It will be hard for the English Premier League to top the action of a Saturday that saw seven tight matches, but with the league leaders and two title aspirants in action, today's stakes should make up for any drop in drama. Third place Arsenal opens the day against Newcastle followed by fourth place Manchester City's visit to West Bromwich Albion. The final fixture is the weekend's headliner: League-leading Chelsea's annual visit to Anfield Park to face Liverpool.
Newcastle hasn't beaten Arsenal since 2005, having been outscored 16-to-1 in the teams' last five meetings. Still consider some of Arsenal's recent home efforts: A 1-0 win over West Ham that required a last minute goal from Alex Song; a 2-1 win over Birmingham City in which they gave up the first goal; a 2-3 loss to West Brom. Newcastle is arguably better than all those teams and will have a chance to prove so at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
Manchester City carries a three match all-competitions losing streak into today's match at The Hawthorns. West Bromwich is also coming off a loss, being reduced to nine men on Monday at Blackpool. In trying to avoid a losing streak, the Baggies will be hoping Carlos Tévez's thigh continues to keep the City captain sidelined. The Argentine attacker has missing City's losses at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Lech Poznan.
And the day's finale, Chelsea looks to restore their five point lead on Manchester United (and possibly Arsenal) when they go to Anfield Park. A Liverpool team that's struggled out of the gate, currently sitting 16th in league, was given renewed hope on Thursday when figurehead Steven Gerrard closed the Reds' Europa League match with three goals in 15 minutes. A little of that, some strong play from Fernando Torres and David N'gog and a Pepe Reina blinder? Liverpool might be in business.
For more on these matches, check out our week 11 preview thread, where we have previews and predictions of all three matches. As always, we will be bringing you live updates throughout the day.
Day | Time (EDT) | Home | Road | Editor Pick | Preview Pick |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sunday | 8:30 a.m. | Arsenal | Newcastle | 2-2 | 2-1, Arsenal |
10:00 a.m. | West Bromwich Albion | Manchester City | 2-1, West Brom | 2-1, City | |
11:00 a.m. | Liverpool | Chelsea | 2-0, Chelsea | 2-2 |