Keeping up to date with all these picks is complicated by mid-week games but as a dedicated follower of football it’s my goal to predict every game this year in the premier league and FA Cup. I skipped Champions League because unlike most people I really don’t care all that much about a money spinning secondary league.
In fact, this week, in what sums up a lot about the value of the Champions League and the Coca-Cola Rumbelows Littlewoods Cup the result I was most interested in was Watford away at Leeds. The wonderful thing about the old second division is that 5 points is now the difference between winning promotion to the Premier League and being the low play-off seed.
The great thing is that of the people that I know who support Championship teams all can see them in a small sliver at the top of the table. Wolves, Notts Forest, and even Sheffield Wednesday! The top is dominated by old school top tier teams. I still fancy Derby to take top spot.
Anyway, enough of the lower divisions, let’s look at the midweek games.
With 5 of the 6 teams in the bottom half of the table there are some key fixtures taking place on a Tuesday?
| 03-Mar 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Aston Villa | 1-2 | West Bromwich Albion |
| Southampton | 2-1 | Crystal Palace |
| Hull City | 2-1 | Sunderland |
Aston Villa really need to turn it around but it’s hard to see where the improvement is going to come from. They’re somewhat organized at the back, somewhat organized in midfield but they are unable to score. Tim Sherwood probably will regret choosing this job because it’s unlikely they will keep him next year if he can’t keep them up (and even then I wonder if they will look more long term). I don’t see many reasons to go for the Villains so I will go for their cross city rivals who see themselves slowly creeping to safety under the direction of Pullis.
Alan Pardew’s honeymoon has now run out and Southampton are looking to avenge their FA Cup defeat to Palace. Southampton need to refocus on getting back to the winning style now that the Spuds (to a lesser extent), Liverpool and Arsenal are hitting their domestic stride. Southampton cannot afford further losses.
Hull. Sunderland. Sounds fascinating,