1. Arsenal take on Chelsea at The Emirates with Chelsea only 2 games away from the Premier League title. Can Arsenal delay the title celebrations for at least a week and strengthen their bid for 2nd place or will Chelsea have one hand on the trophy come Sunday evening. As always the ongoing subplot between Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho will be an interesting development throughout.
2. Burnley go up against Leicester in a good old fashioned “relegation 6 pointer”. Burnley’s goal’s have dried up at just the wrong time whereas Leicester look to be resurgent as of late with 3 wins in a row, the form would suggest Leicester but everyone knows with clashes of this kind the form book has a tendency of going out of the window.
3. Southampton host Tottenham, in I suppose is what is being dubbed “The do we want to be in the Europa League next season” battle for 6th place. With the Europa League being somewhat of a poisoned chalice at least one of these sides will qualify for the tournament, whether they are looking forward to a season of Europa League purgatory is another matter. But at least the two clubs seem to have aspirations of success unlike Newcastle.
4. Which brings us nicely onto Number 4. Newcastle have now lost their last 6 matches and still aren’t mathematically safe from the drop. John Carver is calling tomorrow’s game at home to Swansea a “World Cup Final”, the way Newcastle are playing they can’t even get up for the “FA Trophy Final” (no offense any North Ferriby fans). A 7th defeat in a row for John Carver tomorrow and if other results go against them they could be dragged into a relegation dogfight for the last 4 matches. Tense times on Tyneside.
5. QPR have a short trip across London to West Ham. If results go against QPR tomorrow they could be bottom by 7:30pm, there always seems to be fits and starts of a revival in West London under Chris Ramsey but it hasn’t quite seemed to click. They are running out of games to save their season but facing a West Ham side whose season is pretty much done and dusted maybe the best way to get a much needed 3 points this weekend.
6. Stoke v Sunderland – That will be last on Match Of The Day, you have my word
7. The race for Champions League places continue with both Manchester Clubs in action. City at home to Villa and United away to Everton, these two games should go to form but both clubs will not want to drop points especially as dropped points for United could let City take third, whereas anything less than a win for City and they will be the favourites for 4th and Champions League pre-qualification. United will be looking to bounce back after defeat to Chelsea last Saturday and City will be looking to put that terrible run of form behind them and continue the momentum they have started after beating West Ham last week.
8. The battle for the 2 automatic promotion spots in the Championship gets even hotter as we are into the penultimate round of matches. Nobody can afford to slip up this weekend, if they all come through unscathed over the next few days then we are going to be in for a very dramatic last day. Watford currently sit at the top of the summit with Bournemouth just behind them in 2nd but with Bournemouth not playing until Monday they could be 4th by then and will that add to the extra pressure. Eddie Howe will have a job on his hands that his players don’t choke so close to the finishing line.
9. There are still half a dozen or so teams in League One looking perilously over their shoulder as the trap door to League Two looms ever closer if results go against Leyton Orient and Notts County tomorrow then they could have the perilous (R) next to their names when the tables are printed. Crewe and Crawley are just on the right side of the line at the moment and they’ll be hoping it stays that way once they play Coventry and Peterborough away respectively
10. In Spain after Barcelona found out they will be meeting up with Pep Guardiola again in the Champions League they first have to turn their attention to the Catalan Derby as they make the short hop to the Cornellà-El Prat to try and consolidate their 2 point lead over Real Madrid. This could prove to be a potential banana skin but Barcelona will be hoping they have enough to get past their city rivals. Whereas their challengers Real Madrid who drew Italian league leaders Juventus in the Champions League Semi Finals travel to North West Spain to face Celta Vigo knowing they need a win to keep the pressure on Barcelona.
11. And finally on Sunday we have the Turin Derby. These two met back in November with Juventus running out 2-1 winners with a late Andrea Pirlo goal, but let’s not forget that lung busting run and finish from Torino’s Bruno Peres which so nearly clinched them a point. After the drab affair which was the Milan Derby last week, let’s hope this one is a little more exciting