The Premier League is reaching it’s final stages and all the clubs are giving it everything they got to finish the season on a high note but a fairly extensive injury list is preventing Stoke City from unleashing their best players which is a huge blow Mark Hughes as he has a big desire to conclude the campaign by securing as many points as possible but it will be harder to accomplish than initially expected.
Marc Muniesa, Marko Arnautovic, Glenn Whelan, Jack Butland, Jon Walters, Glen Johnson and Marc Wilson are all of the players who have recently been suffering with injury.
Rafa Benitez will be in charge of Newcastle United for the first time at St James’s Park and he has a huge march straight away. The club will be taking on archrivals Sunderland in the Tyne Wear derby.
More importantly, this clash will also see Benitez coming up against his former nemesis Sam Allardyce. The duo have frequently flashed with each other when they were in charge of Liverpool and Bolton respectively. However, Allardyce has been much more mellowed in his pre-match press conference views about Benitez. After losing his first match against Leicester, Benitez will be hoping to inspire his players to a much needed victory.
Although there is still plenty to play for in the remaining weeks of the season across all the major European leagues, players and fans alike may be forgiven for having one eye on the upcoming European Championship which will take place in France this summer.
The hosts will hope that history repeats itself at Euro 2016, with France lifting the World Cup at the Stade de France eighteen years ago in the last tournament held in their country. Didier Deschamps, who led his nation to the famous 3-0 victory against Brazil, now has the chance to achieve the same feat as manager, but they are unlikely to have things their own way in a competition which will involve a number of strong and emerging nations who will also have their eyes on the prize.
Manchester United’s latest Premier League result saw them losing against West Bromwich Albion as both teams faced off against each other on March 6 at the Hawthorns and it was the home team that came out on top with the surprising triumph.
Promotion to the Premier League will undoubtedly be the biggest prize on the minds of Derby County supporters, but they will just hope to get past Manchester United by creating a major upset in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Hosting United gives the Championship outfit a great opportunity to take advantage of the recent shortcomings shown by Louis Van Gaal’s team. United recently suffered a 1-0 loss against Southampton. This was the second consecutive season in which Southampton have been able to get a victory at Old Trafford. More importantly, United were extremely poor in an attacking sense and this has always been not the case.
Arsenal have a great opportunity of building momentum in the title race when they host Manchester City at the Etihad stadium in the midweek match.
This fixture comes just a week ahead of the Boxing Day fixtures. Traditionally, this is a busy period for English clubs. Titles have often been won and lost during this period since the weak teams have been unable to cope with the never-ending run of games around this time. This has also been one of the weak spots for Arsenal in the last decade. However, the team got into the Christmas schedule with a real opportunity of becoming winter champions.
Just like the country itself, Greece has been in turmoil when it comes to the national team. After struggling to even qualify for the Euro 2016, the team has been searching for a new manager to lead.
Greece has been in dilemma for the last 18 months after Fernando Santos stepped down from his post following a successful spell. Former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri was brought to replace him, but he lasted only a few matches.
This spell also marked the start of a disastrous run of form, which ultimately resulted in Greece failing to qualify for the Euro 2016 even after a managerial change.
Stoke City have an opportunity to inflict more misery on Chelsea when they take on the blues at the Britannia stadium on Saturday. It was only recently that the team knocked out the League Cup champions from the competition at the third round on penalties.
The match had finished as a 1-1 draw, but Chelsea had the better of opportunities through the 120 minutes. If there was a repeat of the same, Jose Mourinho will have faith that his team will come out victorious. The Chelsea manager will not be in the dugout to witness the action since he will serve his one-match stadium ban.
Bookmakers have suspended the odds of Martin O’Neill becoming the next Leicester City manager after it is understood that the Premier League club have been given permission to talk with the former Aston Villa boss.
O’Neill is in charge of the Republic of Ireland national team. After a long time, Ireland are expected to qualify for Euro 2016 even at least in the play-off places. This would provide a lot of work for O’Neill in the coming 12 months. There are suggestions that he would retain his job as the England manager while also doing his duties as the Leicester boss.
The clash between Sunderland and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge will be one of the televised fixtures on the final day of the 2014-15 Barclays Premier League season.
