The Steifmaster WEEK 7 EPL Predictions
Six weeks later and into the 7th week now, the Premier League looks tight, is pretty exciting and you just can’t get your eyes off the Premier League standings can you? And you can’t fail to agree with my predictions right? Read on.
Manchester City 3 1 Everton
English referee Jonathan Moss will be in charge of this early kick off at the Eitihad Stadium in Manchester. If Southampton has been Liverpool’s jinx club, then the latter’s Merseyside rivals, Everton, have proven over the years that they are Manchester City’s version of the same. Everton have had a tremendous run against the Sheikh Mansoor-owned team winning 9 of the past 12 encounters between them. Last season, Everton held City to a 1-1 draw at the Eitihad before beating the Eastlands outfit 2-0 in the return leg at Goodison Park. Everton remain the only unbeaten side in the league this season while the star-studded Manuel Pellegrini side have suffered two shocking loses against Cardiff City and most recently against Aston Villa.
A win for the Toffees will take them joint top on 15 points with Arsenal until other Premier League matches kick off while City will be looking to avoid a third defeat in a row after going down to Bayern Munich in midweek Champions League encounter. This will be a very tough match but which I see Manchester City winning with goals from Yaya Toure, Alvaro Negredo and Kun Aguero.
Liverpool 4 0 Crystal Palace
So my prediction on Liverpool’s winning run continues today for two reasons; Luis Suarez and the opposition. Brendan Rodgers’ side were pushed to the edge by a hard-fighting Sunderland outfit last weekend but they had just enough quality to finish off the game. With table-topping Arsenal not in action until Sunday evening, Liverpool could find themselves on top for at least 24 hours, when, rather than if, they beat Crystal Palace at Anfield. The last time the two clubs clashed was in the 3rd round of the 2005 English League Cup, a game that Palace won 2-1. A repeat of the same is not expected of a Liverpool side who are having the best start to their season in recent years. With Luis Suarez back in Rodgers’ plans and banging in goals already, with Daniel Sturridge scoring at will and Simon Mignolet a safe hand between Liverpool’s posts, with Palace having already gone 270 minutes without a Premier League goal, the Merseysiders should roll past Ian Holloway’s Palace. I see an easy win for the L4 club with Suarez, Sturridge and Victor Moses all on target, at least.
Sunderland 0 2 Manchester United
If David Moyes cannot lead Manchester United to victory in this fixture they have always dominated over the years, then he should start thinking really hard whether he’s the right man for the Old Trafford job, if he isn’t already. Two Premier League defeats in a row with a draw in a Champions League game doesn’t make a good reading for any club of United’s standard. A third defeat against the bottom club will, however, be inexcusable.
Sunderland have failed to secure a point against the reigning champions in the last 5 Premier League matches which all ended in a Manchester United win. Wayne Rooney looks like United’s main man so far and after sitting out of the midweek Champions League draw away to Shakhtar Donetsk, the former Toffee lad should be fit to play the manager-less Sunderland. United seem to be struggling but so are Sunderland but they have more quality within their ranks to see out this match though Sunderland will be anything but pushovers. A tough 2-0 win to David Moyes and Manchester United.
Norwich City 2 2 Chelsea
With 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat, Chelsea’s season has been that of mixed results as Jose Mourinho continues trying and testing his players to see who really fit where. If there’s one thing they have failed to do so far however is to put an away win under their belts. After mauling Steaua Bucharest 4-0 in the Champions League, they will be traveling to Carrow Road with one thing in their mind, nicking their first away win of the season. Mourniho’s headache for this Sunday afternoon clash will be who will lead the line with Fernando Torres suspended. Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o looks the likely man to fill Nando’s boots and with The Blues winning 5 of the last 6 matches against Norwich, they are odds-on favorites to make it 6 on the trot. However, Norwich, after battling past Stoke City 1-0 in their previous encounter will give Chelsea a good fight which makes me think Chelsea will have to wait at least until their next away assignment to pick their first win away from home.
West Brom 1 1 Arsenal
Unless I refer back to my statistics, I can’t remember when Arsenal last lost a match. Oh, actually I can. It must be that loss against Aston Villa in the opening match of the season right? Would you believe that was 10 matches ago? If you are an Arsenal fan, this must be the happiest period of your last 8 years or so. Please get married already as this lasts. There’s a joke going around that the new word for ‘assist’ is ‘Ozil’, thanks to the explosive start of one Mesut Ozil in his Premier League career. He has made Arsenal the team to beat this season and West Brom must be dreading the thought of face the high-flying Gunners on Sunday evening. The two teams already clashed in the League Cup this season, a game that Arsene Wenger’s men won 4-3 on penalties after the two teams could only draw 1-1 in normal time. My instincts tell me this game will have the same ending, a 1-1 stalemate.
Enough said.
And That’s thesteifmastertake!!