Last Week: 6/10

Overall: 97/240

Manchester City vs Leicester City

Sunday 1.45am (NZT)

Nothing quite like kicking off the weekend’s footy with a top of the table clash. 12 month ago Leicester City were still in last place on the table – now they’re first. What a time to be alive.

This is the most important couple weeks of their season though. Away to City and then away to Arsenal, presumably their two biggest challengers for the title. Then again, Arsenal have slipped below Spurs after the last set of games, Tottenham deserve a mention here too – although they’ve already beaten the Foxes the other week (and drew in their first meeting. And knocked them out of the FA Cup). No doubt about it, Leicester are in the title race, but they’ll need good results here before anyone can think to call them favourites. Hey we can dream.

"A lot of people stop me on the street and say 'I am a fan of another team but if Leicester win the title I am very happy'" – Claudio Ranieri

Plus there’s that gloriously endearing stat that the team top at the start of February has won the league for eleven years running. Shout out to a team that began the season at 2,500-1 odds of being champions. In the very least we should be seeing Champions League footy at the King Power Stadium later in 2016.

Beating Liverpool was their biggest statement yet. To date they’ve been beating lower table teams but mostly holding their place by avoiding defeat against the European folks. Against the traditional top six they had previously won only once (2-1 over Chelsea), picking up draws with Spurs, United and City and losing to Spurs (2-0), Arsenal (5-2) and Liverpool (1-0). This was their first major win, since Chelsea are pretty crap as we all know (LCFC play them away in the final game of the season). Another one where this came from over the next two games and the dream survives. In hindsight it wasn’t a huge shock that Liverpool couldn’t handle a potent, direct attacking team. With luck they’ll take that all-in approach to City and Arsenal because they definitely went overly cautious last time. Not that they’d moan with another 0-0 draw vs City.

I watched Jamie Vardy’s goal live and it was incredible. But I saw this clip delayed and I swear I had to take a cold shower afterwards. This is honestly on par with those prime-Barca moves – that it involved the likes of N’Golo Kante, Danny Drinkwater and Danny Simpson, if anything, makes it even more heroic.

Phwoar, excuse me for a second folks.

Anyway. It sounds like Pep Guardiola’s shadow won’t disrupt things too much. That’s a powerful and exciting development for City players as much as it is for fans. But at the same time Manuel Pellegrini is a pretty beloved guy and they’re all keen to send him off with a big party.

Kelechi Iheanacho has a new song in which City fans pronounce his name wrong. Welcome to the big time, son.

Wildcard’s Pick: I want to believe… but 2-1 City

Swansea City vs Crystal Palace

Sunday 4.00am

As if Palace hasn’t been playing bad enough without Yannick Bolasie, they had Yohan Cabaye and Joe Ledley both subbed off hurt against Stoke last weekend and Jason Puncheon and James McArthur each hurt in the loss to Bournemouth. Potentially all four could play but potentially all four could not as well. They’re in a bad place without a win for seven PL games and with five consecutive losses now.

Tell you who is fit though and that’s Emmanuel Adebayor. He kept himself fit while out of a contract by organising his own games back in Togo. Like, professional standard friendlies. Gotta love the hustle there. Adebayor played 32 minutes against Bourney which is almost double his total Premier League showing in almost the past 13 months.

Wildcard’s Pick: Swansea with a valuable three points

Stoke City vs Everton

Sunday 4.00am

I’m really hoping to get a peek at Stoke’s new midfielder here, Giannelli Imbula, because right now by the look of their squad there’s a massive gaping hole in the middle of the park. They have quality defenders there (though it’s much worse without Shawcross – and let’s not try Glen Johnson in the middle again, aye Sparky?) and their attacking hoards have been earning plenty of justified press. But, like, Glenn Whelan and Ibrahim Afellay. That's not a real midfield.

The 23 year old Imbula is eligible for both Belgium and France but has yet to make a decision (on account of neither has ever called him up). He’s not only Stoke’s record signing but he was Porto’s as well – only to leave now as a pretty widely condemned flop. But that’s cool for Stoke, they don’t sign the top lads. They get the Shaqiris and the Bojans who have fallen off the pace a little. He’s a strong defensive mid with good technical ability and a tendency to carry the ball forward on the dribble. Those quick attackers ahead of him ought to dig that. Seems like a shy guy, which fits with the slight reputation for being under-motivated that he has. Curious stuff because he needs to be a key player for Stoke to make the next step these few months.

This is a tough one to forecast because I don’t think either team is playing as well as they ought to be. Everton that’s a little more condemning since they’ve been at their squad building for longer and still seem to lack a fundamental knack for defence and for killing games. Bobby Martinez is getting most of that blame. But they deservedly beat Newcastle midweek while Stoke were awful against Man United. Really bad, they had nothing at the back or in the middle and Peter Crouch up top was a passenger as a result.

Wildcard’s Pick: Give it to Stoke, they need to bounce back. 3-2.

Liverpool vs Sunderland

Sunday 4.00am

“I remember when Klopp first got the job and we sat down and we spoke. We sat and had a chat at my house. He’s a good guy. Whatever help he needed going into the job, I was there for that.”

That was Brendan Rodgers. Good Lord, can you imagine that scene? Brendan Rodgers taking Jurgen Klopp through the hallways and the ballrooms of his own palatial residence. Walls adorned with countless framed images of Brendan shaking hands with famous footballing faces. Probably a ten foot high profile painting of him sitting on a throne with a bear skin rug beneath. Maybe a few tasteful nude portraits as well…

What advice do you think he had to offer as well? Don’t worry if you lose to Manchester United, defence is overrated, Joe Allen is the Welsh Xavi… I mean, whatever it was it sounds like Klopp was listening.

Wildcard’s Pick: 2-0 Liverpool

Tottenham Hotspur vs Watford

Sunday 4.00am

Right, so Jamie Vardy’s goal. Was it better than Dele Alli’s? Let us go behind the magician’s curtain and analyse the magic.

Exhibit A – Dele Alli vs Crystal Palace

Exhibit B – Jamie Vardy vs Liverpool

For one thing both were effectively winners. Alli’s came in the 84th min with the scores tied against Crystal Palace while Vardy’s was soon after half time with the game at 0-0 vs Liverpool. Vardy added another to his to make it 2-0 so his was a little less crucial in his game though it means way more in the course of the season. Potentially. Spurs added an injury time bonus goal for a 3-1 win too. Advantage Vardy after round one.

As far as the assists go, a lump down the field in the general direction of Vardy falls in the ‘simple but effective’ category for Riyad Mahrez, a player of many talents, while Eriksen’s nod to Alli made that wonder goal possible but largely because it made it so damn hard for him. That’s a slight win for Vardy again.

Both volleys are quite fantastic but I wanna give Alli a fair bit more of a rap for his, which landed snug in the bottom corner. Vardy’s kinda goes down the middle and is aided by rubbish goalkeeping. Okay, Mignolet is hardly expecting this but it isn’t like he’s otherwise occupied. He didn’t have to put down his book and get up to make the save. That’s ball-watching. Wayne Hennessey was much better positioned for his one and was beaten by a perfect shot. Plus Alli had more defenders to cope with, not only in having to avoid them but in having to shoot through them as well and yet it was still as clean a hit as they come. Vardy’s was first touch on the run against standoffish defence. Alli had to beat Mile Jedinak (humiliatingly) just to get off his attempt. Brilliant skill and extra credit for making an Australian look like a muppet. If this was the NBA they’d be saying he posterised him (in the tradition of dunking posters inevitably featuring helpless defenders). Tell ya what, I’m gonna have to give the biscuits to Dele Alli here folks. Reigning goal of the season.

“Dele Alli's goal was a fantastic goal and it showed his quality. It is a goal that will be seen around the world on television - it was unbelievable. We knew he was a player of unbelievable potential, but today he showed unbelievable maturity and quality." – Mauricio Pochettino

"Jamie is very fast and can create a lot but it was unbelievable how Mahrez found him and how he had the time to see the keeper out of the goal and scored a fantastic goal.” – Claudio Ranieri

Wildcard’s Pick: Spurs 1-0

Aston Villa vs Norwich City

Sunday 4.00am

At least they buried this game nice and deep in the middle fixtures. There are four poor teams this season that are now beginning to fall away from the pack at the bottom. Maybe West Brom or Swansea sink into that mire soon though the way it looks it’s hard to see the Poor Four rising much higher. Newcastle should be the lucky team to survive, Norwich seem the more likely.

Aston Villa? They couldn’t even muster the energy to bring in a couple players in January. I’m not one who thinks transfers are the be all and end all but they quite clearly need a new Benteke and they didn’t even try. Onto their second manager and with 2 wins in 24 games, hope’s fading faster than Sam Allardyce at the all-you-can-eat steakhouse.

Wildcard’s Pick: 0-0

Newcastle United vs West Bromwich Albion

Sunday 4.00am

Not a happy chappie at all.

Then again, West Brom didn’t exactly live up to my resurgent predictions either, they needed a late equaliser for a point at home to Swansea.

Wildcard’s Pick: 2-1 to the Toon, yeah have it.

Southampton vs West Ham United

Sunday 6.30am

Mid table meddling. Kinda strange for a feature game. I’ll take my defence over easy for this one, thanks. Make it five clean sheets in a row for Southampton.

Wildcard’s Pick: 0-0

Bournemouth vs Arsenal

Monday 2.30am

Yeah so it turns out Arsenal are still Arsenal, only that everyone else is dropping points too. Speaking of which, Theo Walcott is not long for my fantasy team the way he’s going. This is his last chance to win me back over. The thing about being perennially fourth, though, is that there are usually still more ups than downs and they’re overdue a rebound game after three points from four games. They coasted by these guys 2-0 late last year. I reckon they may go one better.

In the meantime, shout out to Benik Afobe, former Gunner youth talent and now current Cherry. The 22 year old looks a straight up bargain with 3 goals in 4 games already. When you’re down in that bottom third, goals are golden and Afobe knows his way around them for sure.

Wildcard’s Pick: Gunners 3-0

Chelsea vs Manchester United

Monday 5.00am

Funny thing about Chelsea is that they have the longest current unbeaten streak in the Premier League (8 games) and yet they really aren’t playing much better. What happened to the Eden Hazard of last season? Any one seen him?

To be fair at least that big black cloud has lifted since Mou left. Still, they should have beaten Watford and to say that Heurelho Gomes was the difference is both true and a little embarrassing. Having a great year is the Brazilian but once again the potency just wasn’t there from the Blues.

United on the other hand are coming off one of their finest performances of the LVG era. It’s worth noting that all these MU players keep talking about the added ‘freedom’ that they’ve been given and I dunno if that’s a real thing or not but if they play like that more often then they’re only a solid month of results from being back in the Champs League spots. Even Fellaini hasn’t pissed me off so much recently!

These are the two most successful title winning teams since the inception of the PL and it’s a game with zero championship connotations. What a weird thing that is. We’ve seen major returns to form for both Wayne Rooney and Diego Costa in 2016 but I see this one being decided by the potency of Anthony Martial on the wing. Have you seen him these last two? Monstrous. He’s not got the best first touch all the time and his crossing is hit or miss but dammit is he quick and skilful and when he runs at defenders he puts them in the spin cycle. Oh, and I seem to remember Branislav Ivanovic having something of a nightmare against a few nippy wingers already this season…

Wildcard’s Pick: MUFC 2-1