Each week, The National Sport staffers predict the outcomes for the English Premier League. This week, Web Editor Jonathan Raymond guest selects a Tottenham Hotspur victory and relegation fight points for Newcastle United and Sunderland. Here are our results for the season.
Norwich City 1-2 Manchester United
Why? Norwich will be fighting for their lives, but will motivation be enough for a team with the third-fewest goals (35) and fourth-most goals allowed (61) against a Manchester United team still fighting for their top-four hopes? No, there is pretty much nothing to suggest so.
Sunderland 1-0 Chelsea
Why? Man, Chelsea are good. They have really, really good players. Eden Hazard is an excellent footballer. Remember all that? It was so forgotten, so miserably buried underneath the indifference of their lost season, that when the Chelsea who were title winners a year ago showed up to deny Spurs it felt like a fresh revelation. My, what a motivated Chelsea can accomplish. That was fun to watch, wasn't it? Yeah, hope you enjoyed it, because it was probably a one-off.
Sunderland fight with everything they’ve got, Jermain Defoe plays the hero, and the three points go toward the cause of a relegation fight.
West Ham United 3-1 Swansea City
Why? West Ham still have a top-four life to fight for, Swansea can rest complacently knowing they are safe from the fires of relegation. West Ham are at home and Swansea are an especially bad away side. West Ham's players are generally better than Swansea's. Really, this one shouldn't be too complicated.
Bournemouth 1-1 West Bromwich Albion
Why? We have the Premier League's 14th and 15th placed clubs, exactly equal on points, both safe from relegation, both in bad form – this really could go any which way but a draw seems like the most reasonable projection. Goalless is also a strong possibility.
Crystal Palace 1-0 Stoke City
Why? Another pairing in which, besides places on the league table, there is little to separate the teams. Despite Stoke's reasonable 10th, they actually have a worse goal difference (minus-14 to minus-10) than 16th-placed Palace and are on near-relegation form. There's not a lot to sell on Crystal Palace, either, but they are at least at home.
Aston Villa 0-2 Newcastle United
Why? Aston Villa are atrocious. They are atrocious and going down and unless Newcastle completely fall on their faces (not impossible) will lose this game because they are a very bad football team. Newcastle are talented enough, have every reason to play for three points, and actually have a bit of form on their side. Anything is possible, but Villa seem like longer shots to win a game right now than Leicester were to win the league before the season.
Leicester City 3-0 Everton
Why? The champions have a party to throw, and maybe they'll let their guard down with the job well done, but it's just as likely they will want to put on a show for the King Power Stadium faithful, and they'll even have Jamie Vardy back. Plus, they're just better than Everton.
Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 Southampton
Why? We've made this argument before, but for all of Leicester's heroics, Tottenham have probably still been the best team this year. Nerves got to them on more than one occasion, but they have nothing to worry about now, and their talent advantage should be enough against a good Southampton side. If we're least confident about any prediction this weekend, though, it's going against Ronald Koeman's in-form side.
Manchester City 1-2 Arsenal
Why? For all the melancholy emanating out of the Arsenal camp these days, it's still not like they've been losing games. City looked mostly helpless against Real Madrid, which, fair enough, but the hammering they took against Southampton revealed an aging defence in need of a complete overhaul and limping on its last legs.
Liverpool 2-0 Watford
Why? Quique Sanchez Flores is probably a lame-duck manager for a team safely ensconced in mid-table and Liverpool still have something to play for. It's been a rough patch for Jurgen Klopp's men, but the German manager ought to be able to whip them into shape to at least see out this result.
