There’s plenty to play for at either end of the English Premier League table on Thursday night, with a mini round of fixtures including the freshly crowned Fifa World Club Champions.
Chelsea have inevitably been knocked off their EPL stride thanks to a bundle of fixtures in reaching the EFL Cup final, Uefa Champions League knockouts and the global showpiece last month.
Not to mention the uncertainty caused by the beginning of the end for Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich’s ownership of the club.
But third place still belongs to the Blues and having won their last three in a row without conceding so much as a goal, there’s no cause for alarm just yet.
A title tussle alongside Manchester City and Liverpool has faded into the early spring mist, but local pride bosses the incentive to stay above London rivals Arsenal in the standings come May.
Norwich away, then, seems like the perfect trip to make it four wins from four and ease any low level tension around Stamford Bridge.
Their hosts have lost four from four and sit rock bottom of the Premier League table, while Thomas Tuchel’s side would close the gap to Jurgen Klopp’s Reds, victors over the Londoners in the League Cup at Wembley, to seven points.
Among those keen for the Canaries to draw a blank are plummeting Leeds.
Life under American coach Jesse Marsch kicked off with defeat at the weekend, after he replaced club legend Marcelo Bielsa in the Elland Road hotseat.
The Yorkshire club will rely on a crackling home atmosphere under the lights when they welcome Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa.
Two wins in a row have put paid to any lingering concerns about the drop in the West Midlands, a prospect that is still all too real for Marsch and his new charges.
Watford are firmly in the relegation mire, too, despite the appointment as coach of wily old Roy Hodgson to replace, well, wily old Claudio Ranieri.
The Hornets showed plenty of spirit in pushing Arsenal close at Vicarage Road on Sunday and they’ll need all of that vim again as they head to Molineux to take on Wolves.
Only a big win would take the Hertfordshire side out of the bottom three, while the hosts need to stop the rot after three defeats on the spin wrecked their tilt at qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
And what a difference ?100million or so of Saudi oil money makes.
Newcastle have roared clear of the relegation zone and are unbeaten since their January transfer splurge under Eddie Howe.
They make the long trip down to Southampton, whose own excellent sequence of results came to a shuddering halt at Villa Park on Saturday.
English Premier League predictions for Thursday 10 March
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.
| Chance of winning (%) | Usual win % with these odds | |
| Norwich | 9 | |
| Chelsea | 77 | 81 |
| Chance of winning (%) | Usual win % with these odds | |
| Southampton | 50 | 70 |
| Newcastle | 29 | 48 |
| Chance of winning (%) | Usual win % with these odds | |
| Wolves | 57 | 64 |
| Watford | 22 | 20 |
| Chance of winning (%) | Usual win % with these odds | |
| Leeds | 37 | 44 |
| Aston Villa | 40 | 38 |