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Manchester United vs Brighton & Hove Albion (Saturday, Jan 19 @15:00 GMT)
Oe! Ole! Ole! the chant will be ringing through Old Trafford this weekend as fans hope for a seventh straight win for the Red Devils under Ole Gunnar Solksjaer. In what was supposed to be his first true test as Manchester United manager last week, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer came up trumps thanks to some smart attacking tactics in the first half and the gloves & feet of David de Gea in the second half. David fought hard and stood tall against the Goliath attacks from Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Heung-min Son, Fernando Llorente, and Toby Alderweireld.
Brighton & Hove Albion surprised Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United at the start of the season with a 3-2 victory. Away from home this season, Brighton have just two wins and two draws, scoring 9 goals and conceding 18.
Against this resurgent Manchester United, Brighton are likely to play deep and hold their form, asking their opponents to try and break the defense. They would like to come away with a point and sit tight on the middle of the table away from the drop-zone.
Manchester United who are in a great run of form with six wins on the trot across all cups, will maintain the attacking style of play and hope to come out with 3 points. Anything less, although unlikely, and that fourth, or possibly even third, position in the table can be forgotten.
Arsenal vs. Chelsea (Saturday, Jan 19 @17:30 GMT)
The biggest game of this week. Arsenal will be hosting Chelsea and would be hoping to close the gap for that fourth position. Arsenal have lost only one game at the Emirates Stadium, the season opener against Manchester City 0-2. The next weekend they lost 3-2 away from home to Chelsea, their opponent this weekend, in a closely fought battle.
Chelsea are without a front-line center forward, as Alvaro Morata is on the cusp of a move back to the Spanish La Liga. They are heavily depending on getting goals from their talisman Eden Hazard, with the odd support from Pedro, Willian, and Barkley.
They could play Olivier Giroud upfront, who would relish a visit back to the Emirates Stadium. However, they have been giving a great defensive performance this season conceding just 17 goals with 10 clean-sheets in 22 games, only bettered by Liverpool, who have conceded 10 goals and maintained 13 clean-sheets.
Arsenal on the other hand have good attacking threat from Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, and Alex Iwobi. However, Unai Emery’s tactics of not starting with either Aaron Ramsey or Mesut Ozil in the past have hurt them with the lack of creativity in the middle. Defensively too they have been poor conceding 32 goals this season.
This game could go down to the wire, with a probable stalemate when the whistle blows at the end of the injury time after 90 minutes of playing time.
