With a 10 point lead atop the Premier League table, Liverpool is primed to build on its lead despite no match this weekend.
Third placed Manchester City hosts second placed Leicester City. Not many gave Leicester a chance to challenge for the EPL title, and should City get a result, Liverpool’s lead will only extend.
While interest has lessened in the title race due to Liverpool’s unbeaten run, the relegation battle is just as tight as the beginning of the season.
This list of sites reviewed here have deemed Norwich and Watford (both -500) as veritable locks to be relegated. After that, it’s a two-way battle for the final spot between Aston Villa and Southampton (both +175), who are 18th on 15 points. At a glance, it looks like Villa is the stronger team on the whole, sporting -7 goal difference to Southampton’s -18. But remember that half of Southampton’s differential was accumulated in one 9-0 debacle against Leicester when they were down to ten men ten minutes in.
Of course we are set for a fantastic battle for the bottom as Villa and Southampton play in Birmingham on Saturday after the Villan’s downed a tertiary Liverpool squad midweek in the Carabao Cup.
The next closest sides to relegation aren’t in much better of a situation. Everton, in 16th just 3 points from the drop zone host Arsenal in its first match under former Man City assistant, Mikel Arteta.
West Ham, in 15th and four points above relegation, will join Liverpool as their match was postponed due to the latter’s foray into the Club World Cup.
Luckily the Hammers aren’t in immediate threat of joining Watford and Norwich, but after accumulating just six points in the last seven, West Ham’s form indicates a downward trend to the bottom.
Outside of the Leicester-City battle for second, and the Villa-Southampton battle for relegation, there is also a match between former coach and player, as Frank Lampard and Chelsea visit Jose Mourinho and Tottenham Hotspur.
Mourinho, who managed Chelsea and Lampard on two occasions will hope to best his former club just a few weeks after losing to another former club, Manchester United.
No Liverpool means a chance for the rest to catch the leaders, but it there is no chance that this is the week that allows Leicester or City to close the gap, regardless of result.
