IRELAND LEGEND, TONY CASCARINO JOINS BETDAQ! Firstly, I’m delighted to be joining the BETDAQ team and I hope that I can steer you along the right path to plenty of winners between now and the end of the season. I’m really forward to working on this with BETDAQ.
Each week, I’ll fill you in with all my best bets for the weekend ahead in all the biggest games in the Premier league and beyond. Is there a better week to start than with a fascinating game between Chelsea and Arsenal tomorrow in Stamford Bridge?
GREAT CHANCE FOR ARSENAL AT CHELSEA
If anyone had said to me at the start of the season; give me Chelsea’s starting 11, I think nearly everyone would have named the first 10, fairly easily. The back 4 of Cahill, Terry, Ivanovich and Azpilcueta seemed obvious and most would have got at least 10 out of the 11. Now we’ve got to five games in and it’s really hard to figure what team Mourinho is going to put out tomorrow against Arsenal. Why? Because too many people are out of form.
When you’re a manager, you have one player out of form, maybe two, you can drop them. When you’ve got four or five, then you’ve got a really big problem because you’re decimating your team when you have to make so many changes.
We all talk about the history and Arsenal have never had a great run but there has never been a better time for Arsenal to go to Stamford Bridge because Chelsea, you can get goals out of them. Chelsea have conceded at least two goals a game, that’s 12 goals already this season! That is not a Mourinho team. That is not an amount of goals that you would associate with Chelsea.
I think in 2005, Chelsea conceded 12 goals on 9th of April. Last season, it was the 6th of December before they conceded 12 goals. This year, we’ve only gone five games.
So, it really isn’t a Mourinho like team and they’re not functioning. Hazard hasn’t scored, Costa only has one goal so it’s not just that defence is conceding lots of goals, the attack isn’t scoring either.
Arsenal have a great opportunity here to go to the ”Bridge” and get something and I think they will. I think they will at least get a draw. The only thing is that in the past, Jose has gotten the better of Arsene Wenger but he didn’t in the Community Shield.
A lot of the decision’s that Mourinho has made this season have been poor, both on and off the field. We’ve seen it so many times before at Chelsea, you are always under pressure as the Manager there and I think if Chelsea lose again tomorrow, there will be a lot of speculation about Mourinho’s future next week. They will be in the bottom three and that certainly will not sit well with them.
I would Lay Chelsea tomorrow. This is not the Chelsea we’ve seen before and this is a great chance for Arsene to take a big scalp in Stamford Bridge.
LEICESTER CHALLENGING FOR THE TOP
When you’re talking about Nigel Pearson’s Leicester that did incredibly well in the latter stages of last season, and then show up this season with a new manager and they have shown so much desire and motivation, I think they have been a pleasure to watch.
When you watch the game against Aston Villa, even after going two-nil down, they never stopped fighting for every ball. When you’ve got Vardy, Mahrez and players who keep coming at, they are going to hard to play against. Nathan Dyer has fitted in brilliantly as well.
Stoke have invested a lot more than in recent years on players like Chiquiri but Leicester’s desire to win a football game is up there with the best and I really enjoy watching them. They are a solid team, hard to beat and I think Kasper Schmeichel has become a more accomplished goalkeeper than people give him credit for. He’s a goalkeeper that, now, looks like being a replacement for his Dad, I think he’s come on that much this season to be classed in that level.
I expect Leicester to beat Stoke who have overloaded in the forward line and they’ve lost a big player as well in Victor Moses. That loss was huge for them and they haven’t been able to patch it up fully with other people. I just don’t think it’s quite clicked yet at Stoke and I think they’ve invested way too much in the attacking side of things.
Leicester should add another three points and keep challenging for the top.
UNITED LOOK GOOD AWAY TO SOUTHAMPTON
Looking ahead to Sunday, Man United take on Southampton at St. Mary’s. As much as people have been quite negative, I actually thought Man United played really well in the Champions League game this week. Fair enough, they lost the game, but they played really well. There was something different with Martial and Depay in the team, it was much faster and they are really close to clicking together as a really good team.
Obviously, defensively it was a massive blow to lose Luke Shaw, he’s a massive loss as he looks like a fantastic left back and that’s why they spent £30 million on him. He is a quality left back.
I also think that Chris Smalling has done really well this year and the De Gea situation will really help things at United now as well.
I expect United to win here. I don’t believe it’s the same football as when Fergie was there, it’s not as exciting, but if they can keep that pace in there game, they are a far more difficult to team to play against. They also have a lot more players fighting for shirts lately.
From a Southampton perspective, they’ll do ok this season. They’ll be a mid-table team, they may not do as well as they did last year but they certainly won’t be struggling to stay up. They’ll upset a few throughout the season but I don’t think they’ll upset Man United this weekend.
ENGLISH CLUBS TO QUALIFY IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
There has been a lot of talk this week about the strength of the English sides compared to what’s in Europe at the moment. I am firmly expecting all four English clubs to qualify for the second and then we’ll see what they’re really made of.
Although, I think it’s far too early in the competition to be drawing comparisons with other teams but I think the English will be right up there with the others.
We will only know where we are once the Group stages are finished though.
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