Everton v Chelsea – Saturday 5.30pm BBC1
Roberto Martinez is under an awful lot of pressure on Merseyside but it hasn’t been good enough this season. Their home form in particular hasn’t been good enough as emphasised by their last defeat to West Ham last weekend. The home side is going in with a bit of pressure but I’m going to say I fancy Everton to win this because it’s at Goodison and because they don’t really have anything to play for. Neither have Chelsea of course but I think they might be a bit flat after that exit from the Champions League against PSG.
They really were second best for the majority of that game and it will be really difficult for Guus Hiddink to lift his side. I do expect the Chelsea players to respond and be up for this game but I just think being at home is very important for Everton the fans will be behind them. They can sense another Wembley appearance is getting closer and I don’t think the players will want to disappoint the fans. So I think Everton will be too good for Chelsea this weekend. Chelsea are capable of scoring so I’m going for a 2-1 Everton win.
At the moment Costa is playing really good football but he picked up an injury midweek. If he’s out that’s a massive blow for Chelsea because he’s their talisman at the top end of the pitch. Last season I’d have been tipping Eden Hazard every single week because of the form he was in but at the moment he doesn’t look like he knows where the goal is. So if you’re looking for a Chelsea player it’s Willian or Oscar if he plays, maybe Pedro. For Everton it’s much simpler and Romelu Lukaku is where my money would go.
Arsenal v Watford – Sunday 1.30pm BT Sports 1
Watford are having a torrid time right now, they’ve forgotten how to score goals. They haven’t scored in their last four games in the Premier League. Troy Deeney and Ighalo who were talisman for them at the start of the season, Igahlo couldn’t stop scoring, now they can’t buy a goal. That’s the problem Watford have got. It’s not that they’re not competitive, they are, but they’re just not scoring enough goals so if they don’t keep a clean sheet they’re not going to win.
I fancy Arsenal strongly here. The fact that it’s at the Emirates, the fact that they’re going for a third consecutive final and a third consecutive win would be something special. I think going out of the Champions League this week, I don’t think they’ll be coming back from 2-0 down away to Barcelona and I imagine they know that as well. Yes they’ll want to finish the league strongly and probably think they can still win it but I expect Arsene Wenger to pick a strong side against Watford and I think they’ll be good enough to beat them. I’m going to go 3-0 Arsenal.
Depending on who starts, you can’t be sure of how Wenger will line out his side, I’d be looking at Alexis Sanchez to get on the scoresheet here.
Man Utd v West Ham – Sunday 4pm BT Sports 1
I’d be all over West Ham, I think there are a lot of good things happening at the Hammers at the moment. They’re playing with supreme confidence, their big players are influencing games. They’re winning matches, they’re tough to beat and I think they’re going to take all of that confidence in to the weekend and I see them giving United a really torrid time on Sunday afternoon. I fancy them strongly. They’ve won their last four games including their FA Cup tie and the players will fancy it big time against United.
The 3/1 on a West Ham win is a great price and Hammers fans should be all over that. What I don’t know is whether West Ham will win a tight low-scoring game or whether we could see some goals. Being an FA Cup tie I think we’re going to see some goals and I’m going to go for an adventurous 3-2 win for West Ham.