After the Monday Night Football I can now finally output my thoughts on this weekends’ action in the Premier League – and it was a good week.

We started at West Ham where they hosted Jose’s new Spurs side, and you could definitely argue that he had an impact once the players went in at half time 3-0 up. Like many expected, Mou picked Eric Dier in the starting XI and he managed to make Dele Alli look like his former self for most of the 90, and whilst they did almost crumble late on I’m sure Jose will take the winning start regardless of how it comes about. West Ham on the other hand – man is their goalkeeper bad. He’s absolutely painful to watch and they’d probably rather a young player from the under 21s was being picked over him. Also, Pellegrini is looking nervously over his shoulder, as he is certainly under pressure now in London. I personally think he should have been sacked first thing Sunday morning.

I’ve already made a piece about Southampton’s draw with Arsenal but I’ll summarise my thoughts; its quite worrying that we couldn’t hold the lead or finish the job with another goal, but I’ll happily take the point. Arsenal on the other hand are in a similar place to West Ham in that the majority of the fanbase want their manager replaced sooner rather than later.

Marco Silva is treading on thin ice after losing 2-0 at home to the Premier League’s whipping boys this weekend. Norwich hadn’t won since the shocking result when Manchester City came to Carrow Road but they picked themselves up from last place with a rare 3 points and Everton, on the other hand, are really struggling and the question needs to be asked about Silva’s position as head coach.

Liverpool performed like ready made champions once again, this time at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace. Palace were robbed of a perfectly legit goal by VAR just before half time and Liverpool were able to take advantage of that by taking the lead. Palace would equalise but another relatively late winner for the Reds means they keep their 8 point lead at the top. Palace, meanwhile, sit 13th and they’ll feel gutted that they came away with nothing against the league leaders, they probably deserved a point at minimum.

Bournemouth are in a pretty poor run of form at the moment but it is going under the radar a little because they aren’t really threatened by the drop zone, however they won’t be thrilled in losing 2-1 at home to Wolves, especially considering it should have been 3-1 if it wasn’t for poor VAR once again. Jiminez looks like a top class striker this season and he can’t stop scoring, Bournemouth’s front men seemed to have slowed their momentum a little as of late but they certainly shouldn’t be panicking, after all its not the worst form ever but perhaps they need a good result sooner rather than later in order to pick themselves back up.

Watford couldn’t take advantage of picking up their first win of the season and, instead of getting another, they lost 3-0 at home in another absolutely dreadful performance from the team sitting bottom. Its not all rosy being a Southampton fan this season but if there was any team I’d pick as one I’d hate to support this year in the top flight it’d be Watford. Burnley, on the other hand, will be loving scoring three again like they did at Turf Moor against Southampton and they’re having a good campaign once again.

Leicester continued to try and prove to everyone that they’re a part of the title race this season with another win, 2-0 over Brighton at the Amex. Vardy scored again, albeit in lucky circumstances, meaning he’s still top scorer in the Prem. Brighton weren’t actually that bad in the game from what I’ve heard about the general play but Leicester were just far too good for them. There was a bit of controversy and Jamie Vardy’s goal came in a situation where he’d actually missed the penalty and had to retake it.

In the most hyped up game from this weekend, Chelsea visited the Etihad to play Man City and ended up being the losing side, but they gained respect for the way they played an extremely entertaining first half and looked the more threatening side for most of the game. City, however, let their quality show and Mahrez’s goal was superb, and they’ll feel good about this one because a loss would’ve meant they crashed out of the title race in the opinion of many.

The Sunday game will be most people’s pick as the best game of the week as Manchester United drew at Bramall Lane. Sheffield United would 100% have taken a point before the game but as 2-0 leaders they’ll be disappointed to have not seen the game out. United mounted what would have been a superb comeback via goals from Williams, Greenwood and Rashford, but they let it slip in the 90th minute and the points were shared.

And finally the Monday Night Football saw Villa host Newcastle. Villa were extremely comfortable last night and Jack Grealish looked like Messi at times. The Newcastle defence might have made some Villa players look better than they were but Hourihane got a goal and an assist from set pieces to mark his return to the starting XI, and Newcastle really had nothing to offer the game and I’d argue it should have been 3 or 4 nil rather than just the two.

That leaves the table looking like this after 13 games played.

Its hard to be angry with any amount of points earned considering the season us Southampton fans have had to endure thus far.

But man this stinks. It was like Deja Vu after we did a similar thing against City a few weeks ago, but luckily we did take something away from this game, however it can only leave me longing for something more. 3 points was in the bag, man. We should have scored 4 or 5 goals today but a lack of composure in front of goal from some players like Djenepo and Obafemi throughout the game costed us some free chances Arsenal gifted us time and time again.

Pre-game I was absolutely disgusted that Ralph decided to leave both Boufal and Djenepo out of the starting XI and the inclusion of Obafemi was something of a postitive, but I didn’t want him to replace our two best creative players this season. Luckily, Danny Ings is our best striker since Pelle and he put us in the league in some controversial circumstances. I believe it was Redmond or perhaps somebody else who took a quick free kick on the left hand side, and the ball was eventually put in at the near post by Danny Ings, but both the referee and VAR failed to notice that the ball hadn’t stopped moving when the free kick was taken, making the goal illegal and in a way I was frustrated at that; surely that’s the exact kind of thing VAR is here to stamp out? How can anybody not be anti VAR at this point, its not even doing the things its SUPPOSED to be doing but it is affecting other things it doesn’t need to? Get it out.

Anyway, we had the lead but it wasn’t for very long. Lacazette equalised and we continued our poor defensive form with another game without a clean sheet, and we fizzled out for the remainder of the first half, but I’d make the argument we were the better side and Arsenal have some real questions to ask about Emery’s position at the club if they can’t even look good against one of the Premier League’s worst performing sides this season.

We came out second half and the match continued in the same way, no clinical finishing from either side but definitely some chances that needed putting away from us but eventually we won ourselves a nice little penalty. I think it certainly was a foul, and whilst Prowsey did miss the penalty he tucked away the rebound and all of a sudden we’re really in with a shout of 3 points away at the Emirates – a fantastic achievement in the context of our season, and a potential way to get back on track and out of the relegation zone within the next month.

However, a goal that felt like it was coming for an infinite amount of time was finally scored in the 6th minute of injury time, and in a way we paid for our needless time wasting tactics once the board showed there would be a whole 7 minutes added on. We had players pretending to be injured three or four times and if we had just played our football and got the result in a respectable fashion there wouldn’t have been half that number of minutes of injury time.

However, we travel back to St Marys with a very respectable point against Arsenal, very much needed momentum for the next two KEY fixtures; Watford (H) and Norwich (H). I’m expecting MINIMUM four points and in all honesty I’d be disappointed if we didn’t get max points from those two. Watford lost 3-0 today just as we all thought they were turning a corner so they’re a MUST WIN! And Norwich may have won today but ultimately they’re the worst side and should he dealt with by our much superior squad.

Thanks for reading.

One thing that never fails to be discussed amongst football enthusiasts is manager movements, and we like to believe we know exactly which manager under pressure will be the next to be dismissed.

Only days after Mauricio Pochettino’s sacking, people are already debating the next guy to go in some really underperforming sides and I’m going to not only put some names forward, but also say exactly when I believe the manager will get his marching orders.

Ralph Hassenhutl’s Southampton suffered the biggest home defeat in PL history at St Marys in October, and sit 19th in the current standings. They’ve been the worst side defensively in the top flight so far and only Danny Ings and Moussa Djenepo seem to have provided any form of silver lining so far for fans desperate to remain in the division come next season. Their biggest summer signing, Che Adams from Birmingham, has not only failed to score but seems to have no chance of finding his place in the starting XI considering Ings’ scoring record this campaign.

Emery’s results haven’t been incredibly bad so far this season, but he seems to be fearful going into each game and his negative play has done nothing to convince any of the fans that he’s the man to lead them where they want to go – many Arsenal fans say the best performance of the season came in a 2-0 defeat to Leicester, which says it all. Emery has been embarrassed a couple of times this season, he dealt with the Xhaka situation extremely poorly, and he began the season by completely ignoring Ozil and keeping him out of the first team, only for him to re-emerge and have a pretty big impact on the team’s performance and he was great in the Carabao Cup. He seems to be a poor man manager and his lack of English skills means that fans struggle to understand what he’s aiming for and trying to say when he speaks in press conferences and that only leads to more toxicity towards him.

Pellegrini’s West Ham side started the season with a 5-0 defeat to City, but they looked good for a while after that, even flirting with the European spots, but right now they’re in a relegation battle despite breaking their transfer record on Sebastian Haller and they are currently fielding one of the worst performing players in Europe; Roberto, in goal. The Chilean manager has been unlucky with the injury to his no. 1 GK choice but there’s potential that he gets his marching orders if they lose to Jose Mourinho’s Spurs on Saturday.

Marco Silva is equally likely to be the next sacking as Pellegrini, for me. Everton have continued their trend of spending loads of money, and convincing everyone they’re ready to challenge to break into the top 6, only to be drawn into a relegation battle once the season has gotten properly underway. Everton have lofty ambitions, so you’d imagine any more losses in the near future would result in them saying goodbye to their manager and trying to find someone actually capable of spending their money better in order to get a good league position.

So, to conclude, I think the next sacking won’t be Emery or Hassenhutl. I think Ralph will be given the chance to try and pick up points against Watford and Norwich in the next two fixtures and also Arsenal’s league position probably isn’t quite bad enough to justify dismissing Emery, whereas both Everton and West Ham are very much looking ready to look elsewhere in the near future.

*This was originally written with the intention of being posted on YouTube. It was, but I thought it would be good to post my script here. You can listen to the audio version here: https://youtu.be/DFMx7-pw76w “

As I make this video, during the international break of November, Southampton Football Club sit 19th in the Premier League table, above only Norwich, having won only 2 of their twelve matches so far. The Saints famously suffered a record
breaking 9-0 home defeat to a young Leicester side at St Mary’s on Friday 25th October 2019, and that particular match showed the world that Southampton were really, really struggling this season. Before that dreadful day, it went under
the radar how poor Southampton had been, the last time Southampton won on home turf in the Premier League was on the 13th April in a 3-1 win over Wolves, and this season they have picked up just one point from home matches coming in a
lucky 1-1 draw with an out of form United side at the end of August. Southampton, at the time of this video, have conceded 29 goals, the most out of any Premier League side, and their defensive woes have meant that only Spurs and Norwich
have recorded less clean sheets than them so far. The 2-1 defeat to a poor Everton side managed by a hugely under pressure Marco Silva meant that the Saints had recorded four straight home defeats in the worst run at St Marys since it was
built, conceding 21 goals at the stadium this season, the worst in top flight history since 1930/31 season.

This all, of course, sounds so horrible and hopeless if you’re a Southampton fan, like myself. I make sure I watch every match regardless of our form so I know more than most just how painful it can be to watch some players with no
confidence try and remain organised in defence, or string some passes together and actually retain possession. Southampton’s pass completion percentage is the second worst in the division, with Burnely the only team that misplaces more
passes on average than the Saints. However, they’ve also made the second least key passes in the league, which proves that Southampton’s problems aren’t solely defensive, there’s actually a huge issue with the midfield and wide players
in the side not being anywhere near creative enough. Despite this lack of creativity, Danny Ings managed to score in four successive games for the first time in his Premier League career and has now scored more goals for Southampton in
the division than he did at both Burnley and Liverpool.

So far, I’ve just been throwing endless amounts of negative stats at you, so instead let’s take it one game at a time, and see if we can identify some positives for Southampton to take from certain performances, and perhaps come up with
some solutions to the endless list of issues the club faces. To elaborate on what I mean by that, I’m talking about things like formations and team selections when I say that; not January transfer targets as I’ll be discussing my personal
shortlist for January towards the end of the video.

Southampton started the new campaign against Burnley at Turf Moor. Incidentally, we also started last season vs Burnley but that game was at St Mary’s, and I actually attended the match and was treated to an epic 0-0 draw to begin the
new season. This time, though, I couldn’t attend our opener and in many ways I dodged a bullet, seeing as we completely lost our heads in the second half of that game and lost it 3-0. Solid start. In the game, we actually enjoyed more
possession than Burnley, which to be fair is almost a given considering their playstyle under Dyche, and had a similar amount of shots in the game. The signs were there from day one – 3 goals conceded in a game that we weren’t the worse
side in, and failing to find the net ourselves, not to mention the fact that 6 of our 11 shots came from outside of the box, hinting at frustrated players firing at goal due to the lack of options and creatvity from their team-mates.
First goal, scored by Ashley Barnes, came from our tallest player mistiming a header and falling to the floor, and Gunn lets a very saveable strike into his net, and even before that goal we’d had VAR save us from another situation
where the defence fell asleep. However, the defensive players on our team learnt nothing from the opening goal and the entire back line were caught pants down by an Erik Pieters cross and Barnes had bagged a brace. Then, shockingly I’m
sure, the third goal came from another mistake, as Bertrand gifted the ball to Gudmunsson who entered the box and curled it into the far corner. It was a fantastic effort from the lad, to give him deserved credit, but the defending was
consistently poor throughout the game and mistakes costed us. There wasn’t even a player in the back line who you could solely blame, they were all shocking and switched off several times leading to clear cut chances and goals for Dyche’s
Burnley on the opening gameweek. From Southampton’s point of view, the game couldn’t have gone much worse, we’d been hammered by a side who were expected to finish in a similar position to us come the end of the season, and when your
most creative player is Oriol Romeu you need to ask questions of your wingers and attacking minded midfielders. In my opinion, we only had one good chance in the entire game and that came from a piece of individual play from Redmond, who
was otherwise poor, but his effort was tipped over the bar by Pope and I don’t think it was heading in anyway.

So, opening fixture and Burnley had scored 3 at home for the first time since September 2018, not ideal but all was not lost
at that particular point. Unfortunately for Ralph and the players, their next opponent was runners-up Liverpool fresh from battering newly promoted Norwich. We were much better, and again we matched our opponents for shots on goal but
were too inaccurate with the shots or the shots were tame, and whilst Liverpool did have double the passes, this is expected when playing the top quality sides in this league. The main positive I take from this fixture is that it never
looked like it was impossible for us to snatch a draw and come back, even when 2-0 down we had done a decent job of dealing with Liverpool’s main threats and of course we had the likes of Ings, who are always capable of scoring, as he
would later prove when he converted an Adrian mistake to get us back in the game. I’m sure Danny would tell you he meant it all but the luck in the goal is evident. However, many of our fans left St Mary’s satisfied since we’d hosted the
champions of Europe and held our own. Its hard to criticise performances when playing the top 2 sides because they’re just a class apart.

Luckily, we took confidence from our decent performance against Liverpool and beat Brighton the following week at the Amex to claim our first victory. The legend himself, Moussa Djenepo, not only made his first start but also scored his
first goal, which is coincidentally our one and only goal coming from outside the box. Redmond also scored late on to seal the win. However, its hard to say we weren’t fortunate because Andone’s dismissal really changed the course of the
match, and VAR stepped in to help us at certain points too, with the referee choosing not to look at a potential Bednarek handball. Anyway, despite the positives from this game we certainly should be beating Brighton, considering they
haven’t won any match against us since January 2012, and are unbeaten in 7 top flight meetings with them, last losing in 1981.

All of that aside, though, we’d recorded our first three points and thats the main thing. Our fixtures looked pretty tasty from then, we played a struggling United next and then we took on new boys Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.
Thankfully, United were nice enough to gift us our one and only home point this season by failing to capatalise on a sending off for loanee Kevin Danso. United could only find the net from one of their 21 shots in this game, and on the
other side Vestegaard was able to save us by heading home shortly before Danso’s red card. We held on for the point, though, and at this point Southampton looked like a side who could have a good season, and the next game improved the
mood even more, as Djenepo’s solo effort helped us beat newly promoted Sheffield United away, which we now know to be one hell of an achievement considering the Blades are currently occupying the Europa League spots. Again, VAR ruled in
favour of Southampton when Oliver McBurnie’s goal was disallowed after 53 minutes, and we were helped by Billy Sharp getting sent off against his former club. This game, for me, is the best we’ve played all season. For once, we created
chances, as Che Adams could have had two goals on a better day and Cedric was also close in the first half, and of course Djenepo is just an abosolute monster of a player and he dominated again, dancing past four United defenders to score
the winner. Things were looking rosy at this point, considering we had won two straight away matches for the first time since Claude Puel was in charge, but there was a problem that was becoming increasingly evident to the fans, Che
Adams hadn’t scored yet and Ings was being forced to sit on the bench. I personally lost patience with Che extremely quickly and called for Ings to start games, but the Saints fans on Twitter who kept telling me to be patient with him
would later be proven wrong, but we’ll talk about that in a bit.

Bournemouth at home. I would love to be able to call this match our worst home performance of the season, but as you well know there is one match that sticks out as verrryyyy slightly worse. However, this game was shambolic. I remember
tuning in on Friday night, excited by our recent form, very much ready to beat the Cherries, but then Ake scored after 10 minutes to ruin my weekend before it had even started. The two Wilson’s – Harry and Callum – were the other two
scorers and Prowsey would pick up his first goal of the season but it had no effect on the result. Again, like I said in the Burnley match, you have to give credit where its due. Steve Cook was brilliant in this game, and kept our
attack even more quiet than it usually is, and Harry Wilson showed signs that he is going to push on massively this season with a top performance. However, this was the start of a run of horrific home results, and Ralph was starting to
lose me as he persisted with Che Adams and left Ings on the bench until the 77th minute. Luckily for us, Ings would score twice in the South Coast derby at Fratton Park in the Carabao Cup and force his way into Hassenhutl’s plans. He
started away at Spurs, and again found himself on the scoresheet, again capatilising on a goalkeeper mistake, but we would end up losing the game 2-1. This was a Spurs side there for the taking, but we were hopeless at times and their
second goal was admittedly extremely good play from their forwards. The main bone I have to pick with this performance is the fact that Spurs didn’t even look like they had 10 men, and somebody who turned up late would have assumed that
it was 11v11 considering the fact that we didn’t take advantage at all of the situation. With Lampard’s inform Chelsea up next, we really needed to take something from this game, and didn’t.

Chelsea came to St Marys and absolutely dominated, with goals from Abraham, Mount, Kante and Batshuayi. Ings scored again but it was a fruitless goal in the end, a mere consilation like most of our goals were, worryingly. For me, the
biggest negative was that Ralph decided to pick Long to start. No offence to Shane, he was once a class player, and his hat-trick against Villa is one of my favourite performances from a Saints player, but he is past it man. He is an
impact sub at best and even that might be a little generous.

Moving on, we played Wolves away next, looking to show better away form than home, and we did. Ings scored again to give us the lead in the second half, after a Jiminez goal was disallowed in the first half, but the lead wouldn’t last
long as Jiminez had his revenge just over 5 minutes after Ings’ goal from the penalty spot. Little did we know when that game ended what was to come in the next one.

We faced Leicester on a Friday Night Football fixture next, in what would end up being a famous night for all the wrong reasons, at least from a Saints point of view. After Chillwell put Brendan Rogers’ side in front, VAR decided that
Bertrand’s challenge was worthy of a red card, and the senior player had let his team mates down massively with a needless, reckless lunge. This would prove to be the worst mistake of his life, as his absence was a factor when Leicester
went on to score 8 more goals at St Mary’s, equalling Manchester United for the biggest ever premier league victory (Manchester United once beat Ipswich 9-0 too), and the Foxes had recorded the biggest ever away win in since the Premier
League began. And for many, it came out of absolutely nowhere. Before that awful night, Leicester had never won a Premier League match on Friday night, and whilst Southampton weren’t exactly amazing in previous matches, they went into
this match above the relegation zone and had picked up a decent point at Wolves the week before. There’s not really any point doing any amount of analysis when you lose 9-0, so I won’t. The only thing to say is that many football fans
believed, and perhaps rightly so, that any manager that loses by such a large amount should be sacked the following morning in all situations, but Ralph Hassenhutl was lucky enough to be backed for the time being, and kept his job for
now, even after becoming the man behind the worst ever Premier League home performance.

We are getting close to the present now. We took on Manchester City at the Etihad twice in a few days in different competitions, and we lost both games, but the league meeting was worth mentioning for just how huge of an improvement it
was. The defending was class against City and we even managed to nick a goal via a rare Ederson mistake, however the quality of the Champions shone through and they clawed back to win 2-1. However, many were predicting that City would
hit double figures for goals in this match and we limited them to just the 2, which was good considering the circumstances. Also, to look like there was a chance for 3 points for most of the match is an achievement when you’re in the
bottom three taking on the Champions. In our most recent fixture, things went back to normality though. We conceded early at home to Everton, from more defensive mistakes, and although we did equalise I’ll be the first to admit we did
not deserve it in the slightest. Eventually, Everton were able to save themselves from a bit of embarassment and win it via Richarlison, meaning that we now haven’t won a Premier League match in two full months, and with Arsenal up next
it is a bit of a must win. Arsenal are a huge club, of course they are, but they have been terrible of late and even when they do win they don’t play well. However, due to our annoying tendency to switch off at the back at least 5 times
a game, there is almost no chance at all that Aubameyang doesn’t find the net at least once, and with our chance creation, what are the hopes of us scoring? Well, it is completely on Ings’ shoulders, as he seems to be the only player
capable of scoring, but even that might be generous considering that he scored from goalkeeper mistakes more than once this season.

As a Southampton fan, who was bored to tears when watching the game against Everton, I was able to enjoy the international break for the first time in a very long time this week and I was refreshed when I saw England win 7-0 on Thursday,
but we’ll soon be returning to Premier League football, so let’s talk about the upcoming fixtures.
I’ve already touched on the next match, Arsenal away, so let’s look even further. We play both of the teams that are occupying the other two relegation places in a week, both at home. Watford on the 30th November and then Norwich on
the 4th December. This scares me so much. How can the same side that hasn’t won at home all season, and have lost the last four home matches, AND have lost a match at home by 9 goals this season say with confidence that we’ll beat
Watford? I don’t feel like we can. However, we have to. There is simply no other result than our first home victories that I will accept from Ralph, and anything less will cause me to turn on him even more. I always try to back my manager
but the Austrian is making it so, so difficult at the moment, and to be honest anything less than 6 points from those games will be the final straw. We’re talking about the only two teams that are worse than us – Norwich lie in last
place and Watford have only ONE WIN all season! We cannot possibly justify dropping points against either, especially if there is actually any ambition to remain in this league for next season.

So, as I mentioned earlier, I’m going to attempt to offer some friendly advice to Ralph Hassenhutl from somebody who is no football expert, just a passionate fan who watches the team week in week out. The first piece of advice has already
been carried out in the last two games, but I’m going to mention it anyway, in the hopes that he keeps it up – You can never let Angus Gunn wear the Southampton shirt ever again, unless we have some horrendous injury problems. Until
January at least, Alex McCarthy is our number 1 and I’d even say get one of the young lads to back him up on the bench. Not only did Gunn become the first goalkeeper in Premier League history to concede 9 at home, he has just been poor
all season. Mistake after mistake and no real positives since Sheffield United back in September. I genuinelly think that match was the last time he showed any real quality at all. To follow that advice up, let’s just make 100% sure that
Ralph will not repeat what he did against Chelsea and start Shane Long, in fact I think what would be best for him is to be sold in January as he just doesn’t cut it in this division anymore, unfortunately. Staying on the topic of team
selections, lets talk Djenepo. Injuries aside, he should play every minute of every game regardless of how he’s performing, because all it takes is a moment of quality and he’ll score a goal or set one up, for my money he’s the most
talented Southampton player and should be rewarded for being the silver lining of this season so far. Also, despite my criticims of him earlier, its probably not ideal to just forget Che Adams exists, I do think the lad has some talent
and he’ll score eventually, so keep giving him minutes in games where Ings doesn’t score, or if we’re not creating enough switch to two up top – for some reason this system is forbidden for most Prem managers but I can see it working in
a side like ours. However, and this might sound like a direct contradiction, but Adams should not be subbed on every single game. Ralph seems to sometimes sub Ings off even when he scores which is a mistake, he’s our top scorer and when
he’s on his game he’s a good striker for this league.

I don’t know if this is a bit of a drastic action, but I do think that Hojberg should be stripped of captaincy. This isn’t something that desperately needs to be done, but I don’t see why he was made captain in the first place, he’s a
talented player on his day, for sure, but he has so many off games and he’s only in his mid twenties, so I struggle to believe that he’s got the experience for leadership at that age, but I might be wrong – however the attitudes and
body language of the players might prove my point, as they very rarely look motivated, and sometimes that’s not just down to the manager, but the captain as well. Options to replace him as captain? Well, if age isn’t a factor then I’d
put forward Bednarek and Ward-Prowse. Bednarek is 23 but he seems to be twice the leader that Pierre is, and Ward-Prowse has been at the club for so many years, and he seems to love the club, although there are rumours of him being a
Pompey fan. In terms of senior players, I think Ryan Bertrand proved against Leicester that he isn’t up for the job, so the likes of Cedric, Vestegaard, Ings and Romeu are the main candidates. Romeu might be a little too unreliable, and
I know very few people like having a striker as captain, so I’d personally pick Vestegaard. The Dane definetely has a mistake in him but you’d imagine that a northern giant like him would be capable of being that leader in the dressing
room.

Let’s talk about Obafemi. He’s a young, talented lad coming through, and he’s already shown some signs of promise in the cup this season. Adams isn’t scoring, and if that continues you have to consider that the Irish striker might
deserve some starts in the league, to see what he can do. Also, Callum Slattery has been dominating PL2 for ages now and has been talked about as the next big thing for ages now. Get him involved, especially considering the form of
Hojberg and Prowsey at times this season.

And lastly, win a home match. Its obviously easy for me to say, but genuinelly all you have to do is get over the line with three points at St Mary’s, that lifts the shadow from the stadium and the fans and players will benefit so much
from the knowledge that we actually are capable of winning on home soil, and it could shoot us into a winning streak at home or at least we’ll start winning against the teams we should be winning against, and we’ll quickly find ourselves
out of last place in the home form table. Also, a home win will lift the pressure from away games. Right now, we go into every away game treating it as a must win or must draw game, because the doubt is in both the players and fans’ minds
that we can get any kind of result at home, so we enter every away match with increased pressure and this isn’t neccessarily a good thing. It can be, but I fear it isn’t.

To end off this bohemeath of a video, let’s talk January. First – who to sell. I’d personally shift on both Gunn and Long, provided we can find a suitable replacement keeper who’s either willing to sit on the bench every week as backup
or is good enough to start. I think that there’s a chance we could convince Brentford stopper David Raya to take the step up from the second tier and potentially at a reasonable price, too. Brentford don’t look like getting promoted this
season so the Spanish keeper may well jump at the chance to play top flight football, but I don’t know enough about the player to know what kind of price he’d command or if he’d even be interested. All I know is what I see from the EFL
on Quest highlights every week, and I like what I see.
In terms of other keepers, its quite hard to find somebody to suggest, but you have to think that there must be endless players that the scouting system are keeping an eye on, so if we identify the position as somewhere we need to strengthen
then surely we’ll be able to find somebody suitable for a good price, look at Aston Villa’s aqusition of Tom Heaton for inspiration.

The only other player I think its worth going for in January is Jarrod Bowen of Hull City. Hull City look like they have no chance of returning to the top flight any time soon, and Bowen has shown time and time again that he may well be
ready for the next step in his career. We’ve been linked with him before, so I think we should go in early and pick him up before any other team starts submitting their offers, seeing as Southampton isn’t exactly the best place to be at
the moment. There are 17 other Premier League clubs that could be picked over us by any player at the moment so this is a deal we should get done before its too late.

Some are saying that Poch’s arguably unfair sacking by Spurs means he has no love for the club – making the Arsenal job a possibility.

However, I can’t see it. Spurs may have mistreated him now, but the man doesn’t strike me as somebody out for revenge in any situation, and I’m not sure the Arsenal job is one he’s looking at considering there are “easier” jobs across Europe he could realistically get.

What is Mauricio’s next move?

Well, only days after his dismissal he’s already linked with a high profile position in a European giant – Bayern are currently without a manager and whilst they seemed, at first, to be willing to be patient and allow their caretaker manager a chance to prove himself, that might’ve changed once a very desirable manager became available, and that’s such a good narrative. Poch, if he gets the job right away, will have to play Spurs in the Champions League group stage with a team who beat him 7-2 with ease, and that was with a manager Bayern deemed to be not good enough! You’d think that Poch would batter Jose with the squad he would have.

However, there are a few jobs he could get with a little patience that he might want even more. I already mentioned Arsenal as a last resort option, and I stand by what I said about him not going there, but Manchester United have been looking at Poch and have been linked with him for ages, so if Ole continues to underperform he could be terminated and Poch would be the fans’ choice to replace him, without a doubt.

There’s also one more place to mention, and it’s Mauricio Pochettino’s dream job: Real Madrid. Zidane is under pressure, and whether it’s warranted is irrelevant – he’s quite widely believed to have no chance of lasting the season in Madrid. Poch would win things in Spain, there’s no doubt in my mind. He has the best club of all time’s finances at his disposal, and that’s bound to be more transfer budget than he could ever dream of come next summer. Imagine Poch with financial backing! He’d repeat Zidane’s achievement of three straight UCL’s surely? Maybe that’s a little far. But what a prospect.

The final decisions are made well ahead of deadline this week.

Earlier this week, I would’ve considered Dean Henderson’s injury to be a big loss for my FPL team, but with the king of parking the bus leading Spurs at 12:30 on Saturday against an out of form Hammers side, a Gazzaniga clean sheet is back on the cards.

I’d already made my free transfer well ahead of deadline this week meaning I couldn’t chuck some more of Spurs’ back line in ahead of Mo’s defensive football being employed, but next week I may be looking towards the likes of Aurier as potential players to pick up both a clean sheet and a goal involvement in some games.

Maybe I’m wrong and the unforgiving and rash social media mob is right and Jose is about to turn Spurs into a second tier competitor, but my gut says that he’ll get them more points, at least in the short term, and I don’t intend to be left behind points wise once their full backs are racking up double digits.

Looking around the grounds, a couple of West Ham doubts are looking likely to be involved like Wilshere and Antonio, but I don’t think they’re good assets at the best of times and I can’t see them improving their tallies against a Mourinho with a point to prove.

With Arsenal’s season in mind, perhaps its wise to include Danny Ings or Djenepo if you’re looking for a dark horse to get behind – but even in my Saints bias I’ve opted to avoid them both, making it inevitable for us to clinch three points with both of them on the scoresheet. But I’d happily take that. It’s a win win for me.

The worst premier league defence this campaign are taking on the prolific Aubameyang meaning its likely he’ll pick up at least one goal, if not a brace or hat-trick, making him one of the best Captain options but I’ll never captain somebody playing vs my team due to my naivety more than anything. So I’ve chosen Vardy.

Ryan may well be a solid goalkeeper but keeping out the ruthless Leicester is another thing entirely, and Vardy will score twice this weekend and I’ll be a happy man. Either that or he’ll have a rare blank and I’ll cry myself to sleep.

I’m top of the mini-league between me and my friends by a country mile but I’m just outside of the OR top 1,000,000 so hoping to get that beautiful green arrow come Monday night and make my way into that top 1 mil.

Last gameweek, I remained above average which is my minimum target with 58 points, and this week I’m looking for a larger total with minimum 30 points from Vardy as the captain.

Oh, you thought I WASN’T going to make Championship predictions out of fear, since its probably the least predictable league in the world?

You thought WRONG!

The action of matchday 17 kicks off tomorrow (21st Nov 2019) as Fulham host Queens Park Rangers, and they’ll be delighted to be playing Friday Night Football considering they have some lovely mid-week games to play against Derby and Forest respectively. This match is a battle between two sides hoping to return to the Premier League, and Fulham especially will be needing a win seeing as they probably have the strongest squad in the division and should be placing much higher than they currently are. QPR, on the other hand, will be loving their start to the season even if their recent form has been on the decline, and hoping they can return to the QPR of the early season tomorrow night. Neither side lost their last fixture and have something to build on going in to this one, but they’re quite evenly matched on paper in my opinion. QPR have been much better away than at home this season, winning four of seven matches on the road. Half of QPR’s matches this season have had 3.5+ goals, so we could be in for a great battle here, and exactly 0 of QPR’s games have had no goals scored. Both sides have great goal potential – Fulham have the league’s top scorer, Mitrovic, whilst QPR have Eze, Hugill and Wells who have all scored 6+ goals so far. These two are hard to separate, and I’m saying:

Fulham 2-2 QPR

Boring, I know.

The early KO of Saturday sees Charlton take on Cardiff at the Valley. Neil Harris is now managing the Welsh side following the departure of Warnock, meaning that the fact that Charlton come into this game above them might be irrelevant with their new boss in charge and ready to change their fortunes. Cardiff City have conceded 6 goals in the minutes 76-90 this season – joint second in the Championship, but they’ve also scored 6 in those minutes, so maybe we can expect lots of late action from both sides here. Both teams have only won 1 of their last 6 games, meaning both will probably be hungry to end their bad run of form before the busy December period creeps up. Charlton are newly promoted but have looked outstanding at times this season and sit in the dizzy heights of 11th – not bad. My prediction:

Charlton 1-2 Cardiff

I can’t look past a Harris victory in his first game taking charge.

Then, the 3pm fixtures arrive in their numbers. We’ll begin with Blackburn-Barnsley, which is somewhat of a relegation six pointer considering each’s league position. Barnsley are rock bottom, to the surprise of few, and have won just once this campaign so far. Can they pick up their second away at 18th place Blackburn?

Blackburn 1-0 Barnsley

No, they can’t. Or at least I think not.

Next 3pm fixture I’ll cover is Brentford vs Reading, what I’m calling my most confident prediction thus far. Brentford have finished around 9th place for years now and many are wondering if they’ll ever even reach the playoff’s and take advantage of some great years for the club, or continue to settle for mediocrity, but I think they have an outside chance of promotion this season. If there was anybody I’d bet on at the start of the season for decent odds, It would have been the Bees. Reading, however, might’ve been the last team I’d pick. They’re currently languishing in 17th but have been better recently, but I think they’d have crashed back down to earth come full time on Saturday afternoon.

Brentford 3-1 Reading

Hope this one isn’t wrong since I labelled it my most confident one.

Bristol City vs Forest is a game I’m expecting to be really good, and goal filled – so anticipate the dullest 0-0 in the history of English football. Jokes aside, this is another unpredictable game but I’m going to try anyway. 1 league position separates these promotion contenders, making this game key and probably the most intriguing 3pm kick off for the neutral. Unless you’re a madman hyping yourself up for Stoke against Wigan. Lewis Grabban has 7 goals thus far and I’d say he’s about to get another this weekend. If there’s any player on the pitch I’d hedge my bets on getting their name on the scoresheet it’d be him. Bristol City’s top scorer is the criminally underrated Andreas Weimann with 6 goals and he’s also provided two for his team-mates. Both sides have won 3 of their last 6 providing even more evidence that this is the toughest game to call this weekend. But let’s hear my attempt to call it:

Bristol City 4-2 Forest

What a thriller that would be.

Derby County take on PNE at 3pm and I’m starting to get bored of the repetitiveness of typing that kick-off time now. Anyway, Preston are second and continue to be the surprise package of the second tier, whilst Derby are extremely inconsistent, so that’s why I’d say I’m only slightly less confident in my prediction here than the Brentford Reading game. Derby sit in mid-table and their last 5 games are: L,W,L,W,L. Putting them at 14th in the form table. This one *SHOULD* be easy to predict, but there’s something stopping me from calling it my most accurate prediction.

Derby 0-2 Preston

Daniel Johnson will bag his 9th goal this season.

Huddersfield take on Birmingham in the game that I find relatively interesting, I think both sides are rubbish but its a question of who’s worse I suppose. Karlan Grant is far too good for Huddersfield and probably even the Championship itself, and Birmingham don’t seem to have a goal scorer stepping up to replace Che Adams after his summer move. That said, I’m saying:

Huddersfield 2-1 Birmingham

Grant to grab a brace.

Luton vs Leeds. Can the side who’ve lost all of their last four topple the pre-season promotion favourites? Luton had a decent start to their season but they’re now 21st whist their opponents are third and very much aiming for top 2 come the end of the season. Honestly, I look at Leeds squad and think: If you aren’t in the Premier League again in 2020/21, its an embarrassment. I look at the Luton squad and think: If you aren’t in the League One by 2020/21, you’ve done brilliantly. That’s why this is my prediction.

Luton 0-3 Leeds

Bold considering Leeds hasn’t scored three times in a game since August.

Whew, predicting the Championship games is a marathon, but we’re not done yet! There’s still a couple 3pm’s left to go and some more after that. I made a joke about how dull this game was earlier and I’m doubling down on that by not even discussing it.

Stoke 0-0 Wigan

Sorry if you’re a fan of either team, but you know I’m right. Your club is dull this season.

Swansea have proven they’re real contenders for a return to the top flight this season, whilst Millwall have been relatively inconsistent without seeming like they’re too threatened by the drop to League One. That could all change, but I don’t think much will this weekend. Both side’s top scorers have recorded six goals. Borja Baston and Bradshaw respectively. They have prolific players, but the quality of the squads on paper are unmatched for me.

Swansea 3-1 Millwall

Both sides’ top scorers will get 1 apiece.

Next up: The League Leaders. The baggies could be back to their old ways of going in and out of the Premier League and they’ll be hoping to make it back so they can “Conquer all the midlands” like they claim they have. They’re taking on Sheffield Wednesday who also have rivals in the division above to catch up to, but their promotion prospects are far less likely. West Brom top the form table, winning 4 of their last 6 and they are unbeaten in that time, whilst Wednesday have drawn half of their last 6 and won just once. Interestingly, West Brom have nobody who is really in with a shout of winning the golden boot despite their league position, but the result will be:

West Brom 3-2 Shef Wed

Could someone get a hat-trick and launch themselves into the top scorer race?

And finally we’re onto the final game which takes place on Sunday. To end this weekends action, Middlesbrough take on the Tigers Hull City at the Riverside Stadium. Middlesbrough probably weren’t in anybody’s top 6 in pre season predictions but they’ve surprised everybody by being much more terrible than anticipated. They’re currently in the relegation zone. Boro’s last win came in early September and even that was a scraped one nil over fellow terrible team Reading. Hull might take confidence from their 3 straight wins but that run was ended in their last game, however they will absolutely be expected to get the three points even though they’re the travelling side. Both sides have actually conceded the same amount of goals this season so far but Boro have very much struggled to hit the net, whilst Bowen has been killing it at Hull and its no wonder Premier League manager’s heads have been turned his way (Please come to Southampton Jarrod) and that’s why I’m calling for:

Middlesbrough 0-2 Hull City

Will Boro’s struggles ever end?

And that’s that. If you want to hurl abuse at me my Twitter is @StFletchFC and you can tell me over there exactly why you think Stoke-Wigan is the game of the century. Expect some more rash predictions over the course of this season, I’m really into this whole blogging thing. Thanks for reading!

The Premier League is gearing up for its return following the drag that was the international break, and there’s some big games to play.

We begin the return to Premier League action at West Ham, as they play in a kind of derby against Spurs. Do either side consider it a derby? I think there is a bit of a rivalry
there but its nothing on Chelsea Spurs I don’t think. Anyway – Let’s talk about West Ham and Manuel Pellegrini. I actually read earlier today that the Hammers are monitoring
Rafa Benitez as he clearly desires a return to the Premier League, and what an appointment that would be. With some quite lofty ambitions at West Ham, I can see Rafa taking
them on another European journey, hopefully for their sake it will be a little longer than Bilic’s was. Either way though, I can’t talk about that manager movement until it
happens, but its interesting to see that West Ham potentially have an incentive to sack the man they said they were fully backing just last week. West Ham haven’t won in the
Premier League since their home victory over Manchester United on September 22nd, and they’ve picked up just two points since. Pellegrini’s side has also conceded three goals
twice in a row against sides who don’t normally net very often Newcastle and Burnley. Sebastien Haller hasn’t scored since the beginning of October in their loss to Palace so
their record signing will surely be desperate to find the net here and win over the fans again. Its important to remember that the under pressure Pellegrini actually guided
West Ham to 5 games undefeated at the beginning of the campaign and they were at the top end of the table for a while, but the Chilean probably realises that he needs some
points and quickly after his woeful form of late. He may well be looking at this match as a must win or must draw game considering the run they have afterwards – Chelsea away,
Wolves away, Arsenal home.
Beaten champions league finalists Spurs are in a similar situation, very much in the bottom half of the table and after 12 played that’s unacceptable. They’ve kept only 1 clean
sheet all season and just three wins, however they might find hope in the fact that Harry Kane has still scored 6 in 12 even with this awful form, and in the arrival of one of football’s best defensive managers. The English striker comes in
to this match having just become the first English player to score in every qualifying match for the upcoming 2020 European Championships, so the Spurs fans will be hopeful
that he is on form and motivated for this must win game. In terms of available players – West Ham’s main stopper Fabianski is still out and there are worries about captain
Mark Noble too, whereas Spurs also have their number 1 missing until at least next year, and Jan Vertonghen is set to be missing this next match and potentially the one
after, too.
I think if Spurs can continue the form of Winks and Kane from their England duty this week, they could be in for a comfortable win, but West Ham always prove to be a threat
with the likes of Yarmalenko and Snodgrass, who have both scored a few this season.
However, to conclude this first fixture, I can’t look past the Spurs and I think they’re going to get an important 2-0 away win.

6 games are to be played at 3pm this weekend, including a key game for a struggling Arsenal side against 19th place Southampton, my team. The Saints will feel much more
confident playing away, since they haven’t won at home since they beat Wolves late last season, whereas Arsenal will be all too aware that there are eyes on Emery and his
position looks more and more under threat with each uninspiring performance.
Emery’s Arsenal side provided Southampton with the momentum they required last season in order to survive relegation, as the Saints looked down and out after Hughes had a
stinker, but the win against the Gunners was a key moment in Hassenhutl’s incredible escape. However, Southampton have never beaten Arsenal away in the Premier League, which
is an interesting stat going in to the game.
Southampton’s form is the joint worst in the Premier League with Norwich City, having picked up 1 point from their last 5. Ralph will be looking ahead to the two following
fixtures though, as they host Norwich and Watford in the space of a week after the trip to the Emirates.
Arsenal’s form is nothing to write home about either. They haven’t won since an unconvincing 1-0 over Bournemouth but they haven’t lost at home all season.
In terms of injuries and suspensions, it seems as if Arsenal’s only doubt is Dani Ceballos, but he is reported to be fine in time for the match so they might well have a full
selection.
With Djenepo having recently returned, Southampton don’t seem to have a single first team player on the treatment table so they’ll be happy to have the entire squad
available.
Call me biased, but I’m backing my boys to snatch a win off of Arsenal via a Danny Ings goal and a Djenepo goal to win 2-1 and beat Arsenal away in the PL for the first time.

Bournemouth take on Wolves in another 3pm game in what the table suggests is a clash between two sides hopeful of continental qualification this season.
Bournemouth come into this game following a disappointing defeat to Steve Bruce’s Newcastle, but Manchester City are the only team to beat them at their home ground this season,
and there’s no shame in that is there? The Cherries currently sit 9th in the table.
Wolves have picked themselves up from a shaky start to the domestic season and have risen from the relegation zone to the top half in their recent games, and they sit one place
above Bournemouth in 8th. Wolves away form has been pretty impressive this season, only losing once to Everton and of course, famously beating Man City 2-0, but they have
drawn 1-1 in HALF of their league games this season, and getting another draw on top of that in a 0-0 scoreline on the opening day at King Power.
The two sides have only met twice in the Premier League since it began, both games of course coming last season. Wolves were able to beat them 2-0 in one game but the other
was a 1-1 draw.
I’m going to be boring here and say that Wolves will pick up their eigth draw and continue their trend of getting 1-1 scorelines in this match.

Brighton take on Leicester City at the Amex at 3 o clock on Saturday.
Both sides are having great seasons, with Leicester sitting in 2nd place and Brighton in 11th.
Many tipped Brighton to go down this season but the arrival of Potter has seemed to change their fortunes completely. They’ve had some amazing results this season, the most
memorable being a 3-0 win over Tottenham, and they look anything but relegation fodder.
Leicester were tipped to have a good season under Rodgers but they have blown everybody away by being ruthless winners this season and they look like favourites to qualify
for the Champions League for the second time in their history, and some would say they have an outside chance of winning another title. Leicester’s first 12 games this season
have actually been better than the first 12 in their title winning campaign under Ranieri, which in many ways is a huge compliment to how Liverpool have started the season,
but also goes to show just how impressive they’ve been. As we all are well aware, Leicester also broke a PL record at St Marys in October for the biggest ever away win.
I’m sure I won’t be alone in saying Leicester will pick up a straighforward victory here and smash Brighton 3-0. Sorry Brighton fans.

Another quite interesting 3pm game is Crystal Palace taking on the league leaders Liverpool at Selhurst Park. Palace have slipped away a little bit and are 12th but they seem
to be able to beat anybody on their day, and they’ll be looking to cause a huge upset here.
Palace put a huge dent in Manchester City’s title challenge last season when they beat them 3-1 and they’ll maybe look to be an annoyance to another club looking to finish
first.
Liverpool, however, are unbeaten in the Prem this season and have only lost once. They also come into this match having beat City 3-1 in their last game, so they’ll know the
title is theirs to lose, which could go either way in terms of the players’ mentalities. Despite having not lost a single game, Liverpool have only scored 28 goals; both City
and Leicester have more, which on one hand shows their ruthlessness in winning but on the other shows that they’ve struggled to put lesser sides away this season and have
claimed wins by a one goal margin against Southampton, Chelsea, Sheffield United, Leicester, Spurs and Villa so far this season. Southampton and Aston Villa are both sides
that most Liverpool fans would have expected their side to push aside with ease, but neither game was easy and in their trip to Villa park it was only very late goals that
prevented them from losing that game 1-0.
Despite this, though, I can’t see Palace winning. 2-1 Liverpool.

Everton Norwich is a game I don’t want to discuss too much because it isn’t a game that’s all that interesting in my opinion.
Everton sit 15th despite a poor start thanks to beating Southampton last week, whereas Norwich haven’t picked up three points since they got a brilliant win over Manchester
City, and their man man Teemu Pukki may well be firing for Finland but he hasn’t scored since the City game, showing just how important his goals are to their chances of
winning.
These two teams’ head to head record in their 16 PL meetings is quite balanced and I think Everton will get their sixth PL win over Norwich this weekend, beating them 1-0.

Watford Burnley is similar to the last game in that I can see it being very, very dull. In fact, I think it will be 0-0.
The two sides have only ever met 6 times in this league and Burnley have won more games, and Watford are currently in the relegation zone, AND Burnley won 3-0 last time out,
but for some reason my gut says Watford will snatch a point.
One thing that I guess I can use to back up my prediction is that Watford have lifted a weight off their shoulder by finally winning a match this season last time out, and this
will propel them to avoid defeat here.

We can finally move out of the 3pm matches and into the late kick off, where Manchester City look to improve their chances of a third successive title this season, whilst
Lampard’s inform Chelsea side face their biggest test yet.
Tammy Abraham is currently second top scorer in the Premier League and Aguero is third, which leans towards the idea that this game will have goals aplenty, and further
evidence for this is the last time these two met at the Etihad, City won 6-0. I don’t think there is any chance at all of history repeating itself here but Chelsea have been
leaking goals a lot this season, and against Manchester City’s quality I can’t see how they keep a clean sheet. However, City’s injury problems are still a factor here and
the defence is still lacking, perhaps opening the door for Chelsea to go out on Saturday evening and relentlessly attack. I think that is the Blue’s best chance of winning.
And I actually also think they will win. City fans won’t be happy in the slightest but I think Lampard will claim a great 3-2 win.

Chris Wilder is finally being noticed as a top class manager this season as his Blades side have the second best defence in the league this season, whereas Ole Gunna Solskjaer
United seem to have improved on their terrible start to the 19/20 season, picking up a few more wins as of late and rising up the table a little. Sheffield United have certainly
been better away than at home, having lost to both Southampton and Liverpool at Bramall Lane this season, but they’ve still picked up some really impressive results at home
such as the win over Arsenal and the 3-0 hammering of Burnley.
In my opinion, on Sunday we’ll see Sheffield United and Manchester United draw for the first time since the Prem started, with United having won 5 of their 6 meeting and the
other game going Sheffield’s way. I think it will be 1-1. Oh and Rashford will score again.

And finally, let’s talk about the Monday Night Football, Aston Villa vs Newcastle. Newly Promoted Villa are narrowly outside of the relegation zone whereas Bruce’s Newcastle
are on a hot run of form at the moment and are proving doubters wrong this season.
Aston Villa have scored 17 goals this season, the same amount as Burnley, but are seven places behind Dyche’s side because of a poor defensive record and a lot of points lost
from winning positions. Aston Villa have potentially got a lot of missing players for this match, but it is looking like Grealish and Heaton could make a return, however if
Heaton is still out that is terrible for the Villans, as Jed Steer is also confirmed to be out, so they’d be forced to field their third choice goalkeeper next Monday.
Newcastle United have lost just one of their last 5 games, that being a narrow 1-0 vs Chelsea, and they’ve won both of their last two. Newcastle’s defensive players and
midfielders are providing the goals but Almiron, Saint Maximin and Joelinton have a combined goal total of 1 goal, which is very, very worrying. Both Almiron and Saint Maximin
seem like very talented forward players, especially when it comes to beating players with the ball at their feet, but neither of them have converted any of their good chances,
of which they’ve had quite a few this season. Joelinton’s one and only Newcastle goal came in their shock win at Spurs and that was on 25th August, so the £40m man needs to
score sooner rather than later, but he probably needn’t worry about getting dropped as Newcastle’s attacking depth is poor so there is probably no alternative for Steve Bruce.
The last time Villa beat Newcastle in the Premier League was in April of 2011 and the two sides have tended to draw a lot this decade, leaving me thinking that this game has
one point apiece written all over it. I’m going for a 1-1 draw. I don’t think either side would be happy with this result, but I can’t provide a reason that either side will
win, especially if Villa practice defending set pieces.