Newcastle United will host the Swans at St James’ Park (now known as Sports Direct Arena) in the early kick-off of the day as Alan Pardew’s men look to get back to winning ways in the League. The Magpies made a tremendous start to the season before defeat against City, Chelsea and finally last weekend’s defeat saw them slip down the tables.
With Steven Taylor out for the rest of the season, it will be difficult for the toons to get back on track. Skipper Fabricio Coloccini is expected to be back in the lineup while Check Tiote is also in line for a comeback. Hatem Ben Arfa and Demba Ba will be the men who the Newcastle faithful will expect to provide the break.
Over at Ewood Park, Blackburn Rovers will face West Bromwich Albion in what could boil down to be one of the most important matches of the evening especially with the teams dwelling in and around the relegation spots. Roy Hodgson will have a difficult time picking a team while Steve Keane will look to four goal wonder Yakubu to provide some inspiration up front as Morten Gamst Pederson and Co. look to get back to winning ways.
Everton will host Norwich at Merseyside in the other game this Saturday. Both teams come into this fixture after winning their last games and I will go with an Everton victory with David Moyes’ men playing at home. Jack Rodwell keeps getting better and one can imagine a lot of offers for the England under-21 international come January. This should be an exciting match at Merseyside.
Fulham will be up against Bolton Wanderers at Craven Cottage. Bolton have been through a patchy time off late while Fulham will be reasonably pleased with their efforts so far. Bryan Ruiz, who came in for Fulham in the summer has been a revelation in the Premier League. There is no doubt that he is a fine footballer and Fulham fans will expect him to come up with the goods against a physically imposing Bolton outfit.
Stoke City will look to follow up their 2-1 win over Spurs with yet another victory when they travel to the Molineux to take on Wolves, who have had some poor results off late. It has been a bit harsh on them as they have had to face the top sides in the League in the past four weeks and have ended up losing big on all occasions.
Chelsea will travel to the DW Stadium to face Wigan in Saturday’s late kick-off. Andre Vilas-Boas’ men will look to get to 34 points – 2 behind United and 4 behind City, who play on Sunday. Chelsea are firing in all cylinders at the moment and a fantastic match of football is very much on the cards.