesday amid a bundle of Covid-19 postponements.
Manchester United are in the spotlight as they head south to play Brentford on Wednesday night.
Early flickers of progress under interim coach Ralph Rangnick have been dampened at Old Trafford, with United winning just one of their last four to slip off the top four pace.
The West Midlands hasn’t been their friend either, with Saturday’s crumble to a 2-2 draw with Aston Villa following hot on the heels of home defeat to Wolves.
Seventh place in the Premier League table belongs to the Red Devils coming into the midweek action, while the Bees are mooching around in 14th.
Chelsea are in a far worse run of form, albeit from a loftier starting point, with the Blues’ title tilt behind Manchester City collapsing in a heap in recent weeks.
Defeat to Pep Guardiola’s men at the Etihad Stadium last time out rather put the tin hat on things, with Thomas Tuchel’s side needing to regroup sharpish if they are to push beyond Liverpool in the battle for second.
Their next test comes on Tuesday at Brighton, who are unbeaten in four and continuing to win admirers under the charge of Graham Potter.
Tottenham are in good shape to push London rivals Arsenal and West Ham all the way for a place in the top four and will be confident in heading to Leicester on Wednesday.
The pair meet at the King Power Stadium with the home side stuck in the mud in tenth place, despite collecting two wins in their last three EPL outings.
It should have been a basement battle on Tuesday, meanwhile, with Burnley and Watford grinding it out at Turf Moor, only for Covid-19 cases to force yet another postponement.
Sean Dyche’s side have slipped to the bottom of the Premier League table since their 3-1 defeat at Leeds on 2 January.
They do at least have games in hand on all those above them while Watford, who struck late to burgle a point at fellow strugglers Newcastle at the weekend, sit just the right side of the dotted line.
English Premier League predictions for 18 – 19 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.