Two Premier League away games, at West Brom tomorrow and then Norwich City next Sunday, are punctuated by a must -
win home clash with Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb and with a stretched squad that is a tough eight days of football.
Not exact matches
First up is our easiest away game in Zagreb, followed by a
home clash with Olympiakos which should be a banker
win and then the Germans come to London.
City go into tomorrow's
home clash with West Ham United having
won only four of their last 15 matches in all competitions.
With a trip to Man City next on our agenda, the
home clash with Stoke City tomorrow is now looking like a must
win game with all the added pressure that our precarious situation brings.
With Arsenal in dire need of
winning our second Champions League group game after losing the first, a
home clash with Olympiakos seemed the ideal game.
With matches quickly running out, Sunday's
clash is a must -
win for the
home side.
No one was surprised to see that Arsene Wenger chose to drop (or rest) the Arsenal vice-captain for the Premier League
home clash with Everton on Sunday, after the World Cup
winning defender was the worst of a bad bunch against Monaco in the Champions League.
The young Tottenham goalscoring sensation Harry Kane sounds like he is writing off Arsenal ahead of today's
clash at White Hart Lane, and after 15
home wins in a row you can understand a little bit of confidence today, but when it comes to the North London Derby there is no room for cockiness.
Walcott, however, reckons that the Gunners are now in a much better position to end that run, as he feels that we have sorted out the problems in every area of the team, including a better fighting spirit and attitude, which the speedy forward feels was highlighted by the way Arsenal came from behind and nearly
won in our
home clash with the EPL champions earlier this season.
At the current price of -115, I think there's great value on Leicester City to
win at
home again ahead of their Champions League
clash with Sevilla.
With Arsenal's winless record in Russia, the Gunners could do with rolling out a
home win in this first leg of their quarter - final
clash with CSKA Moscow.
Leicester are looking for a hat - trick of straight
wins against the Hammers in London despite West Ham having
won eight of the last twelve
home clashes.
It was a
clash of champions when we brought NK Maribor to Anfield after
winning a whopping 0 - 7 at their
home ground.
All of those
wins were recorded in front of their
home crowd at the Stadio Partenio - Lombardi, so Wednesday's
clash at Juventus Stadium will be an entirely different challenge for the Biancoverdi.
Chelsea are unbeaten in six Premier League meetings against Watford since losing the first
clash in September 1999 (W4 D2) and they are on a four - match
winning streak at
home against them in all competitions.
The second leg of the round of 16 Europa League tie between Tottenham Hotspur and Borussia Dortmund promises to be an exciting
clash, with the German side in a commanding position after a 3 - 0
home win in the first leg last week.
The system also helped the Blues claim a 1 - 0
win at
home to United in the reverse fixture, and now that Conte has enough bodies in midfield to play with a five across the middle, he could be tempted to make a change ahead of this crucial
clash.
Fulham have
won three of the five previous Championship
clashes between the two clubs (D1 L1), the one loss a
home reverse in this corresponding fixture from last season.
Heading into Saturday's
clash against Leicester on the back of a victory is crucial - the Blues can ill - afford to allow the gap at the top to increase and with no Premier League
wins in four
home games, an Etihad
win is crucial.
Eibar on the other hand has only
won three games away from
home and that makes Real Madrid heavy favourites for the weekend
clash even with their second string side.
They've only dropped points in three
home fixtures this season, with Burnley, Fulham & Hull frustrating City at
home this season, but they've now gone on a two match
winning run at
home and look a very solid bet for all three points in this Monday night
clash.
Bolton beat Millwall away in the last round to set up the
clash with Spurs, and before that there was a
home win over Swansea, and a replay triumph over Macclesfield Town in the third round.
After this
home clash with Blackburn, whom they've beaten in the last two seasons at
home, comes a pair of huge encounters, both with their own unique significance and importance, as first comes the north - London Derby at The Emirates against Tottenham's bitterest of rivals Arsenal before a must
win game with Werder Bremen in the Champions League, where qualification to the knock - outs is at stake.
So it will be intriguing to see who the Portuguese tactician includes in his team - sheet for Saturday's must -
win clash at
home to Bolton, whom the Blues have an imperious record against − they've
won each of the previous seven league meetings, including a 5 - 1 romp at The Reebok earlier in the season in which the aforementioned Lampard netted a hat - trick.
Successive 4 - 0 victories away to Plymouth (League Two) and at
home to Huddersfield (chasing promotion in League One) set up a third round
clash with Premier League Wigan, who were also no match for Di Canio's imperious charges as The Robins overcame a 1 - 0 deficit to
win 2 - 1 at The Country Ground.
After their recent EFL Cup semi final
clashes, which yielded a
home win for both, it is down to Premier League business now for United and Hull.
Antoine Griezmann
clashed with his own fans during Atletico Madrid's Sunday's 1 - 0
home win over Valencia.
Osasuna are bottom of the table and have the worst
home record in the league this season (1W, 6D) and just a marignally better away one (2W, 3D) going into this
clash with Luis Enrique's side, who are coming off a morale boosting Clasico
win against arch rivals Real Madrid.
All of the previous five Premiership
clashes between the two have ended in Chelsea's favour, so in spite of the fact Wolves are seeking their third
home success in their last four at Molineux, as opposed to Chelsea trying to better a miserable run of one
win in eight, the likelihood of Wolves celebrating a
win over Wolves still looks highly improbable.
They claimed back to back
home wins over Middlesbrough and Watford, two sides who were in awful form coming in to
clashes with the Eagles.
Of course their favorite of the three one
won is the one from tha last round, when in a derby at
home they beat great rivals Benfica, which certainly would raise even more their confidence before the
clash with the Athletic Bilbao.
They've
won their last 10 at
home in all competitions, conceding in just three of those
clashes.
Regardless of who plays, however, we have a side that is more than capable of getting the
win at
home to Hull to ensure passage to a delicious semi-final
clash with Chelsea.
Speaking ahead of Sunday's
home clash with Burnley, the Scot said: «We need to
win three of the four games we have left and that is the mindset.
Team News & Lineups: Gladbach has struggled in away matches but at
home they have been absolute class
winning 11 of their recent games however they will be without Schubert while Tobias Strobl is a major doubt for Barcelona
clash.