Everton (18/5) vs. Manchester United (20/27)
Everton lost to Chelsea Wednesday in the League Cup and will be without loanee Royston Drenthe, after he received a red card in extra time. Due to the lack of strikers on Everton, they are likely to employ a 4-5-1 formation. They just sold Jermaine Berkford and Victor Anichebe is hurt. Louis Saha may be without his fellow mates Phil Neville and Tim Cahill, as well.
MC won 3-0 over Aldershot, against a side of mostly reserves. Javier Hernandez and former Everton striker Wayne Rooney are going to be ready to go, though, and Rooney should receive a big welcome home from fans.
Everton has only beat MC three times at Goodison park since the Premier league formed in ’92 and United lost 6-1 to Manchester City. The aforementioned Rooney is United’s top scorer and has scored 9 goals in 13 games, though he has not scored in his last three appearances. Lastly, MC has not lost back to back games in 31 games.
Chelsea (4/7) vs. Arsenal (5/1)
Chelsea’s Fernando Torres is expected to return to action, replacing Didier Drogba, who is suspended. Arsenal, though, was able to rest most of their first team last match and Thomas Vermaelen is back from injury, though unlikely to start.
Arsenal has won 16 of the 38 matches between the clubs in Premier league, with 11 ending in draw. Both sides have combined for eight red cards this season. Ashley Cole will make his 157th league appearance for Chelsea, which will surpass his league appearances for Arsenal. Expect Chelsea to get in more shots and control possession, which should enable them to pull this one out.
Manchester City (1/6) vs. Wolverhampton (14/1)
Owen Hargreaves is still struggling with a calf injury and will be out for Manchester City most likely. Meanwhile, Sergio Aguero and David Silva are set to return to the lineup.
The Wolves are not strong up front, where Steven Fletcher is most likely to miss the game with a calf injury, and Kevin Foley is still out with an ankle injury until December. Manchester City has already scored more goals this season than it did in the entire 05-06 year and with Aguero, Edin Dzeko, and Mario Balotelli, they have the goal scorers to make this match a real headache for the Wolves.
Sunderland (6/5) vs. Aston Villa (9/4)
Sunderland beat Bolton last week and played with two players up front. Connor Wickham played excellent.
AV will be without Chris Herd due to suspension and Barry Bannan is going to be unavailble, as well. Albrington and Stephen Ireland are going to step in at midfield, so they may go with a 4-3-3 formation again.
AV’s Alan Hutton recovered from his injury so he should be good to go at right back. If Sunderland does win this game, it would be their first back to back wins since January. Sunderland has only won once at home this season, though, and only 3 times in 2011. Sunderland does have the third best defense in the Premier league though, as they have given up only 10 goals in nine games.
AV has yet to win away from home this year and of its four games away they have drawn three of them, with the other being a loss.
Wigan (19/10) vs. Fulham (7/5)
Wigan may be without James McCarthy and Franco di Santo. Albert Crusat will start, though, after looking good last match.
Fulham is going to be without their defensive standout, Philippe Sanderos, who was injured in practice on Thursday. Also, Simon Davies and Aaron Hughes are still nursing minor injuries. Their new signing Bryan Ruiz will be available, though, so that is a plus.
Both teams have only one victory this year, and both beat the lowly QPR squads. Wigan is currently bottom of the form league, and they have lost their last 6 gamers in the Premier league, after a decent start. Fulham has managed only one goal away from home all year, and they have placed twice as many games as Wigan has this season, as well, though fatigue will probably not play a role.
Fulham is the worst away scoring team in the division, averaging just 0.25 goals per game, and they ahve yet to score in 3/4ths of their away games.
In 38 meetings in the clubs’ history, Wigan has 10 victories, while Fulham has 15, and the remaining 13 games were draws.
Swansea City (21/20) vs. Bolton Wanderers (5/2)
Swansea will be without Kemy Agustien, Ferry Bodde, and Steven Caulker, while Dobbie and Tate are also recovering from injury.
Marcos Alsnso is recovering from a foot injury and Dedryck Boyata sparained his ankle in the match against Sunderland. Sean Davis is still out with a knee injury, as well.
Swansea City has never played Bolton in the top flight in their franchise history. Bolton has beaten SC only one time in the last 10 meetings, and that was in 1988. Bolton has given up 24 goals so far this season, more than any other team in the Premier league, and they have managed only one shutout in their last 15 matches.
Norwich City (20/21) vs. Blackburn Rovers (14/5)
Norwich City will be sticking with the same lineup they did against Liverpool. Grant Holt is probably still going to come off the bench behind Steve Morison, and Russell Martin will fill in again at center back. Loaned player Ritchie De Laet will also come in off the bench.
Blackburn will field the same squad after a 4-3 win over Newcastle in the League Cup. Ruben Rochina was impressive and Jason Lowe, who just signed a new contract, has been impressive at right back.
Norwich City has won their last two home matches, and just beat Swansea 3-1. They are led by Anthony Pilkington, who scored his third goal of the year, and leads them in scoring.
The last meeting between these two teams ended in a draw, and Blackburn has won only one of their last 14 road matches. In their four games on the road this season in premier league, they have managed one goal in total. Norwich will also look to exploit Blackburn’s defense, as NC has the highest percentage of goals scored off headers. They actually have 45% of their shots by head.
West Brom (11/4) vs. Liverpool (21/20)
Roy Hodgson became the manager of West Brom midway through last year and he managed to score more than one goal against Liverpool, something that West Brom hadn’t done since 1981.
West Brom has lost all nine of their matches against Liverpool and scored zero goals while giving up 25. In the last 38 meetings for West Brom, they have won only 3, and scored a total of 15 goals. Their last 3 goal game against Liverpool was in 1965.
Liverpool has not drawn away from home all year, and they have won 5 of 7. Liverpool has not had a goalless draw in 43 matches in Premier league; and Liverpool is led by Luis Suarez who has the most goals, shots on target, off target, free kicks, quickest goal, and latest goal. Suarez is the only player on the team with more than one goal. Liverpool has had 70 corners, the most in the league, but have managed to score on only one of those 70! Still, things like that won’t matter against West Brom, and Liverpool should be able to win this one pretty easily.
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