PREDICTIONS SATURDAY All kick-offs at 15:00 GMT unless otherwise stated. Aston Villa v Cardiff City Aston Villa v Cardiff Continue reading the main story “Villa need to start winning at home against teams in the bottom half of the table” Aston Villa are not great at home because they are more suited to playing on the counter-attack. And Cardiff are on a high after beating Swansea in the South Wales derby last weekend. But football has a habit of kicking teams up the backside after a good result and I fancy Villa to get the win here. Villa need to start winning at home against the teams in the bottom half of the table or they are going to be dragged down there themselves. If they beat Cardiff and the other teams in the bottom eight then they will stay out of trouble. Lawros prediction: 2-0 Schneiders prediction: 0-0 Chelsea v West Brom Chelsea v West Brom It looks like Eden Hazard is going to be back for Chelsea - he has had his ticking off from his dad Jose Mourinho for being late for training. Mourinho is showing him tough love basically. Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho Mourinho was unhappy with his teams performance at St James Park But the whole Chelsea team will have a point to prove because of their defeat by Newcastle last week, and Mourinho has been at them to get an improvement. He made his point by saying that he got his entire team selection wrong in that game. That will have got them on their toes and I think he will get another response after their win over Schalke in midweek. West Brom got back to winning ways in their last game against Crystal Palace, but going to Stamford Bridge is a completely different test. We know now how good some of the Baggies young players are but their problem on Saturday is that they will not see very much of the ball. Lawros prediction: 2-0 Schneiders prediction: 3-1 Crystal Palace v Everton Crystal Palace v Everton The Crystal Palace managerial situation worries me a little bit now. A few names have been mentioned but caretaker boss Keith Millen is still in temporary charge and talk of an appointment has gone very quiet of late. Everton are still ticking over nicely, and got a good point against Tottenham last week. The Toffees have got enough competition for places to freshen things up when they have to and, with Palace managerless and on such an awful run of seven straight league defeats, this should be a comfortable victory for Roberto Martinezs side. Lawros prediction: 0-2 Schneiders prediction: 0-2 Liverpool v Fulham Liverpool v Fulham The important thing for Liverpool now is to try to bounce back from last weeks defeat by Arsenal. Fulham are probably the ideal opponents for them to do so. I think we saw against the Gunners that playing with three at the back does not work for Liverpool against top-class opposition, because they are clever enough to take advantage of it. Intelligent players will find more space, and they will hurt Liverpool. Arsenals full-backs had attacking duties as well as doing their defending. The Gunners were the better team all round, but that is where they won the game. Liverpool can play using different systems but that one allows them to play Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge together up front. Fulham manager Martin Jol Jols side have lost their last three games in the Premier League and Capital One Cup And, while it did not work against Arsenal, it will work against the Cottagers. The Reds can win on Saturday with three at the back. As for Fulham, their manager Martin Jol obviously remains under lots of pressure. His future will not depend on this result, the same as it didnt depend on last weeks defeat by Manchester United. It is his next two or three league games which will be the key for him: at home to Swansea, away at West Ham and home to Spurs. Jol needs at least five points from those matches but the first thing he requires is a performance from his team, because the results will follow. At the moment, the performances are not good enough. Lawros prediction: 3-0 Schneiders prediction: 3-0 Southampton v Hull City Southampton v Hull City Lambert defends from the front Southamptons Rickie Lambert battles for the ball with Cardiffs Danny Gabbidon Saints try to win the ball back as soon as they lose it, starting with Rickie Lambert. They work on that in training and the great thing is that, when everybody does it properly, you end up getting the ball back quicker. When I was at Liverpool, it was always something that Ian Rush did very well for us. When you see the player in front of you working hard, it has a knock-on effect that influences the rest of the team. Southampton have been great this season in everything they have done and now more of their players are getting their reward with international recognition. Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez have followed Rickie Lambert into the England squad but Saints probably do not want anyone to make a fuss over them because they have come up under the radar and are doing great. Hull have also done better than many people expected so Id better remind everybody that I tipped them to stay up, if only because of what a good manager Steve Bruce is. The Tigers problem is that they do not score many goals, and their other problem on Saturday is that Saints do not concede many either. Some people dont give Southampton much chance of staying up near the top end of the table but they keep on picking points up, which is not a bad habit to have. Lawros prediction: 2-0 Schneiders prediction: 1-0 Norwich v West Ham Norwich v West Ham (17:30 GMT) Without being disrespectful to Sam Allardyce, because West Ham are doing fine and his job does not rest on this result, I hope Norwich boss Chris Hughton gets a win on Saturday. I think they will too, although West Ham have improved away from home. Norwich boss Chris Hughton Chris Hughtons Norwich side have conceded 18 goals in their last five games The Canaries were hit for seven goals at Manchester City last weekend and were very poor. The goals they conceded were amateurish at best. It would be easy to say you got beaten 7-0, see you later but Hughton has done a good job at Carrow Road. He deserves a chance to try to turn things around. To do that, he has to go for a win in this game. If he draws 0-0 at home against the Hammers, then Norwich fans will see that as a far worse result than getting stuffed at City. There are a few Norwich players who are due a good performance. It would be great for Hughton if they can produce one against West Ham because it would take a lot of the pressure off him. He needs more than one good result, though. After West Ham is the international break, then Norwich are away at Newcastle and at home to Crystal Palace. Those three games will be crucial for him. Lawros prediction: 2-0 Schneiders prediction: 0-0 SUNDAY Tottenham v Newcastle Tottenham v Newcastle (12:00 GMT) Continue reading the main story Tottenham striker Roberto Soldado “Tottenham paid £26m for Roberto Soldado but he does not look like scoring to me” I thought Newcastle were great against Chelsea last week. They let Chelsea have the ball then, when the Blues started to tire, they kicked on. Tactically they were spot on and I was delighted for Alan Pardew because he is another manager under a bit of pressure. This should be another good game. I dont think Tottenham are going to score enough goals to have a chance of winning the league but they are still a strong side. It is up front where Spurs have limitations. Out of the two expensive Spanish strikers that came to the Premier League in the summer, Manchester City definitely got the better one in Alvaro Negredo. Tottenham paid £26m for Roberto Soldado but he does not look like scoring to me. He does not seem to get on the end of anything and you can see why he has only got one goal in open play in 10 games. Tottenham do not have too many other options, though. Emmanuel Adebayor is out of favour, while Jermain Defoe is a great finisher and would score goals but you cannot play him up front on his own. Lawros prediction: 2-0 Schneiders prediction: 1-1 Sunderland v Man City Sunderland v Man City (14:05 GMT) Sunderland had a good win over Southampton in the Capital One Cup in midweek but I dont see Manchester City making a mess of another away game. They have got enough players in good form to see them through at the Stadium of Light. While Vincent Kompany remains sidelined, Citys centre-back pairing of Martin Demechelis and Nastasic does not inspire much confidence but the Black Cats do not have enough attacking power to hurt them. I just think City have grown up a bit in the last few weeks. They have dealt with Joe Harts loss of form and qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League for the first time. Now they can concentrate on the Premier League and City boss Manuel Pellegrini will be asking his players to show him why they should be top of the table. City have struggled on their travels so far but there can be no more excuses from their players or their manager. Lawros prediction: 0-2 Schneiders prediction: 0-3 Manchester United v Arsenal Man Utd v Arsenal (16:10 GMT) Ramseys resurgence Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey We have all seen the turnaround in Aaron Ramseys form this season. He puts it down to having more confidence and I think the best thing that happened to him was Jack Wilshere getting injured last season. That meant Ramsey got a run in the team which was what he needed to prove he was 100% fit after his bad injury and to boost his self-belief. He has been fabulous in the last few months, and has shown the kind of reaction that you would use as an example to young players who you are taking out of the team. I cannot give him enough plaudits in all honesty. I do not mean because he is scoring lots of goals and playing brilliantly, but because I look at him and think this lad has got a great attitude and boy is it showing. Credit has to go to Arsene Wenger too. He looks after his players and he is not just a manager, he is a mentor as well. He knew Ramsey would come good. I am at Old Trafford for BBC Radio 5 live on Sunday and I am expecting a very tight game. I have heard quite a few people say they dont think Arsenal can win the league - but I think they can. The reason for that is that they are going to win the majority of their remaining league games. Yes, they are going to lose some - but by the looks of things so are their rivals. Arsenal are in a great position, playing some lovely football and picking up some fantastic results - beating Borussia Dortmund in Germany on Wednesday was a huge win. Now all the Gunners injured players are coming back, desperate to get back in because they will be thinking they are not going to play. That means competition for places too, which is absolutely great for any team. Manchester United have improved a lot of late too, but I still think their manager David Moyes will be a little bit cautious and try to make sure they dont get beaten. If Arsenal go there and win - something they have done a lot of on their travels recently - then Moyes is back to square one. A draw would probably suit both teams. Lawros prediction: 1-1 Schneiders prediction: 2-8 Swansea v Stoke Swansea v Stoke City (16:10 GMT) Swansea need to win some home games and they will also want to bounce back from losing the South Wales derby to Cardiff last weekend. Stoke scored with that bizarre goal from their keeper Asmir Begovic in their draw with Southampton but their problem is still finding the net, home or away. Swansea have hardly been prolific themselves, and on a bad day they probably pass it too much. They sometimes seem to think if we keep the ball the other team will never score, but that means they never look like scoring themselves. They have to find a way of getting it in the box a little bit earlier. Lawros prediction: 2-1 Schneiders prediction: 1-0
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 19:44:51 +0000