Is Jose Mourinho’s tenure at Spurs already unravelling? A string of poor results have now been compounded by injury to talismanic striker Harry Kane and the Portuguese manager is already reaching for the excuses playbook. Watford, on the other hand, appear rejuvenated under Nigel Pearson and look to have a real talent on their hands in the shape of Senegal’s Ismaila Sarr. Does John Newsome believe the Hornets can sting the North Londoners? Here are his previews for all matches taking place in game-week 23. You can view all previous analysis from John’s regular column here: English Premier League Predictions For Saturday
Scroll down for all previews.
WATFORD v TOTTENHAM
Early Saturday Afternoon Football live on BT Sports.
Watford are revitalised under new manager Nigel Pearson with the Hornets getting a great 3-0 away day victory at the Vitality against Bournemouth.
Abdoulaye Doucoure gave Watford an half-time lead scoring just before the break.
Troy Deeney scored the Hornets 2nd, with Roberto Pereyra adding the 3rd-late into injury time to continue Nigel’s fine start to his reign at Vicarage Rd.
In the 6-games that Nigel has overseen, Watford have 4-victories, 1-draw and 1-defeat, the defeat being against Liverpool, so no disgrace there.
Troy Deeney says ‘If Nigel was Portuguese called Nigelo Dos Pearsi then he’d be a messiah’
Not sure Troy?
However, Nigel has seen Watford climb off the bottom of the Premier League table and out of the relegation places.
What’s not commonly known about Nigel Pearson is that out of the 3-teams that have been at the bottom of the table at Christmas and have avoided relegation, Nigel has been connected with 2 of them.
West Bromwich Albion in 2004/05 as Assistant Manager to Bryan Robson and Leicester in 2014/15.
A few other facts about Nigel is that on the final day of the 1998/99 season, Carlisle’s goalkeeper Jimmy Glass came up for a last-minute corner and scored a goal that kept Carlisle in League 2.
Carlisle needed to win and with time running out and drawing 1-1, Jimmy went up for the last-gasp corner and amazingly scored to prevent relegation.
Who was manager of Carlisle at the time?
Nigel Pearson.
As manager of Southampton in 2008, Nigel got a victory on the final day of the season to prevent the Saints being relegated from the Championship.
It appears Nigelo has the midus touch when it comes to helping teams stave off relegation.
The Hornet faithful will be hoping that continues.
Tottenham could consider themselves unlucky but unfortunately, suffered a 1-0 defeat at home against Liverpool in the late Saturday Afternoon kick-off.
No disgrace there as everyone, apart from Manchester United have been beaten by Jurgen’s Reds.
Without Harry Kane, who will be missing until at least April, Spurs lack that killer instinct.
Jose has Lucas Moura and Son Heung-Min who will score the goals against other clubs but Liverpool are a different proposition and to take them on without Big Harry was always going to be difficult.
It looks like Christian Eriksen has played his last game for Tottenham from the way he gave his shirt away at the end of the game against Liverpool, with a proposed move to Inter Milan on the cards in the near future.
There’s talk that Edinson Cavani may come into the club on a short term basis, which would suit all concerned, however, would EC be willing to leave Paris for a 5-months stint in London.
A quick story about the Uruguayan striker.
On a trip to Milan, back in 2008, this EveryTip contributor went to see a live game Atalanta v Palermo.
The Pink Devils of Palermo beat Atalanta by a 3-1 scoreline with a young Italian player having a superb game scoring the 1st Palermo goal and running the Atalanta defence ragged.
On returning to England, the EveryTip contributor contacted a number of clubs to advise them that there was a young Italian striker, playing for Palermo that needed to be signed and probably could have been picked up for a couple of Million pound at most.
None of the clubs contacted seemed to be bothered about signing the Italian.
As it turned out, the Italian, Edinson Cavani, isn’t Italian, he’s Uruguayan.
Easy mistake to make, Edinson Cavani, sounds Italian, plays for an Italian club and looks Italian.
Whether Edinson Cavani is Italian, Uruguayan or whatever, if a numpty from Barnsley who loves football, can spot a talent playing for Palermo then the top English clubs should have been able to snap up Mr Cavani back in 2008.
Big EC is 33, in a couple of weeks, coincidentally, the same age as Sheffield Superstar Jamie Vardy, so still has life in his Italian, sorry, Uruguayan legs and would enhance any team.
The problem for any potential Tottenham signing is the player, whoever it is, will inevitably be bench warmers when Harry Kane is fit, so will have to factor that into any particular move.
If Jose fancies a quick-fix temporary striker to fill in for Harry over the next few months and is better than Lionel Messi, then just get in touch through the EveryTip site, John Newsome is available for a 5-month cameo, as the Lilywhites striker, wouldn’t command high wages, (£100,000 a week should suffice) and will score goals!
At the Chas and Dave Memorial Stadium back in October, both teams were managed by different bosses with Mauricio Pochettino still at the Tottenham helm and Quique Sanchez Flores in charge of the Hornets.
Watford achieved a very creditable draw which gave Quique a stay of execution whilst at Tottenham, Daniel Levy was already plotting Mauricio’s departure.
Abdoulaye Doucoure scored a very early goal to give Watford hopes of a victory but the Hornets couldn’t hold on and Dele Alli equalised late in the game to give both teams a share of the points.
Betway offer Watford at 12/5, the Draw at 12/5 and 23/20 for Tottenham to come away with all 3-points.
Betway offer 9/2 that Troy Deeney Scores First and 2/1 that there are Over 3.5 Goals.
Home Win 3-1
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NORWICH v BOURNEMOUTH
Norwich remain rock bottom of the Premier League table following the 4-0 defeat away against Manchester United on Saturday.
It’s looking increasingly likely that Daniel Farke’s Canaries are going to be relegated with games running out but no one can say Norwich haven’t entertained in their year back in the big time.
It’s now 10-defeats from the last 13 against United with just 3-victories against the Red Devil’s.
The fixture always produces a victory for one of the teams, usually United, and never ends in a draw.
Most hierarchy’s at Premier League clubs would probably decide to sack their manager with the results Norwich have produced but Daniel Farke shouldn’t be removed as he is good for the Premier League and Norwich have been a good addition, regardless of the results.
One game Daniel can fully concentrate on getting a victory, not that he doesn’t for the others, is this relegation battle against Eddie’s Cherries.
Norwich sit bottom of the table with 14-points which is 6-less than today’s opponents Bournemouth, so this really is the proverbial 6-pointer.
Bournemouth were simply outfought, outplayed and outwitted against a resurgent Watford side on Sunday with Eddie’s Cherries suffering a 3-0 defeat.
That leaves Bournemouth 2nd-bottom of the Premier League table, without a victory in the previous 5-games.
The strange anomaly in Bournemouth’s season is Eddie’s men have beaten Manchester United and Chelsea, the Chelsea victory being at Stamford Bridge, so it’s clear Eddie Howe can get a tune out of his players at certain times but then they embark on a woeful run of results.
Although in the bottom three of the Premier League table, they are only 2-points from safety so Eddie will definitely target this game against the only side lower than his, as winnable, to get back on track.
When these two teams met at the Vitality in Game Week Nine, the game fizzled out into a very drab 0-0 draw.
Betway offer Norwich at 13/10, the Draw at 5/2 and 2/1 for Bournemouth to come away with all 3-points.
Betway offer 19/10 that Todd Cantwell Scores Anytime and 2/1 that Callum Wilson Scores Anytime.
Draw 1-1
ARSENAL v SHEFFIELD UNITED
Arsenal started off brilliantly against Crystal Palace in the early Saturday Afternoon kick-off with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring the Gunners goal in the 1st-half.
Pierre-Emerick had mixed fortunes in the game at Selhurst Park, having a great first hour then getting sent off for a horror challenge on Max Meyer.
Initially, the on-field referee gave Pierre-Emerick a Yellow Card but the dreaded VAR, who were reportedly watching the opening moments of the ITV Racing from Kempton, got involved.
Whilst filling out the betting slip for Bryony Frost on Froden, someone interrupted VAR at Stockley Park and said that they should have a look at Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s challenge on Max.
The dreaded VAR had to be seen to be watching the football not the horse racing and instructed the on-field referee to show Pierre a Red Card.
Wouldn’t it be good if the on-field referee had like a pitch-side monitor that he could go and check for himself?
Mike Riley take note!
Apparently, there are plenty of unused monitors on eBay.
Like a bad dog walker, Mikel Arteta’s new look/old look Gunners, couldn’t hold on to the lead (keep that!) and conceded a Crystal Palace equaliser.
Most will say that it was because Pierre-Emerick had been sent off, however, the Palace equaliser was scored before Pierre received the red.
In truth, Palace were the better side in the 2nd-half both against 11-men and subsequently 10, with Arsenal lucky to scrape a point.
Sheffield United got a great 3-points in the Friday Night game at Bramall Lane against West Ham.
After several incidents that have gone against United, involving the dreaded VAR, Chris Wilder finally had something to smile about, although no one could tell from his face when one of the controversial VAR decisions finally went in favour of the Blades.
With time running out, West Ham thought they had equalised but VAR, who were watching the new BBC 1 sitcom, King Gary at the time, decided that because John Egan had blasted the ball against Declan Rice‘s arm, the goal should be ruled out.
Whoever has come up with that law
is simply disassociated from football.
The law was introduced for incidents such as the Diego Maradona goal against England in 1986 or the Thierry Henry goal against the Republic of Ireland in 2009, not for when a defender blasts the ball against someone’s arm.
Michael Oliver didn’t want to upset his bosses and go over to the redundant pitch-side monitor, funny that though as he was lauded for doing it the week before in the FA Cup, yet doesn’t do it in a Premier League game.
The Blunts faithful will be asking all their mates over a greasy Chip Butty, “Do we need our Passports to go to London?” They won’t know, bless em.
James from Swinton in Yorkshire, which is nowhere near Bramall Lane, firstly, struggles to say Passport, certainly can’t spell it and when asked to spell it, went ‘P’ ‘A’ ‘S’ ‘S’ “oh forget it !” Jimbo should just have replied ‘I’’T’
By the way, Butty is a sandwich.
The Blade faithful will be on the rattler early doors down to the Big Smoke, passports in hand, they will be excited as they don’t get out much.
All with their can of Magnet, a packet of Woodbine and a tin of Snuff.
Like a greasy Chip Sandwich.
However, the Blunts will be over the moon with their victory against the Bubbles and lie in 6th-place in the Premier League table with 32-points, just 2-behind Manchester United, all on the steam train, singing their John Denver parody.
At Bramall Lane in October, this was a Monday Night Football game on Sky Sports, with the Blades gaining the points from a 1-0 victory over Unai’s Gunners.
Lys Mousset scoring the solitary United goal to give the Blunts a great night out in Sheffield.
Betway offer Arsenal at slight Odds On 8/11, the Draw at 3/1 and 7/2 for Sheffield United to come away with all 3-points.
Betway offer 100/30 that Alexandre Lacazette Scores First and 9/4 that Olly McBurnie Scores Anytime.
Draw 1-1
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BRIGHTON v ASTON VILLA
Brighton, who have had an excellent start to the season which as seen the hierarchy extend Graham Potter’s contract, have suddenly slipped down the Premier League table and with 24-points, are just 4-points above the drop zone.
The Seagulls suffered a 1-0 defeat away at Everton on Saturday with not much else to say from the performance.
Old stager Glenn Murray got 20-minutes game time towards the end after not featuring much over the past few fixtures due to injury.
Graham has stated that Glenn could leave the club this month if Glenn feels its best for his career, yet Graham shouldn’t be too hasty in that decision as he could just need the services of Big Glenn in the remaining games, especially if the Seagulls become embroiled in a relegation battle.
Aston Villa put up a spirited display against Pep’s High Flying City but ultimately suffered a heavy defeat in the late Sunday Afternoon kick-off at Villa Park.
Anwar El-Ghazi did score a late consolation via the penalty spot but Villa were already losing 6-0 at the time and subsequently lost by the scoreline of 6-1.
Dean Smith has brought in Danny Drinkwater on loan from Chelsea and poor Danny was thrown straight into the game against City.
Danny has only played 3-times this season and 2 of those 3-games were against Man City after turning out for Burnley in a 4-1 defeat against Pep’s boys.
So Danny has a losing aggregate of 10-2 at the minute against the Blue Moons.
It was obvious to see that Double D was not up to the pace of any Premier League game never mind a game against Pep’s High Flying City and was culpable for a couple of the early goals, so maybe Dean should have left Dan D on the bench.
The defeat leaves Aston Villa third from bottom of the table but are still within touching distance of safety and just 3-points behind today’s opponents, so all is not lost and all to play for at the Vitality.
In October at Villa Park, Dean Smith’s Clarets got a great 2-1 victory against Graham Potter’s Seagulls.
Adam Webster did put Brighton in front after 20-minutes but Aaron Mooy received 2-quick Yellow Cards within 5-minutes of each other and took a 1st-half bath.
With the man advantage, Villa took control and Jack Grealish equalised before the break.
In the 2nd-half, Brighton thought they had held out for a point until Matt Targett got Villa’s winner in the 94th-minute, to send the Seagulls flying home pointless.
Betway offer Brighton at Odds On 31/40, the Draw at 3/1 and 16/5 for Aston Villa to come away with all 3-points.
Betway offer 19/4 that Alireza Jahanbakhsh Scores First and 7/2 that Conor Hourihane Scores Anytime.
Draw 1-1
MAN CITY v CRYSTAL PALACE
Man City simply blitzed Aston Villa on Sunday getting a great 6-1 victory, with the Villa goal being scored right on the full-time whistle.
Riyad Mahrez opened the scoring early on then added City and his 2nd, 6-minutes later.
Sergio Aguero scored City’s 3rd and the Argentinian’ 1st of a superb hat-trick before Gabriel Jesus made it 4-0 at the break.
Sergio scored both of City’s 2nd-half goals to complete his hat-trick and on the stroke of full-time, Ilkay Gundogan upended a Villa player to concede a penalty that gave Aston Villa their consolation.
The victory, 24-hours after Leicester’s defeat against Southampton, as elevated Pep’s High Flying City into 2nd-place in the Premier League table but still a massive 14-points behind Liverpool, with the Reds also having a game in hand over Pep’s Blues.
It’s fair to say Man City would need a Liverpool catastrophe in order for them to regain their Premier League title but Pep will just keep going and does have the Carabao Cup, the FA Cup and the Champions League to go for, so it could still end up being a successful season for the Citizens.
Crystal Palace had a better 2nd-half at Selhurst Park last Saturday against Arsenal, coming from a goal behind to gain a point in a 1-1 draw against the Gunners.
After conceding an early goal and trailing going into the break, Roy Hodgson must have laid into his boys at half-time as the Eagles came out in the 2nd-half and bossed Arsenal.
Jordan Ayew got the equaliser before Arsenal were reduced to 10-men.
Roy’s Boys couldn’t take advantage of the extra man and the game ended with both teams taking home a point.
This will be a tough ask against City but Roy Hodgson has had some favourable results in his time as Crystal Palace manager against Pep so won’t be fearing the visit to the Etihad.
Palace actually beat City, the last time the Eagle Ultras ventured up the M6 to Manchester in December 2018.
City comfortably beat the Eagles at Selhurst Park back in October getting a 2-0 victory with both goals coming in the 1st-half.
Gabriel Jesus and the David of the Silva’s with the City goals.
Betway offer Man City at massive Odds On 1/9, the Draw at 9/1 and a ginormous 22/1 for Crystal Palace to come away with all 3-points.
Betway offer 100/30 that Raheem Sterling Scores First and 21/20 that there are Under 3.5 Goals.
Home Win 2-1
SOUTHAMPTON v WOLVES
After being humiliated at St Mary’s back in October, losing 9-0 against Leicester, revenge was certainly on the cards at the King Power last Saturday.
Ralph Hasenhuttl would have instilled into his men that they must not concede more than 8 this time.
After Leicester scored an early goal, the fear of dread must have briefly washed over the Saints faithful with the groans of ‘here we go again’ sweeping around the ground.
However, unlike in the home fixture where Southampton had Ryan Bertrand sent off, Ryan decided it was in their best interest to stay on the pitch.
With 11-men, Wreck-It Ralph’s men put in a great shift and a Stuart Armstrong goal put the teams level going in at the break.
Despite Leicester having both the hat-trick heroes from the drubbing at St Mary’s in the starting eleven, neither Jamie Vardy or Ayoze Perez scored.
Southampton would quite easily have settled for a draw against the Foxes to appease the travelling faithful but Danny Ings decided to make the long journey home a happy one, scoring the Saints winner with 10-minutes to go to send the supporters home ecstatic.
Another pointless law in the game, added to the ludicrous handball situation, is showing a goal scorer a Yellow Card for taking his shirt off when the said player gets a winner late in the game, especially after suffering an embarrassing 9-0 home defeat against the same opponents.
The football law-makers have obviously never played the game.
The joy in scoring a winner is up there with any joyful thing a human experiences, so to then give a player a Yellow Card for taking his shirt off is just bonkers.
Danny won’t be too bothered as he’s only been booked a couple of times up to now, however, what if the booking resulted in a 5th-Yellow and a subsequent 1-match ban, it doesn’t make sense and could deprive the supporters of seeing a class goal scorer like Danny.
The winning goal for the Saints gave Danny his 14th of the season, the same tally has Marcus Rashford and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and 3-behind Jamie Vardy.
With Harry Kane taking an impromptu spell on the sidelines and Jamie Vardy wanting time spending the International Break changing nappies, Danny Ings must be in-line for a call up from Gareth Southgate and could quite conceivably be in the England Euro 2020 squad.
The 2-1 victory for Southampton against Leicester has elevated the Saints up to 12th-Place in the Premier League table and keeps them unbeaten in the last 5-games, winning 4 of them and getting a draw in the other.
Wreck-It Ralph is certainly starting to repay the faith shown in him by the bosses at St Mary’s.
Wolves gained a point following a 1-1 draw against Newcastle at Molineux on Saturday, however, the faithful will feel that it is 2-points lost, rather than a point gained, which in reality, when broken down, doesn’t make sense.
A point gained is one more than the points a team had at the start of the day.
A team can’t actually lose 2-points.
Leander Dendoncker quickly equalised an early Magpies goal.
After just 14-minutes the scores were level at 1-1 and that is how the game ended.
Nuno’s Gold and Blacks have an FA Cup replay against Manchester United prior to this game against Southampton.
Wolves lie a point behind Sheffield United in 7th-place in the Premier League table, which is a tremendous achievement considering all the competitions Nuno is having to juggle.
When Southampton visited Molineux for Game Week Nine, a Raul Jimenez penalty cancelled out Danny Ings opener to give both teams a share of the points following the 1-1 draw.
Raul and Danny’s goals coming within a 10-minute spell midway through the 2nd-half.
Betway offer Southampton at 7/4, the Draw at 23/10 and 8/5 for Wolves to come away with all 3-points.
Betway offer 11/4 that Danny Ings Scores First and 12/5 for Over 3.5 Goals.
Draw 2-2
WEST HAM v EVERTON
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What is commonly referred to as the David Moyes Derby, by absolutely nobody, sees Big Dave’s beloved Hammers host his beloved Toffees.
West Ham had the dreaded VAR to thank for their 1-0 defeat away at Bramall Lane last Friday Night.
After a dismal 1st-half in Sheffield where B and Q saw an increase in paint sales due to the watching millions buying a few tins, slapping it on the walls and watching it dry, the Hammers conceded just after the break.
With time running out, David Moyes thought his Bubbles had scraped a draw when Robert Snodgrass scored an equaliser.
The on-field referee Michael Oliver heard voices in his ears from Stockley Park, who it’s rumoured were watching the new BBC 1 sitcom, King Gary and switched back to the football on Sky to somehow deem that because the Blades player John Egan had smashed the ball against Declan Rice’s arm, in the build-up, the goal should be ruled out.
The odd thing about that decision is it looked more of a foul by Doctor Declan on John Egan than a handball which, if it was in a penalty area, wouldn’t have been given as a penalty.
David was not happy!
The irony in the dreaded VAR at Stockley Park watching King Gary instead of the football is the actor Tom Davis, who plays the Gary role, is a West Ham fan.
Let’s put a few things straight over the dreaded VAR and the ridiculous comments from so-called pundits and experts over the last 7-days.
In the FA Cup game last Sunday at Selhurst Park between Crystal Palace and Derby, it was wrongly highlighted that the on-field referee was the first to go over to the pitch-side monitor and have a look at an incident, the incident being an altercation between Luka Milivojevic and Tom Huddlestone.
It was wrongly highlighted, as if it was a piece of history because the game was an FA Cup game and was not under the command of the Premier League Referees who, their boss, Mike Riley, has stated that he doesn’t want the on-field referees looking at the pitch-side monitors, going against IFABs (International Football Association Board) who are the law-makers of the game.
It was wrong for the so-called pundits and experts to say that it was history-making as the next Premier League game would see the on-field referee not go over to the monitor to check an incident.
There could be an argument that each individual referee has a different opinion on checking the monitors.
What goes against that argument is the on-field referee, in the FA Cup game at Selhurst Park, who supposedly made history by being the first to go over to a pitch-side monitor, was Michael Oliver.
The referee who didn’t go over to the pitch-side monitor in the Premier League game at Bramall Lane was Michael Oliver.
So it wasn’t history-making, it was a different competition that Mike Riley had no control over and thinks he’s above the IFAB protocol, by saying to his Premier League referees that they must not go over to the monitors and must rely on the say-so of VAR.
Carlo Ancelotti’s new look Toffees got a professional, if not comprehensive, 1-0 victory against Brighton on Saturday with the goal coming from Brazilian youngster Richarlison.
Read that again, youngster Richarlison.
A lot has been written, spoken and said about Richarlison,
‘He’s rubbish, he’s not good enough, etc etc’
The lads only 22-years old, some folk have a pair of jeans older than him, give him some slack and get behind him.
‘Fique atrás Dele’
Which might be Portuguese for ‘Get behind him’
However, might be swearing in Portuguese, so apologies.
Everton, under Carlo, will progress, Carlo is a legend, as mentioned earlier in this column, the EveryTip contributor ventured to Milan in 2008, a year later, with his good pal Little H, the 2 of them were back in Milan to watch AC v Juventus at the San Siro.
A little exert from the trip back in May 2009.
Unbeknown to Little H and me, all the tickets for the match had the purchaser’s name on it and had to be shown at the turnstile, along with a matching passport.
Although we had a legitimate passport, we didn’t have our own names on the tickets as we had bought them from touts.
There were Italian names on the tickets and worse, one of the tickets had a woman’s name.
I gave Little H that one, Maria Rose. We had been told that we had no chance of getting into the stadium, some lads we had met on the Saturday night said they had purchased some tickets from touts the previous season and were refused entry.
They ended up watching the match in the bar we had bought the tickets in on the Saturday.
I have to admit, Little H and I were extremely nervous approaching the turnstiles and virtually knew we weren’t going to be allowed in.
We caught the tube to the stadium and walked with all the fans up to the ground.
The turnstiles were all electronic but about 15 yards in front of the turnstiles were barriers with the security checking the tickets and passports.
We found the entrance and nervously approached the security staff, straight away they refused us entry because we had not got the relevant passport, we tried arguing but they wouldn’t listen. It didn’t matter to them, the tickets had already been paid for so the club had the money, they didn’t care whether the seat was filled or not.
As there was a big queue and 85,000 fans trying to get in we were ushered away.
Little H said he was going to the box office to see if he could get some more tickets.
I just shook my head, there was a forty-foot electronic screen saying, in big letters ‘SOLD OUT’ so I knew this was a futile effort but Little H knew best.
I just told him I would stand and wait. As I was waiting I watched the security staff to see if anyone else were turned away.
A couple of lads, who had obviously done the same as us, were turned away, so I kept my eye on them to see what they did.
They walked to an opening which was about two foot from the actual turnstile.
There was a barrier in front but no security staff.
These two lads waited for about a minute and then quick as a flash, squeezed through the barrier, straight into the turnstile and as it was electronic, showed the barcode to the machine and were in.
I told Little H to follow me and as we stood at the barrier two foot from the turnstile, we kept an eye on the security staff and for that matter the police, who had guns.
They were busy checking the crowd’s ticket and passport and as it was only about half an hour from kick-off, it was extremely busy.
I told Little H to get his ticket ready, he was with me and we shot through the barrier and straight into the turnstile which was quite full of other fans.
We flashed our barcodes under the machine and amazingly we were in. We just mingled in with the rest of the crowd and headed in.
It was an amazing adrenalin rush, both of us were expecting a hand on our shoulders but none came and we carried on.
The San Siro has four walkways on each corner of the ground which are ‘helter-skelter’ shaped and takes the fans up to their relevant part of the stadium.
We went up to our seats and took in the atmosphere.
David Beckham, KaKa, Ronaldhino, Pirlo, Clarence Seedorf and Paulo Maldini were some of the players on show for Milan, managed by ex-Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti. Buffon, Chiellini, Zanetti, Iaquinta, Camorenasi were playing for Juventus managed by former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri. You can see why Beckham chose Milan to go out on loan from LA Galaxy, he strolled through the game. Serie A, although technical, is very pedestrian-like and suit’s the older players.
Rest in peace Little H, once a Red always.
The Toffees move up to 11th in the Premier League table in a cluster of 3-teams with 28-points, Arsenal being one of them and surprisingly Southampton the other.
At Goodison Park back in October, similar to the Watford v Tottenham game, both were under the stewardship of different managers.
Bernard scored in the 1st-half to give Marco Silva’s Toffees a 1-0 lead at the break.
Everton left it very late to seal the 2-0 victory over Manuel Pellegrini’s Hammers, with Gylfi Sigurdsson getting the injury-time goal.
Betway offer West Ham at 9/5, the Draw at 13/5 and 7/5 for Everton to come away with all 3-points.
Betway offer 7/2 that Mark Noble Scores Anytime and 17/4 that Richarlison Scores First.
Draw 1-1
NEWCASTLE v CHELSEA
Late Saturday Afternoon Football live on Sky Sports.
Newcastle gained their 1st-point from their last 4-games on Saturday getting a 1-1 draw away at Molineux.
After going 24-games in a Magpies Shirt without a goal, Miguel Almiron can’t stop scoring getting his 3rd-goal for the club.
Steve Bruce is missing a hatful of players including Jonjo Shelvey, Jamaal Lascelles, Alan Saint-Maxim and Fabian Schar and can only rely on Andy Carrol from the bench getting the odd cameo, so in truth, Big Brucey is performing miracles at St James Park.
The Toon Army are still venting their anger against the owner Mike Cashley and at the minute, aren’t behind Steve which seems silly and everyone should be pulling in the same direction to get the Magpies away from the relegation zone.
Chelsea sit in 4th-place in the Premier League after a great 3-0 victory against Burnley.
Jorginho opened the scoring at Stamford Bridge on Saturday with a superbly taken penalty in his unique way, where the Italian hop, skips and jumps before coolly slotting the spot-kick home.
Tammy Abraham made it 2-0 before the break, with Callum Hudson-Odoi adding the 3rd early in the 2nd-half.
Frank Lampard’s Chelsea are 6-points behind Leicester in 3rd and 5-points ahead of Manchester United in 5th, which is a great return for the Blues legend’s 1st-Premier League management position.
The Toon Army travelled the long-distance South in October and apart from paying £6 quid for a pint, came away from Stamford Bridge with nothing following a single Marcos Alonso goal to give Chelsea a 1-0 victory.
Betway offer Newcastle at 9/2, the Draw at 100/30 and Odds On 4/7 for Chelsea to come away with all 3-points.
Betway offer 5/1 that Miguel Almiron Scores Anytime and 12/5 that Tammy Abraham Scores First.
Away Win 1-3
BURNLEY v LEICESTER
Early Sunday Afternoon Football live on Sky Sports.
Sean Dyche’s Clarets have now lost their last 4-Premier League games, following the 3-0 defeat away at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, which may come as a surprise to most.
Burnley have slipped down the table to 15th place, with 24-points, just 3-points above the relegation places.
What’s strange about the Clarets last 15-Premier League games is Burnley have either won or lost, with no draws in the 15-fixtures.
The problem for Sean from that stat is his Clarets have lost 10 of the 15, with just 5-victories.
Sean desperately needs a win and in truth, could just be taking on the Foxes at the right time.
Brendan’s Wonderful Human Beings suffered a rare defeat on Saturday losing 2-1 against Southampton.
Rare, because prior to the game against the Saints, Leicester had only lost 4-times in the Premier League this season and 2 of those defeats were against Liverpool, the others were against the two Manchester clubs.
After smashing Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Sorry Saints back in October by a 9-0 scoreline, the faithful just assumed their Foxes would get an easy home victory at the King Power.
Dennis Praet gave Brendan’s Boys an early lead to get the fans hoping for another big win, unfortunately for Leicester, Southampton are a different proposition from the team that suffered the 9-0 defeat at St Mary’s.
With the scores level at the break, Southampton scored the winner late in the game to inflict the defeat on Leicester, which dropped the Foxes down a place, following Man City‘s subsequent victory 24-hours later.
In truth, Leicester are probably the 3rd best team in this season’s Premier League so to currently lie in 3rd-position is about right, although Chelsea and Manchester United will be chasing them down in the coming weeks.
At the King Power back in October, Jamie Vardy equalised a Chris Wood opener to take the teams in level at the break.
Midway through the 2nd-half, Youri Tielemans got the Foxes winner to give Leicester the 2-1 victory.
Betway offer Burnley at 7/2, the Draw at 11/4 and Odds On 31/40 for Leicester to come away with all 3-points.
Betway offer 17/10 that Chris Wood Scores Anytime and 13/5 that Jamie Vardy Scores First.
Away Win 1-3
LIVERPOOL v MANCHESTER UNITED
Late Sunday Afternoon Football live on Sky Sports.
What a cracker of a game to round off Game Week Twenty-Three.
Liverpool got a very professional 1-0 victory away against Tottenham in the late Saturday Afternoon kick-off.
Roberto Firmino scored the only goal of the game to give Jurgen’s Reds their 20th victory from their 21-Premier League games played so far.
A professional performance because, in truth, Tottenham could have easily scored a couple of goals and inflicted a defeat on Liverpool.
With 61-points, 14-more than Man City in 2nd-place and a game in hand over the Citizens, there would have to be the meltdown of all meltdowns for Liverpool not to win their 1st-Premier League title.
The only possible setback that would stop Liverpool getting the coveted title would be if an injury occurred to all of Virgil Van Dyke, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mo Salah at the same time.
Even if that unlikely scenario was to happen, Jurgen does have an array of awesome talent in reserve so would probably still win the title.
It’s not inconceivable that Liverpool will go the whole season unbeaten, matching the Arsenal Invincibles of 2003/04.
Manchester United comfortably beat Norwich 4-0 on Saturday.
United rarely lose against the Canaries with that trend continuing at Old Trafford following Marcus Rashford’s brace and goals from Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood.
The United faithful have already coined a nickname for the trio, the Triple Ms and will be hoping the Triple Ms get more game time over the coming weeks, starting with this trip to Anfield.
The 3-points gained against Norwich keeps Ole’s Wheels in 5th-place in the Premier League, chasing Frank Lampard’s Chelsea and trying to keep a step ahead of Laughing Chris Wilder’s Blades.
Sometimes in life, it’s good to try new things, a lot are doing Dry January for the first time which is good to give the old liver a rest after the festive period.
Some are doing the new craze of Veganuary which again, each to there own and some (the EveryTip contributor that supports Barnsley FC) are trying Twitter for the first time to try and spread the gospel of this wonderful column.
What’s noticeable about Twitter is there are a lot of angry opinionated folk about.
No problem being opinionated, everyone’s entitled to their opinions, it’s the personal abuse that doesn’t sit well.
Why abuse someone, on a platform, that is for everyone?
There really is no need, people.
Enjoy the technology that has been granted to you all.
In the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s the older generation didn’t have the luxury of Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram etc and just went down the pub and argued with their mates.
“Oi Terry, that Mick Phelan is a rubbish right-back”
“No, he’s not, he’s decent, gonna be an integral part of United in the future”
“What does integral mean, Terry?”
“Do you want another pint?”
That was that, no abuse, no racism or sexism, other than the obligatory,
“Get ya, coat love, yav pulled”
Standard.
Now on Twitter, if someone puts a comment out there and another person disagrees, the abuse is unbelievable, everyone is entitled to an opinion whether agreed or not.
At a recent game at Oakwell where the mighty Barnsley FC beat their Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield 2-1, a certain individual put on Twitter that Jacob Brown was useless.
An opinion which wasn’t agreed with and the abuse was relentless.
Jacob was superb and assisted in both the Reds goals, yet a person didn’t think so.
Read that again, someone, a human being, which we all are, had an opinion that Jacob wasn’t any good.
That’s all folks, no agenda, no personal attack on Jacob, no abuse, just an opinion that Jacob wasn’t up to much.
Twitter should be there to allow individuals a platform to air their views, not to abuse someone with words.
It’s 2020 people, live and let live and whilst not agreeing with everything and everyone, don’t abuse a fellow human being just because they have a different opinion than you.
It’s called life.
“Another pint Terry?”
Manchester United are the only team out of the 19, that have taken points off Liverpool following a terrific 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in the Game Week Nine fixture.
Marcus Rashford gave United a 1st-half lead and matched Jurgen’s Reds for 70-minutes.
Unfortunately for Ole’s Wheels, they couldn’t hold on and were under constant pressure which produced an equaliser from Adam Lallana.
In truth, United held out and were lucky to get a draw but a draw it was to give them much needed confidence.
Betway offer Liverpool at Odds On 2/5, the Draw at 4/1 and a massive 13/2, which could possibly be the highest Odds for a United victory in a long time, for Manchester to come away with all 3-points.
Betway offer 6/1 that Sadio Mane Scores Two Plus Goals and 17/10 that there are Over 2.5 Goals.
Home Win 3-1
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