A London derby is the showpiece of the English Premier League weekend, with the 20 top flight clubs battling on amidst Covid-19 outbreaks left, right and centre.
Chelsea and Tottenham go head-to-head at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon as Spurs boss Antonio Conte returns to his former club.
The Italian’s charges are the men in form and would even go above the third-placed Blues by winning three of their four games in hand.
Thomas Tuchel’s side are on an alarming run of four matches without victory, seeing them give up the ghost in the title race just after the turn of the year.
Liverpool returned to winning ways last weekend despite losing stars Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita to the Africa Cup of Nations.
They also feature on Sunday, making the trip down to the capital to play inconsistent Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
Arsenal are poised to pounce on a top four place, meanwhile, when they look to make light work of Burnley, who sit stone cold last in the Premier League standings.
The Gunners’ rise will depend on the outcome of Saturday’s tasty Old Trafford tussle between Manchester United and West Ham.
United will leap above the Hammers if they snaffle all three points on home turf, while Iron boss David Moyes returns to his former employers in the unusual position of attempting to bolster his side’s Champions League qualification credentials.
Saturday’s evening kick off sees runaway leaders Manchester City in action away to Southampton.
Pep Guardiola’s all stars are away and clear with an 11-point advantage at the top of the EPL table, not to mention fresh from back-to-back wins over capital city duo Arsenal and Chelsea.
The heat is on at the other end of the ladder at Elland Road, as improving Leeds aim to make it three wins on the spin while pushing oil-rich Newcastle closer to the trapdoor to the Championship.
Everton start life without Rafa Benitez when they tackle old foe Steven Gerrard and his Aston Villa at Goodison Park, with club legend Duncan Ferguson once again taking temporary charge.
Brentford and Wolves complete Saturday’s fixture programme when they meet for a midtable mash up in west London.
The EPL kicks off at the wrong end of the table on Friday night, as Watford and Norwich contest a relegation six-pointer at Vicarage Road with a single point splitting the pair either side of the dotted relegation line.
English Premier League predictions for 21 – 23 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.
