Premier League Picks: the Home Stretch begins

Coming off our Bundesliga-esque Christmas Holiday the weekly picks column returns as we enter the home stretch of the Premier League season.

With no established favorite for the Premier League title, the two heavyweights Arsenal and Manchester City, find themselves in a phone booth with Cinderella story Leicester, for whom the clock has not struck midnight.

If you had your money on the Foxes recently, you may have wanted to throw a pumpkin at Riyad Mahrez for missing 2 spot kicks, and costing his team 4 points.

Will any of these 3 decide they want they crown or will Spurs or United mount a second half charge?

In a contrarian season I find myself with all the contrary plays this week.

More from The Pride of London

Leicester vs Stoke

Leicester is a team I should probably avoid, because when I expect them to zig, they zag.

That being said I will stick my nose into their business once again as I see value with the Potters. The Foxes have only scored 2 goals in their last 5 Premier League games. Stoke on the other hand have been rather steady as she goes since their captain Ryan Shawcross came back into the mix. They’ve already beaten United, Man City and just drew the Premier League leaders at home. They can leave the King Power with a point minimum.

Pick: Stoke +0.5 goals (-110)

Norwich vs Liverpool

Norwich are undefeated in their last 5 home games and every one of those games has gone under 2.5 goals.

So as promised I will go against the trend and back Liverpool, who under Klopp have had a real mixed bag of results, and a heartbreaking loss at home to Manchester United this last weekend. Away from home with the German at the helm they have looked great in beating Chelsea, Man City and Sunderland, and looked below average to awful in losing to Newcastle, Watford and West Ham.

Which Reds show up this weekend? This punter hopes the former.

Pick: Liverpool (-105)

Manchester United vs Southampton

Charlie Austin is back in England’s top flight as the Saints scooped him up for a thrifty £4 million.

Southampton have kept 2 clean sheets since Fraser Forster has returned. However they have lost their last 4 league games away from home and now visit Old Trafford, a generally difficult place to get a result.

Man United have a great ability to win games in which they don’t play well, but they find themselves having to resort to this more and more…because more and more they don’t play well.

Southampton looked like they were going into a tailspin for a moment, but have righted the ship and are now in the ascendancy. And an in-form Southampton is a tricky nut for any team to crack

Pick: Southampton +0.5 goals (+110)

Arsenal vs. Chelsea

So I have been out of range for the last couple of weeks and was unable to watch Chelsea’s last 3 games, (the FA Cup win and both home draws to West Brom and Everton) so I ask this question in all honesty; are they any good?

Please let me know in the comments section, because dare I say it, I don’t think they’re any good. In the clips I saw of the Everton game, it looked like their opponents can just walk through them at will. The backline too often is left uncovered and are scrambling to block shots.

If I’m not mistaken Hiddink is playing the exact same style of football that got Di Matteo fired.

And very soon I’m going to start referring to Eden Hazard as the artist formerly known as Eden Hazard.

Next: Chelsea FC: Papy Djilobodji On Loan To Werder Bremen

We know Arsenal. They could mess up a cup of coffee. But I think I like them this weekend. They want to beat Chelsea in a meaningful game and since they could never do it with Mourinho at the helm, they’ll be frothing at the mouth come Sunday.

Pick: Arsenal (+105)

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