Midweek Premier League Tips: 3rd & 4th March

It’s hard to know what to make of these two teams at the moment. Burnley were going well but were undone easily by Spurs at the weekend in a 4-0 loss. Leicester were also going great but then lost two crucial home games 2-0 to Slavia Prague and then 3-1 to Arsenal to put the cap on a poor week.

Leicester’s saving grace this season has been their away form. They have lost just once on the road this season and they face a Burnley side who have won just four of their 13 home games so far this season.

I do expect Sean Dyche to get a reaction from his team after the poor performance at Tottenham last weekend, but similarly, I do feel Leicester City will have plenty to prove after two poor results have severely dented their hopes of achieving something very positive this season.

Harvey Barnes’ injury will be a huge blow to the Foxes over the next few weeks, but I do feel that they have enough quality in reserve to be able to cope with his absence and although I don’t expect many goals ot chances here, I am backing Leicester to land an important win, probably by a single goal.

Manchester United are still unbeaten on the road this season and they travel to the ground where history shows that they are not that likely to suffer defeat. The last time United lost to Palace away from home was back in 1991, so almost 20 years have passed since they last tasted defeat in London to tonight’s opponents.

That said, Palace have beaten United in that period, but all those wins have come at Old Trafford. Indeed, Palace have already beaten United this season in the league on the road, a defeat which will certainly rankle with United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Wilfred Zaha won’t likely be fit for Palace against his old club and there is no doubt that Palace are much the poorer side without him playing. Indeed, the stats clearly show that a Palace side without Zaha is one that tends to struggle.

I do think Palace have the players to perhaps score a goal against United here, but I think that the visitors may well emerge with a very confident and relatively easy victory by a 3-1 or even greater scoreline.

Sam Allardyce’s ABC on how to remain in the Premier League basically means scoring goals from set pieces and defending like crazy to keep a clean sheet and it is abundantly clear that his West Brom side are now starting to take on board their managers ideas after drawing two and winning one of their last three games.

You can knock the style (and I do, frequently) but it does get results however I always feel a team is selling their soul to the devil when they appoint Allardyce as manager. They are happy to play mindless, dull, join the dot defensive football to try and grab enough points to stay on the Premier League gravy train.

As such, I am pretty confident that Everton will be able to end that little run of games here. Not only do I feel the Toffees can physically match West Brom, I also feel they have the creative players to cause them all sorts of problems on the ground too.

The last game at Goodison was high scoring and I do feel that both teams will likely score here too, but I am backing Everton to snatch the win by a 2-1 scoreline.

When these two teams met earlier on this season, Liverpool recorded a good win, chiefly because Andreas Christensen got himself sent off just before half time. The Reds took full advantage to land the win with second half goals leaving Chelsea boss Frank Lampard ruing what could have been.

A few months later, Lampard is gone, Thomas Tuchel is in charge and Chelsea are unbeaten in seven games and heading to Anfield to face a Liverpool side that have not won in six games at home and who have lost all of the last four. They have scored just two goals in those last six games.

That is a hugely worrying stat and the problem is, as I said when they faced Everton the other week, I don’t see Jurgen Klopp changing this style of play any and I think Chelsea are more than capable of doing what Everton, Man City, Brighton and Burnley have done in the past. Which is hitting Liverpool on the break and then forcing them to try and cross the ball into the box to get back level.

Liverpool have won three away games in recent times but I am not convinced at all by their home form and I have no real confidence that they will get anything from this game either. As such, I am backing Chelsea to land the win here and heap more home woes on the Reds.