Graham's Premiership Predictions

Another footballing week with a twist as Xmas rolls around once more with the pick of this weekend's football being the game between Arsenal and Aston Villa at the Emirates.  Here is my predictions for this weekend:

Saturday, 26 December 2009


Birmingham  1-2 Chelsea, 12:45
Burnley        2-0 Bolton, 14:00
Fulham         1-1 Tottenham, 13:00
Liverpool     2-0 Wolverhampton, 17:30
Man City     2-0 Stoke, 15:00
Sunderland  1-1 Everton, 15:00
West Ham   0-0 Portsmouth, 13:00
Wigan         0-0 Blackburn, 15:00
 
Sunday, 27 December 2009


Arsenal      2-1 Aston Villa, 13:30
Hull            0-3 Man Utd, 16:00

McCarthygate

The furore surrounding Mick McCarthy’s decision to field a weakened team against an injury-decimated Man Utd at Old Trafford has not died down despite Wolves winning against Burnley on Sunday. Hordes of fans and journalists are attempting to suggest that McCarthy’s decision to rest his “first-choice eleven” has been vindicated because of that win but a little perspective should be applied here. Wolves have won three of their last four games and have cleared themselves of the relegation zone but

Man City Sack Mark Hughes

Poor Mark Hughes. Sacked after inheriting an inept side under the guidance of Sven Goran Eriksson, a side that couldn’t win or draw for love-nor-money, he steadied a sinking ship and made them a team that could compete with the big-four and, indeed, look like a side that would break into that coveted top-four spot. Yes, he’s spent a ridiculous amount of money but you cannot hope to build a side and make that side one of the best in the land overnight. Especially considering that he took over a side that was not far away from relegation places and not a

Bad to worse? Or is this as good as it gets for Liverpool?

A finish of pure magic and a lucky deflection early in the second half put Liverpool to the sword in a game Liverpool needed to win to prove Benitez's claim that Liverpool will finish in the top four. His team looked like they wanted to prove that point as they outmuscled and harried Arsenal into conceding possession in the middle of the park. A swift counter attack in the 11th minute saw Gerrard sprint down the right to cross for an unmarked Torres in the area who, unfortunately for Liverpool's fans, shot tamely first-time at Almunia. The

Graham's Weekly Premiership Predictions - Results

Saturday 12th December 2009

Birmingham 1-0 West Ham
Bolton 3-3 Man City
Burnley 1-1 Fulham
Chelsea 3-3 Everton
Hull 0-0 Blackburn
Man Utd 0-1 Aston Villa
Stoke 2-2 Wigan
Sunderland 1-1 Portsmouth
Tottenham 0-1 Wolverhampton

Sunday 13th December 2009

Liverpool 1-2 Arsenal

Graham got one result right and no perfect scores on a weekend where only one home team managed to take all three points.

Graham's Weekly Premiership Predictions

Saturday, 12 December 2009

Barclays Premier League


Birmingham 2-1 West Ham 
Bolton 1-1 Man City
Burnley 1-1 Fulham
Chelsea 3-0 Everton
Hull 1-1 Blackburn
Man Utd  3-1 Aston Villa
Stoke1-2 Wigan
Sunderland 2-1 Portsmouth
Tottenham 3-0 Wolves

Sunday, 13 December 2009



Barclays Premier League
 
Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool

Liverpool’s woes pile up after another home defeat

They say the rain brings out the gloomier side of our nature as human beings and, amidst the rain falling steadily over Anfield, the gloom deepened that much further as Fiorentina came from behind to seal victory in the final minute.
This was the third occasion in this campaign Liverpool have conceded costly late goals and the excuse of

CSKA stars face bans after failing drug tests

UEFA has confirmed that the cases of two players of CSKA MOscow will be discussed on 17 December to determine whther they will be banned. The two defenders, Sergei Ignashevich and Aleksei Berezutsky, have been suspended after failing doping tests on 3 November following the 3-3 draw against Manchester United.

Owen hat-trick confirms United as Group Winners

An injury-decimated United clinically beat a wasteful Wolfsburg in Germany to top their Group. A hat-trick from Michael owen gave United's reserve side a comfortable victory despite the home side wasting some good opportunities in the air against a makeshift defence of Carrick and Fletcher. Carrick found it hard to handle the physical presence of Wolfsburg's 6'4" striker, Edin Dzeko, who headed a well-deserved equalizer on 56 minutes. But it was United's threat on the counter, with Gabriel Obertan tricking the Wolfsburg defence, beating three defenders to set up the second for Owen in the 83rd minute, which Wolfsburg could do nothing about. Victory was sealed in injury time after owen clipped over the Wolfsburg 'keeper following a counter attack from a goal-mouth scramble in United's box.
With a crippling injury list, the team selection may not be such a terrifying prospect for Ferguson after this convincing victory away from home.

Graham Matheson

Graham's Weekend Premiership Predictions - Results

Saturday, 5 December 2009

Barclays Premier League

Arsenal 2-0 Stoke
Aston Villa 3-0 Hull
Blackburn 0-0 Liverpool
Man City 2-1 Chelsea
Portsmouth 2-0 Burnley
West Ham 0-4 Man Utd
Wigan 2-3 Birmingham
Wolverhampton 2-1 Bolton


Sunday, 6 December 2009
Barclays Premier League

Everton 2-2 Tottenham
Fulham 1-0 Sunderland

Graham got three correct results with two perfect scores.

Reaction to the World Cup Draw

Is it fair to say that this was expected? All of the top seeds have a reasonably easy ride out of the group stage with no really interesting ties to be played in the group stage apart from Group G where Brazil will face Portugal and the Ivory coast. The only cause for concern may be Group A where the hosts, South Africa, will play Mexico, France and Uruguay. Controversially (maybe) earning their place in South Africa, through the play-offs against the Republic of Ireland, the French are undoubtedly still a force to be reckoned with and

Graham's Premiership Predictions for 5-6 December 2009

Ok, here goes!  Another busy weekend of Premiership football ahead with the pick being Man City v Chelsea on Saturday and Everton v Tottenham on Sunday.  Can Man City shake off their frailties in defence and prove to the rest of the Premiership they can break into the top four?  Can an injury-ravaged Everton produce another scintillating performance like the one against Liverpool last week and put a dent in Tottenham's top-four ambitions?  Or will Tottenham put Arsenal and Liverpool under pressure and win?

Here then are my Premiership Predictions, the first in a weekly blog.  Feel free to comment or leave your own predictions for this weekend.

Saturday, 5 December 2009

Barclays Premier League

Arsenal  2 v 0 Stoke, 15:00

Aston Villa 1 v 1 Hull, 15:00

Blackburn 1 v 3 Liverpool, 15:00

Man City 0 v 2 Chelsea, 17:30

Portsmouth 1 v 1 Burnley, 12:45

West Ham 1 v 2 Man Utd, 15:00

Wigan 2 v 0 Birmingham, 15:00

Wolverhampton 1 v 2 Bolton, 15:00

Sunday, 6 December 2009

Barclays Premier League

Everton 2 v 2 Tottenham, 16:00

Fulham 0 v 0 Sunderland, 15:00

Despite winning a thrilling encounter with Burnley 5-3, West Ham will struggle against a solid Man Utd.  Despite losing the brilliance of Ronaldo there is still more than enough creativity in this United side to see off a West Ham side confident they can score goals, despite having worries at the back.  I feel that Chelsea are just too good at the moment and I can only see a Chelsea win, especially after the way they defended so expertly against the footballing purity of Arsenal's attack last week.  As for Liverpool, two wins on the bounce will seen the confidence come flooding back into their play.  With Riera back and Torres reportedly as a maybe to start, Blackburn may not be able to cope especially if David Dunn, their only real atacking threat, is injured still.

The life & times of an Arse(ne) at Arsenal

So here we are again, it’s December and the speculation of a young Arsenal team winning nothing rears its head once more.
As sure as Xmas we hear in the media that the team is too young & Arsene must buy, buy big & buy experienced. All we need to do is to take a step back and examine the Carling Cup squad that was sent into the firing line last week – A team of teens & no back-up on the bench & compare that with the Chelsea/Blackburn game, Chelsea also fielded a young side but played an experienced bench, the fact they lost

The trumpets of Jericho sound for Everton's hopes

The government have firmly rejected the application by Everton FC to build a new development in Kirkby today and it seems hope of an appeal with not materialise due to the decision being made in accordance with recommendations by the planning inspectorate.
Opposition to this prohject has been very clear from the onset of the announcement by Everton that they intended to move from Goodison Park into a development in partnership with Tesco, who would have been investing a considerable sum into the project, but it is clear now that this avenue is firmly closed.
Bill Kenwright has been searching for investors for some time now to bring back the prestige of a club on the decline and it was hoped that a much bigger stadium with better facilities would go some way to attracting someone with financial clout. The problem Everton have now is, having to sell big in order to survive, how long will David Moyes be able to work miracles at a club seriously punching above it weight?

Graham Matheson

'El Classico'

This coming Sunday sees one of theree of Europe's biggest derbies with the eyes of the world firmly on events in Spain as the 159th 'El Classico' between Real Madrid and Barcelona will be played in front of a packed and hostile Camp Nou.
Expectations will be high for this match as the top two teams in the land, both in terms of status and current league form, battle it out for top spot in La Liga.  Expectations are also raised because of the events of the

Liverpool not very hungry in Hungary

Liverpool stutter to a 1-0 win over Hungarian champions, Debrecen. Needing Lyon to produce a result in Florence because of terrible results in games against both teams, is no way to compete in a campaign but they were off to a great start after just 4 minutes, when a well-worked corner fell to Ngog to tap in at the far post. The next fifteen minutes saw Liverpool press and pass the ball quickly retaining possession well and carve out chances but found the Debrecen goalkeeper, Poleksic, in fine form, stopping Ngog and Steven Gerrard. The remainder of the first half was laboured from Liverpool, whose midfield of Lucas-Mascherano intent on slowing down the game and a far-from-fit Aurelio providing no attacking threat from the left, produced very little of quality.
The second half produced more of the same with an obvious lack of quality passes and vision from central midfield despite the willing running of the ever-improving Ngog. Ever-improving yes, but can they really rely on an untested and unproven youngster to carry all of the goalscoring threat? As the game wore on it became more-and-more obvious that the attacking threat and vision of Acquilani was desperately needed in place of the, at times, absent Lucas but it took Benitez until the 75th minutes to make a subsitution, bringing on Benayoun for an obviously tired Ngog. The Debrecen defence proved admirably capable of stopping the predictable Liverpool attack, with the only moment of tension coming with a Steven Gerrard burst into the burst that Meszaros was able to brilliantly block.
For all of Liverpool's attacking impotency, Debrecen found themselves threatening more and more as the game wore on with the main threat coming from the sublime touches of Rudolf. Liverpool hearts were in their mouths in stoppage time as the substitute, Coulibaly, hitting tamely straight at Reina from six yards.
As it was, Lyon could not produce the result Liverpool so desperately needed with a first half penalty enough to see Fiorentina through at Liverpool's expense.

Crunch time for Liverpool

Liverpool are busy preparing for their important match in Hungary tonight with most of the questions from journalists being, "Will you be keeping a close eye on the score in Italy?" Jamie Carragher and Rafa Benitez have been careful in answering these questions stating the obvious, "We'll concentrate on our doing our job." Yet Carragher, the epitomy of Liverpool's never-say-die attitude, appears to be resigned to the possibility of Europa League football, "We're still focused and believe we can go through in the Champions League. If not,