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.
Bookmakers are expecting plenty of goals when Manchester United take on Aston Villa at Old Trafford this weekend.
United on the back of a stunning run of form that has seen them storm into the top four of the Premier League. If they continue his winning form, they could extended the lead over Liverpool which currently stands at five. This would make them certainties to finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions League next season. It was the primary objective for the club when they set out at the start of the campaign under Louis Van Gaal.
It’s been over a year since David Beckham retired from playing professional competitive football and the English midfielder stated that one of the main reasons on why his time on the pitch was over is because he wanted to start spending more time with his family.
During his playing time, at one point in time Beckham was the best paid footballer as the Englishman had an attractive set of skills that drew the attention of many top clubs around the world and they were willing to pay the English midfielder a hefty fee in order to secure his services.
Earlier in January, an unexpected thing occurred in the world of football when the former French footballer David Ginola announced his desire to make a run for the presidential spot of FIFA.
It wasn’t revealed until a few weeks ago that the campaign of the Frenchman was backed by a top soccer betting firm and that Ginola was doing nothing more than just a publicity stunt.
Manchester United may have endured a scare against Preston North End on Monday night but they eventually came through the FA Cup fifth round tie in comfortable fashion.
Having fallen behind to a Scott Laird goal early in the second half, Louis van Gaal's men eventually came back to record a 3-1 victory. The win was capped with a penalty which was won and converted by Wayne Rooney.