Chelsea FC Defeat Leicester City, Manchester City, United Win: Weekend Picks

Ahead of another action-packed weekend of Premier League football, let’s try and bash the bookies. Will Chelsea FC win?

Jose Mourinho and Claudio Ranieri have an intriguing past.

By Roberto Vicario [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Ranieri, who was given the nickname the

Tinkerman,

because of his habitual altering of lineups and formations, was Chelsea manager immediately prior to Jose Mourinho’s arrival. Ranieri of course never saw the success that the Special One did as Chelsea FC manager.

Years later, when Jose Mourinho was on his way to winning the treble with Inter Milan in Serie A, he again was in the presence of Ranieri who was Roma’s coach. Roma were the team in second place, Inter’s closest domestic challenger.

And much like we’ve seen Mourinho wage media wars with the likes of Pep Guardiola, Arsene Wenger and Manuel Pellegrini, Ranieri also fell victim to a Mourinho onslaught.

This brings us to Monday night’s showdown between Ranieri’s first place Leicester and Mourinho’s enigmatic Chelsea.

Leicester City vs. Chelsea

Let’s not downplay anything here. This is a main event. A disgraced Champion has a chance to show that they are not finished and in fact just as good as they ever were.

As an apathetic Chelsea fan I have not been as excited for a game all season as I am for this one. The Blues, still searching to find their prolific goalscoring touch, played the perfect game on Wednesday against Porto, the type of team that have given them problems all season. The Ramires-Nemanja Matic double pivot worked fantastically at stymieing the Dragon’s threat.

Seeing as how Porto and Leicester City are teams with similar profiles I can optimistically say that Chelsea have what it takes to shut down the table-topping Foxes.

Now can Chelsea also get on the front foot and put a couple past the goalie. We’ll find out on Monday night? This punter thinks they can.

Pick: Chelsea (+130)

Manchester City vs. Swansea

Tuesday evening was looking disastrous at one point for the Citizens as the brilliant Borussia Monchengladbach counter-attacked them to shreds in the first half.

But Man City, in uncharacteristic fashion, exorcised some of their European demons and scored three goals in the blink of an eye en route to a 4-2 win. They needed Sevilla to do them a huge favor and beat Juventus, an Italian team that only needed a draw.

More from The Pride of London

Leverkusen threw the kitchen sink at Barcelona’s B team on Wednesday and could not beat them. It turns out a win would have put them into the knockout round as Roma stumbled (I’ll get to them in a minute) .

Leverkusen are not in great form having only won once in their last eight competitive fixtures.

This weekend they host the aforementioned Borussia Monchengladbach, the hottest team in Germany and perhaps all of Europe. Coming off last weekend’s 3-1 victory over previously undefeated Bayern Munich, André Schubert’s men are not showing signs of slowing down. I like them to keep their momentum rolling this weekend.

Pick: Gladbach +0.5 (-110)

Serie A special: Napoli vs. Roma

On Matchday 5 of the Champions League group stage, Roma traveled to the Camp Nou and Barcelona humbled them in a 6-1 triumph. In their three successive matches against Atalanta, Torino and BATE Borisov they are winless, unable to find the back of the net and frankly very lucky to be advancing to the knockout stages of the Champions League.

Napoli, although suffering a hiccup last weekend, have been playing dazzling football all season. Roma may take weeks still to recover from what Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez did to them. I see a thrashing this weekend.

Pick: Napoli -1 (Even)

Next: Chelsea FC Predicted XI Against Leicester City

Last week’s record: 1-3 (-1.9 units)

Overall: 25-30-4 (-1.25 units)