Premier League Title Race: Who will win?
Leicester City’s lead at the top of the table was cut to two points on Sunday with their defeat to title challengers Arsenal, whilst seeing Tottenham Hotspurs also pick up 3 points to close the gap.
Just six points now separate the top four with 12 games of the season to play. So can the Foxes hold on? Will the title be heading to north London? Or will Manchester City sneak back into contention?
You can decide who has the toughest run in left of the season.
Top four remaining fixtures
| Leicester | Tottenham | Arsenal | Manchester City |
| Norwich (h) | Swansea (h) | Man Utd (a) | Newcastle (a) |
| West Brom (h) | West Ham (a) | Swansea (h) | Liverpool (a) |
| Watford (a) | Arsenal (h) | Tottenham (a) | Aston Villa (h) |
| Newcastle (h) | Aston Villa (a) | West Brom (h) | Norwich (a) |
| Crystal Palace (a) | Bournemouth (h) | Everton (a) | Man Utd (h) |
| Southampton (h) | Liverpool (a) | Watford (h) | Bournemouth (a) |
| Sunderland (a) | Man Utd (h) | West Ham (a) | West Brom (h) |
| West Ham (h) | Stoke (a) | Crystal Palace (h) | Chelsea (a) |
| Swansea (h) | West Brom (h) | Sunderland (a) | Stoke (h) |
| Man Utd (a) | Chelsea (a) | Norwich (h) | Southampton (a) |
| Everton (h) | Southampton (h) | Man City (a) | Arsenal (h) |
| Chelsea (a) | Newcastle (a) | Aston Villa (h) | Swansea (a) |
Leicester don’t have any remaining fixtures against their top four rivals, but their last three games of the season will be their toughest and will test how well they handle the pressure as they may need to take points from trips to Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge and a home clash against Everton.
Arsenal, by contrast, have home games against relegation-battlers Norwich and Aston Villa either side of their trip to the Etihad Stadium. City’s final three games include away clashes at Southampton and Swansea, while Spurs also play two of their final three on the road, with trips to Chelsea and Newcastle sandwiching their home clash with Southampton.
Leicester hold another potentially crucial advantage over the rest of the top four: they have just 12 games left to concentrate on this season. The Foxes are already out of the domestic cups and have no European commitments, and Claudio Ranieri has just had the luxury of giving his players a week off in the wake of their 2-1 defeat by Arsenal.
In contrast, Tottenham could have as many as 27 games still to play this season when factoring in two-legged Europa League ties and possible FA Cup replays. City’s Capital One Cup, FA Cup and Champions League commitments could see them play 26 games, and although the depth in squad in this Tottenham team is as good as its ever been, they have never had so many demands. Arsenal’s total could stretch to 25 as they chase European glory and a third consecutive FA Cup.
Perhaps the most the decisive factor will be that only Manchester City have dealt with the pressure of being expected to win the league title. Not even Arsenal have had this pressure, at least not this Arsenal squad, as they have never been involved in the title race at the last quarter of a season.
People may have already written off Man City to win the league as they are 6 points behind leaders Leicester, but remember! The last two occasions where City have won the league in 2012 and 2014 they have found themselves 8 and 7 points behind the leaders at this stage of the season.
In conclusion, the title race is poised to be nail-bitingly close. Current Premier League standings suggest Leicester’s remaining games are the easiest, but anything could happen, it only takes consecutive games of drop points to lose you position.
SkyBet Championship Playoffs – May 9th, 2015
Brentford 1-2 Middlesbrough
Ipswich 1-1 Norwich
So far in the Championship play-offs it’s been pretty close, with only a last minute goal for Middlesbrough separating them from Brentford and todays East Anglian derby finishing in a 1-1 draw, it all looks to make for two exciting 2nd legs.
The two favourites to meet in the final would be Middlesbrough and Norwich, both finishing in respected 3rd and 4th places in the league and throughout the majority of the season have challenged for automatic promotion, only being snubbed for a top 2 spot on the last few games of the season. Also given how the first legs have finished you would highly believe that Middlesbrough will see off Brentford at home and Norwich taking the advantage away from home and having a the better record from the East Anglian derby.
However nothing is confirmed and if the Championship has taught you anything it’s that anybody can beat anybody, who would have thought that Brentford and Bournemouth would be in the positions they finished in? So it makes for a very exciting and closely fought couple of games.
It would be great to see anyone of these teams in the EPL next season, with Middlesbrough and Norwich been there in recent years and more likely to compete and then there’s Ipswich who haven’t been in the top division for a long time and Brentford having never been there, it makes for good entertainment seeing them competing for a place, it’s also nice to see an underdog story.
Having said all of that, all four teams don’t look up to the Premier League at this moment in time and whoever will be promoted will most definitely be relegated after one season if there isn’t some major investment into the squads.
UEFA Champions League Fixture – May 5th, 2015
Juventus vs. Real Madrid
Tonight is the first tie of the UEFA Champions League between Juventus vs. Real Madrid. A few key points to be aware of in this tie, Juventus have already wrapped up the Seria A title and come out with a fully fit and ready to go squad. Real Madrid on the other hand are still challenging for their domestic title, also 1st choice striker Benzema is set to miss out for the first leg which Is a big blow. Hernandez will have to step in whom in fairness scored the decisive goal in the last round but up against a very strong defence that possess a lot of power and experience, is Hernandez the ideal choice to have? given his lack of playing time this season. Bale is another key man who might be a doubt for a good performance; he has just returned to training after a calf injury and has only made one appearance since in the win away against Sevilla. How much of an impact will all these factors have on the game?
The first leg favours the away team, if Madrid can get a good result to take back to their home supporters there is then so much more pressure on Juventus. Juventus however are unbeaten in their last 12 European matches and have a record of 1 loss to 17 wins since moving into their new stadium so it will be easier said than done for Madrid and I’m sure a draw will be accepted by Ancelotti.
2 of Europe’s heavyweights and most successful clubs, with both teams with so much world class talent at one an others disposal this promises to be a great tie, hopefully the most will be made of it as it’s not often we see these 2 meet each other.
European Championships 2016 France: British Nations – Apr 6th, 2015
So after another round of International fixtures all the talk and excitement is around the home nations. With 5 games to go in the group stage and all four Countries in strong positions to reach France for EURO 2016, it could be the first time all of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales all qualify.
You get the feeling that if it doesn’t happen for 2016 it will never happen, with a great opportunity to qualify with there being an extra qualifying spot for each group, with the teams that finish 1st and 2nd automatically going through and 3rd place going into the play-off spots. With this advantage the groups that each nation have been placed in is another.
England
| Position | Team | Pld | W | D | L | Pts |
| 1st | England | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| 2nd | Slovenia | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| 3rd | Switzerland | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| 4th | Lithuania | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| 5th | Estonia | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 6th | San Marino | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
Remaining Fixtures
Slovenia vs. England
San Marino vs. England
England vs. Switzerland
England vs. Estonia
Lithuania vs. England
For England it’s not really whether they will qualify, it’s what they will do in France 2016. In previous years England have smashed through qualifying, winning every game and winning every friendly and then let everyone down when it really matters, so you can’t judge the team on its performance prior to the tournament because for the last 10 years or so it has proved to mean nothing.
This current England squad however does look an exciting one, with some young, talented players breaking into the squad in good form and performing well together as we saw against Lithuania and Italy, if everyone stays fit come 2016 it looks to be promising.
Another promising sign for English fans is that some of the big teams are struggling to get to grips in the qualifying stages, Germany, Spain, Italy and Holland aren’t looking like themselves and even though there are still 5 games to go all will almost definitely qualify there are more reasons this year than there have been previously with other major tournaments that this could be a very successful 2016 for the England National Team.
Northern Ireland
| Position | Team | Pld | W | D | L | Pts |
| 1st | Romania | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 13 |
| 2nd | N. Ireland | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 12 |
| 3rd | Hungary | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 |
| 4th | Finland | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 5th | Faroe Island | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| 6th | Greece | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
Remaining Fixtures
Northern Ireland vs. Romania
Faroe Islands vs. Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland vs. Hungary
Northern Ireland vs. Greece
Finland vs. Northern Ireland
Of the 4 nations Northern Ireland are perhaps regarded as the weakest of the lot which makes it a lot more impressive the way things have gone for them so far, shocking not only themselves with the start they’ve made but probably the whole of Europe and the fans are hoping that this bubble won’t burst.
With the perfect opportunity to take advantage of an extra team going through the group stages as NI have been placed in a weaker group compared to most, the 3 remaining home matches are against the supposedly 3 better teams in the group. These are the 3 games they would want to have at home as they have already beaten Hungary and Greece away and with an electric atmosphere come these 3 games the team will be motivated like they have never been before as they have never been in such a good position to qualify for a tournament for a long time.
Scotland
| Position | Team | Pld | W | D | L | Pts |
| 1st | Poland | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 11 |
| 2nd | Germany | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| 3rd | Scotland | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| 4th | Rep. Ireland | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 |
| 5th | Georgia | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| 6th | Gibraltar | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
Remaining Fixtures
Republic of Ireland vs. Scotland
Georgia vs. Scotland
Scotland vs. Germany
Scotland vs. Poland
Gibraltar vs. Scotland
Out of the 4 nations Scotland perhaps have the toughest task of getting through, in a tough group they have held their own so far and have competed well against the big teams of the group one being the world champions but still with some tough games to come. The first of these is away against the Republic of Ireland, always a tough game but even more so when Ireland are only a few points behind qualifying and this match will also be a derby with two sets of fierce and passionate fans. Ireland by the way, even though we would also love to see them go through, aren’t regarded as one of the ‘Home Nations’ and to ask both Scotland and Ireland to go through in this group may be pushing it slightly.
The last 2 remaining home games against Poland and Germany who are currently top of the group but better at home than away, should see Scotland compete for 3 points and not settling for less. The other away games remaining are against Georgia and Gibraltar and with such a tight group they can’t afford to slip up against these so called ‘weaker’ teams.
Another thing to keep in mind, due to their being an odd number of groups for qualifying, teams that finish in 3rd place all go into a play-off round, with the exception of the third placed team with the most points out of those third placed teams who will go into the finals of Euro 2016 automatically, that team at the moment is Scotland.
Wales
| Position | Team | Pld | W | D | L | Pts |
| 1st | Belgium | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 11 |
| 2nd | Wales | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 11 |
| 3rd | Israel | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| 4th | Cyprus | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| 5th | Bosnia | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 6th | Andorra | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
Remaining Fixtures
Wales vs. Belgium
Cyprus vs. Wales
Wales vs. Israel
Bosnia vs. Wales
Wales vs. Andorra
Wales are another team that have a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of the new stipulation of the group stage as they have been put into one of the weaker groups and they are well capable of progressing. The strongest team is Belgium who are top of the group but only by goal difference, the other team regarded as one of the better teams and who were second favourites to qualify are Bosnia. But they are really struggling to find form as they find themselves 2nd from bottom.
Like the other home nations the remaining fixtures for Wales play in their favour, playing Belgium at home in the next game is the right time and place to play the strongest team in the group. After that it could potentially be a clean sweep of points, at home to Israel and Andorra who they have beaten both away and then two tough away games against Cyprus and Bosnia but with top quality players like Bale and Ramsey along with the confidence that must be in the Welsh squad they will see 6 points from their two away games as a realistic objective.
England Squad – Mar 24th, 2015
For the upcoming European qualifier against Lithuania and International friendly against Italy
Goalkeepers-
Robert Green, Joe Hart, Jack Butland
Defenders-
Nataniel Clyne, Leighton Baines, Kieran Gibbs, Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones
Midfielders-
Andros Townsend, Raheem Sterling, Ryan Mason, Michael Carrick, Theo Walcott, Ross Barkley, Fabian Delph, Jordan Henderson, James Milner
Forwards-
Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane, Danny Welbeck
Looking at the England squad Roy Hodgson has picked for the upcoming internationals there are some names that have raised a few eyebrows. With two fixtures you would like to see the England manager experiment with a little, with one friendly and a home match against Lithuania, which granted is a European qualifying match and you can never be too careful but does our nation not have enough young talent to handle a team that are ranked 94th in the world. That’s not to say that the squad is a bad one, it’s a very good squad just with the exception of one or two individuals that will be discussed in a moment.
The reputation of the England manager at the moment is starting to become that if you make the call up to the national team, you will stay there no matter what. There are plenty of English players in the premier league who are playing well and have missed out on making the team and will feel hard done by for it. Hodgson has had to make a few last minute call ups due to injuries, 2 of which have been in the goalkeeper positon, no one would have questioned the justified call ups of Foster and Forster but because of the injuries of these two Hodgson has looked elsewhere, but why Green and Butland. Robert Green, not a bad keeper but well past his prime and in matches where you’d like to see fresh faces it’s hard to see the logic in this choice. Jack Butland who does look a promising young keeper but he is yet to make an appearance so far this season and has yet to prove himself at the top level of the game. What must Tom Heaton be thinking, playing at top form throughout the season and has made some crucial saves in big matches, should he not be considered just because he plays for a team in the bottom 3.
In the defence of the team it’s the same names, in the position England needs most improving on why hasn’t Hodgson given the call up to someone like Ryan Shawcross? An experienced player who plays week in week out and to a very good standard, like Heaton is he just being refused a call up because of the team he plays for, I guarantee if Shawcross played for a team in the top 5 of the league he would have received a call up to England a long time ago. Another player who deserves a chance In the England set up is Ryan Bertrand, another player who is experienced enough, plays week in week out for the best defence in the league; he’s even played in a Champions League final. So when Luke Shaw was added to the injury list, Bertrand was surely the man to take his spot but instead it was given to Danny Rose an average player who isn’t exactly one for the future.
Why has Andros Townsend been given another call up, he isn’t good enough for his club and he’s not good enough for the England national team. It just goes to show that when you get in the England team you stay in the England team, there is no logic in choosing Townsend for the team and surely there’s plenty of young English talent that deserve a call up. Ryan Mason is a player that has had a mixed reception with the fans, I think it helps my point that Hodgson should pick different players and I think he should be given a chance and if he performs well then he could change people’s opinions.
I can’t disagree with the choice of forwards, although why only 3? With so many midfielders perhaps players like Ings and Austin should be called up to the England set up as they have both proven they can score calls at the highest level of the game. The chances of Kane starting the game were pretty good but now with Sturridge out he looks an absolute certainty to start both games.
Champions League Quarter-Finals – Mar 18, 2015
The draw for the next round of the UEFA Champions League was today and it has provided us with some exciting games to look forward to.
- Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid
- Barcelona vs. PSG
- Porto vs. Bayer Munich
- Juventus vs. AS Monaco
Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid
The most eye catching tie of them all would be the Madrid derby, both teams making it through to this round narrowly with Atletico winning on penalties to Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid surviving a scare to Schalke. The bragging rights between these two huge rivals have become a lot more balanced in recent times but perhaps Real won the war last year when these two met in the final of this competition, and after coming within a few seconds of being European champions themselves, Atletico will want their revenge because despite having such a great season in winning the league and reaching the final, to have lost it in the manner they did must have hurt badly.
Atletico winning the tie might potentially but the final nail in the coffin for Ancelotti after coming down with a lot of criticism from the fans and media with the way they lost at home to Schalke and struggling to keep up with Barcelona domestically, so if Ancelotti were to end the season without any silverware he may be saying goodbye to the club.
From a neutrals perspective this should be a great tie, two teams that play great football and are exciting to watch. Atletico not quite the team they were last season but still with great quality in their side and for Real Madrid, well they are the defending champions and won’t want to give up that honour especially to their city rivals. I think both teams will win their home legs it’s just a case of who does it better.
Barcelona vs. PSG
These two teams must be getting sick of each other, meeting in the group stage earlier this season with both respectively winning at their home ground and the season before last when they met in the same round in which Barcelona would come out of the tie victorious. A game that on paper Barcelona should win what with PSG having two key figures of Ibrahimovic and Veratti out for the first leg, PSG still have a good team without the two but without the physical structure of Zlatan upfront PSG will have to find other ways of scoring goals which is easier said than done. Could struggle defensively as well for the French champions as the English public have all come to know what David Luiz is like, in fact the world probably knows by now after the World Cup. The saving grace for that is his buddy next to him is the world’s best centre back at this moment in time, that being Thiago Silva but is Luiz too much of a liability coming up against the most dangerous forward line in the world.
Keep in mind also Barcelona are going for the treble this season and in the form they’re in its hard to see them not coming through with all the silverware. Being top of the League with a chance to have one hand on the trophy this weekend against Real Madrid, and in the final of the Copa Del Rey against an average side of Bilbao which you can only really see one winner in.
Porto vs. Bayern Munich
Porto have been the dark horses in this competition so far and if they can cause a shock in knocking out Bayern Munich it will make a lot of people look up and notice them. Even though they haven’t exactly had the toughest of times in this year’s Champions League, having been drawn in an easy group and then having drawn everyone’s wanted tie of Basel for the Knockout Stages they still have a very good squad, as Porto usually do, when it comes to business there aren’t too many better than Porto. However that doesn’t really help them so much on the pitch and for a long time now Porto only seem to get so far in this competition so making it to the final 8 will be seen as a successful campaign for them. To state the obvious a home win in this tie might be the only way to see them having a chance in going through, if they can do that then shut up short for the away leg then who knows.
Bayern Munich are another team in the competition that are looking at a treble, with a predictable huge lead in the Bundesliga and will meet Leverkusen in the quarter- finals of the Deutscher Pokal so it’s hard to see them get complacent and slip up. The only German side left in are looking at their 4th semi-final in 5 years and despite a bad exit to the competition last year they are still just as powerful as they were when they won the competition 2 seasons ago, even if they may no longer be regarded as the best team in the world.
Juventus vs. AS Monaco
Juventus are a team that have not been noticed by many people this season, maybe because they haven’t faced any English team or Real Madrid or Barcelona and so haven’t really had that much attention, perhaps they like it that way. The last number of seasons they’ve have won the Italian league without having to check their shoulder and so will surely be looking to better themselves for a good run in Europe and establishing themselves as an elite team amongst others. And they couldn’t have been handed a better chance to do that.
With all due respect to Monaco, they are very well organised and for a team with a lot of young players and good financial muscle they probably will become a very good side but for the moment they’re just nothing special. Hell got a little bit colder when they scored 3 goals away to Arsenal almost equalling the amount of goals they scored in the whole of the group stage(they scored 4 goals in the group stage) the saving grace to that being they don’t concede many; they do have one of the best defences in Europe. However as we saw in the second leg against Arsenal, if you can dominate play and pound them on the attack you’ll eventually find your way through on goal, just be careful against the counter attack.
speak your sport now! 