I’m not sure even successive 8-0 wins against Man City and Fulham would have seen Chelsea fans warm to Rafa Benitez following the unpopular sacking of Robbie Di Matteo. Since his arrival the Blues have been held to successive goalless draws to leave the Spaniard facing a barrage of awkward questions.
Life doesn’t get much easier for Rafa as Chelsea are at Upton Park for another London derby where Sam Allardyce will be hoping to inflict further problems. Roman Abramovich will have been nervously watching the past couple of matches and he obviously had hopes of Fernando Torres finding a new lease of life under his former manager.
Well, that hasn’t worked out yet as on Wednesday night Fernando Torres went past the ten hour mark since his last league goal. West Ham lost 1-0 at Old Trafford the same night, but limited Sir Alex Ferguson’s side to few clear cut chances.
The Hammers have started the season in great nick as they build around their solid home form. Things have been tougher of late in East London with Man City and Stoke both taking a point. Defensively they have been very well organised and Andy Carroll at the other end must be kept a close eye on. With Chelsea continuing to misfire up front I reckon this will finish with the honours even to add more fuel to Chelsea fans’ anger.
Saturday’s late kick-off features Manchester United’s trip to the Madejski. Just when I thought Reading had turned a corner they seem to have taken a step back having witnessed their tame performance at Villa Park.
United didn’t exactly set the world on fire during the week, but as ever they got the job done to maintain their one point lead heading into the weekend. Robin van Persie showed his class with a sublime touch, even if the finish was a little fortunate.
Sir Alex will be reminding his players of the performance in their last away game at Carrow Road and he knows they simply cannot play that badly again. I was impressed with United’s back four against the Hammers and Anders Lindegaard looked assured when called on.
Reading don’t have enough in the attacking stakes to cause the leaders any real trouble and this looks set to be a comfortable away win. United ran out 2-0 winners on their last trip here and another two goal margin win should be backed.
Betting on BETDAQ – Alan’s Punts:
West Ham v Chelsea – Back the draw at 3.55
Reading v Man United – Back Man Utd with -1.5 Asian handicap at 2.02
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