Jermain’s back, and so are we!

Unfazed by going another week without Alexis Sanchez, Chubby Alonso hopes you’ll sweat it out with him again. Chubby Alonso keeps the faith with his current crop and by doing so has been forced to make a few bold decisions, none more so than starting Gylfi Sigurdsson and Moussa Sissoko ahead of Branislav Ivanovic and Charlie Austin. Andy Carroll and Winston Reid will be certainly shown the door after this week, so here’s to hoping for the perfect adieu from the big pair. Let’s have a look at some of Chubby’s choices, as well as some other players he might have the eyes for…

Brad Guzan (Aston Villa v Liverpool)

I’ve decided to stick with Brad this week primarily because I’m saving up my transfers, and also because I’m expecting goals aplenty everywhere else this weekend. But my bet remains an educated one: Villa have been poor but remain hard to beat at home, conceding just three goals in their last five home games, including 1-1 draws with Southampton and a then-rampant Manchester United. Liverpool should and will dominate possession and will welcome the returning Raheem Sterling, which might spell a reduced role for either Coutinho or Markovic, two players who were excellent last week. Yet in Sterling, Liverpool also has a player with a goal per shot ratio of 8%, a stat that primes Brad Guzan to make a healthy handful of saves, or dare I say, a shut out.

Winston Reid/Andy Carroll (West Ham United v Hull City)

There may be some tired legs after West Ham’s lengthy midweek duelwith Everton, so Big Sam will be happy to know that it’s a rather rudderless Hull side he’ll come up against tomorrow. Hull City have failed to score in 5 of their last 7 matches and will enter this game without Nikica Jelavic and Abel Hernandez, both of them pulling up injured in last weekend’s loss. If their midfield can withhold the tiny threat of Tom Ince, the in-demand Winston Reid should have a rather peaceful time at the back and might instead focus his efforts up front, joining forces with Andy Carroll at set pieces to rack up a morale-boosting win before The Hammers hit the rough road. They play Liverpool, Manchester United, Southampton and Spurs in their next four games, so nothing less than three points will do for Big Sam.

Kieran Trippier (Burnley v Crystal Palace)

At the start of the season, one might have looked at the fixture list and struck this one off as a bore nil-nil. Yet six months down the road and we have a duel between two teams who will go at each other. Burnley are finding their feet and the net, playing like conscientious collective that won them promotion, and can reliably rely on Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes and even Sam Vokes to get in amongst the goals. Crystal Palace are hoping to catch the same wind Burnley has with their atmospheric win over Spurs and have now picked up a Yaya Sanogo to add to their collection of half-decent strikers. While this gives them proper options up front, Palace only kick-started into life against Spurs when the orthodox Glenn Murray was replaced by Wilfried Zaha, effectively operating a strikerless system that created chaos in attack. If Padrew sticks with a conservative Plan A and leaves Zaha on the bench, Burnley – and Kieran Trippier – might just get away with it; otherwise, I’d expect this to be quite a shootout.

Leighton Baines (Everton v West Brom)
With eyes on Kevin Mirallas

The last time Martinez’ Everton faced a Tony Pulis team at Goodison Park, they found themselves muted out of the game by a well-drilled and hard working Palace side. Everton at that point were at their Martinez-best, making the result doubly surprising; this time though they are escaping from a long slump and should emerge with some hard lessons learnt. Everton’s futile FA Cup exertions in midweek – playing nearly 90 minutes with just ten men – means they will have to draw on their reserves to grind out a result here, though the Monday evening fixture fortuitously gives them slightly more time to catch their breaths. Martinez should refrain from making many changes, but I would be surprised though if the eager Kevin Mirallas wasn’t granted a start, and equally surprised if he’s not amongst the goals. If Muhamed Besic operates as efficiently as he did against Manchester City last week and tames the tempermental Sessegnon, Leighton Baines and Co. should be home and dry on what will be a cold, snowy day.

Moussa Sissoko (Newcastle United v Southampton)

Southampton come into this game as the favourites but Newcastle are an unusual side to play against, as seen in last week’s game of two halves. Remy Cabella also had his own two halves of sorts, looking lively in the first against a Chelsea defence visibly caught off-guard, but tame in the second after some Mourinho-wisening up. He’s on a quest to prove that he’s more than a flash in a pan though, and will have to do so against Southampton’s excellent set of fullbacks. The instrumental Moussa Sissoko hit the post last week and has the slightly easier task in the middle –  Victory Wanyama’s hamstring-ing against Ipswich means he partners Morgan Schneiderlin on the injury table. Southampton will surely miss their presence in midfield and could surprisingly struggle against a fired-up Newcastle in front of a raucous St. James Park.

Angel Di Maria (QPR v Manchester United)

Angel Di Maria was played as United’s most forward target against Southampton and was accordingly snuffed out by some intelligent defending. Van Gaal will likely mend that by shifting United’s chief attacking impetus further down to run at QPR, especially with regular left-back Yun Suk-Young out injured. Richard Dunne also came under fire at Burnley last weekend and fights an uphill battle against Falcao, who will want to prove a point in Van Persie’s absence. Falcao has shown great work rate and movement whenever played and should also take advantage of QPR’s lacklustre defence. At the other end, Charlie Austin may be good value for a goal at Loftus Road, but with QPR’s full backs pegged back, he will probably find his supply of crosses cut short. In any case, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones have always looked more comfortable dealing with the classic centre-forward than the speedy striker and should be able to deal with the more rudimentary stuff that QPR have put up of late.

Nacer Chadli (Tottenham Hotspurs v Sunderland)
With eyes on Jermain Defoe

It seems like just yesterday that I was sat in White Hart Lane, watching Jermain Defoe making his last lap around the ground after Spurs’ 1-0 win over Everton, fans in full adulation of the last striker to have made a real mark for the club – until Harry Kane that is. Today’s match should be a straight shootout between the returning master and his flourishing apprentice. While Spurs have the stronger supporting cast (not since the opening day have Spurs won a game in which neither Chadli nor Eriksen have contributed), Sunderland have the more resilient and less dramatic defence. Spurs should prevail, even if just, but see if the Lane faithful will begrudge good ol’ Jermain a goal.

Gylfi Sigurdsson / Eden Hazard / Diego Costa (Swansea v Chelsea)

What can be said about this match up? A traditionally tight affair was taken apart in the return fixture when a Diego Costa hat-trick put him on the map and sent Swansea on a five match winless streak. That day marked Bafetimbi Gomis’ first start of the season; he failed to score with any of his five shots at goal and was duly replaced by Wilfried Bony, who within 10 minutes had set up Jonjo Shelvey. The sceptre still looms over Gomis, who hungers for his first goal in the Post-Bony era having seen last week’s header chalked off as an own goal. He’ll be thankful, then, to have Glyfi Sigurdsson playing just behind him. No team is ever guaranteed a clean sheet when up against Sigurdsson (explaining Ivanovic’s place on my bench), but thankfully for the fans the same can be said for Eden Hazard. There will be goals, and I wouldn’t bet against either Diego Costa or Bafetimbi Gomis being amongst them.

Other Punts of Interest:

Bojan Krkic (Leicester City v Stoke City)

Stoke may have looked terribly flat against Arsenal, but that’s probably because they were visibly on their last legs after an incredibly testing set of fixtures that stretched to the start of December. The squad will look to put that to bed and recover some semblance of joy against Leicester. Bojan Krkic, for one, has sometimes flattered and often deceived, but in the next three matches will come up against three of the league’s five worst defences, and will need to start picking up some momentum at the King Power. On form, Leicester may fancy themselves but Stoke are one of those sides against which your best laid plans can fall to the wayside. The teams face each other without Dean Hammond, Esteban Cambiasso and Steven N’Zonzi, who would have been three of the most prolific passers on the pitch, so I would expect the midfield to be bypassed fairly often, and Bojan to profit from this extra time on the ball.

Oliver Giroud (Manchester City v Arsenal)
With eyes on David Silva

Arsenal badly need a win today to prove that their destructive victory over stoke was more than a mere mismatch of talents. Wenger might be secretly confident of a result, and why wouldn’t he? In Alexis Sanchez he has arguably the Premier League’s most feared player, and with Walcott and Ozil waiting in the wings they have quality in depth too. Yet it could be Olivier Giroud to make all the difference at the Etihad. The stylish French forward has been much maligned but remains a terrifically difficult player to mark. With some clever runs and touches he is the closest thing Arsenal have to Dennis Bergkamp and probably their best chance of unlocking a well organised defence. He might not get in amongst the goals all the time, but his mere presence up front releases Sanchez and Chamberlain to run at the defence; it is telling that Sanchez’ mini-drought against West Ham and Southampton coincided with Giroud’s absence altogether.

But of course to have a chance of winning, Arsenal must first stop Manchester City’s mechanically powerful attack – a job that falls on the shoulders of a young Francis Coquelin. He will know that he can spare Mertesacker’s blushes by cutting off the supply to Aguero; the better he does this and the more David Silva is marked out of the game, the greater Arsenal’s chance of snatching their first victory at the Etihad since a certain Samir Nasri scored and set up another back in 2010.