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SATURDAY

Tottenham Hotspurv  Stoke City

On the face of it, one of the only two games which seem pretty much nailed on to bring a top six team all three points is the one between Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City.

Stoke have shown some very erratic form this season although, in the league at least, so have Spurs!

If Tottenham can find any kind of fluency such as they seem to manage in the Champion’s League then they will win this game with ease. If not, then they will still win but with a bit more of a struggle.

West Ham United v Chelsea

In another game destined to hand three points to the top six team, Chelsea make the short journey to The London Stadium where they will meet the Serial Failure and his West Ham team.

This would usually be quite a difficult one to call as, with home advantage added to the fact that this is a local derby, West Ham would normally be expected to pick up a point, at least.

However, with Moyes in charge, the advantage definitely goes to Chelsea and they will win this one with relative ease.

SUNDAY

Southampton v Arsenal

Arsenal travel south to St. Mary’s to face a Southampton team who appear to be turning things around after a sluggish start to the campaign.

Stubborn Old Man has seen his team sail through the group stage of Big Vase and will be looking to extricate himself and his team from that competition before he has to make the embarrassing choice of whether he should actually try and win it or not.

Free from any of this irritating worry until February, he can concentrate all of his efforts on achieving his annual goal of a top four finish. A point at Southampton will go a very short way to help him.

Liverpool v Everton

After another game in midweek where Liverpool demonstrated their ability to score lots of goals and their new-found ability to defend, the Anfield faithful will be expecting a comfortable win.

Comfortable wins, however, are very unusual in derby games and this one will be no different.

Sam Allardyce will know all about the threat posed upfront by Mané, Salah, Firmino and Coutinho and, what’s more, he will have a plan to stifle them.

If he can keep one of the clean sheets for which he is famous then Everton could leave Anfield with three points, although one is more likely.

Manchester United v Manchester City

This is now, arguably, the biggest derby in Europe but is unlikely to be one of the best games seen in Europe this weekend. The stakes are too high.

Much as the general impression is that Manchester United HAVE to win, that actually isn’t the case. A draw would be no disaster and would keep the points difference at eight. Bigger margins than this have been successfully chased down after Christmas.

The only result which does nothing to aid United’s title chances is a defeat. To go eleven points behind City would mean having to rely on them losing four games and that is assuming United don’t lose any more! Not impossible, but unlikely.

As for City, they will be happy with either a win or a draw, whilst even a loss would only be a flesh wound at this point, nothing terminal.

United will be missing Paul Pogba, who is suspended, which probably gives City the edge and means that the game will not be contested by the best eleven on each side.

José Mourinho’s attention to detail, however, should see United take at least a point from this one and don’t be too surprised if he finds a way to win it!

Whatever happens, the top two will stay the same and Manchester will remain ahead of London and Liverpool in football just as it does in everything else.