Manchester City Team News, Starting XI Prediction vs Shakhtar Donetsk

September 16, 2019 By Leave a Comment

champions league

Manchester City are badly in need of a strong statement right now after having just been utterly shocked at Norwich City. It wasn’t just that City lost to a newly promoted side at Carrow Road, it’s that they lost to a very short-handed due to injury Norwich side.

The loss on Saturday showcased just how much the loss of Aymeric Laporte hurts this club. City has some real issues and weaknesses in defense (Nicolas Otamendi in particular needs to get better), and those were exposed on the weekend. Can Shakhtar Donetsk take advantage of those pull off a massive upset win in midweek?

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Filed Under: Football/Soccer, Manchester City

Spurs Team News, Starting XI Prediction vs Olympiacos: Eriksen, Lloris, Lo Celso

September 16, 2019 By 2 Comments

Last year’s UEFA Champions League runners-up, Tottenham Hotspur, begin this year’s campaign on Wednesday night with a trip to Greek side Olympiacos. They’ll do so with a ton of team news, pertaining to both the injured and healthy players.

We’ll start with the news surrounding a couple of key players who will be fit for this match- winger/midfielder Christian Eriksen and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. The former continues to be linked with a move away this January, most often to Real Madrid or Juventus, while the latter has made some controversial, anti-team remarks in public.

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Filed Under: Football/Soccer, Tottenham Hotspur

Liverpool Starting XI Prediction, Team News vs Napoli (UCL): Alisson, Keita

September 15, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Liverpool FC begin the defense of their UEFA Champions League title Tuesday night with a trip to Napoli, a side that was also in their UCL grouping last term. The two sides split the 2018-19 meetings with each club winning 1-0 in their respective home leg.

The Reds will commence group E play as one of the leading contenders to win the entire tournament, and they’ll achieve their seventh European Cup/UCL title if they do so.  However, they will be without the services of midfielder Naby Keita and starting goalkeeper Alisson.

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Filed Under: Football/Soccer, Liverpool

Chelsea Team News, Starting XI Prediction vs Valencia (UCL): Kante, Rudiger

September 15, 2019 By 8 Comments

Chelsea just put in their best performance of the season by far yesterday, thrashing Wolverhampton Wanderers in the West Midlands, and they did it largely on the strength of their young players. However, the “kids are alright” theme didn’t include their huge $73 million investment, Christian Pulisic who went from the first team to an unused as a substitute.

Perhaps he will see some playing time, or he might even start again when the Blues host Valencia Tuesday night to begin their Champions League campaign. Pulisic could see some action because a.) the squad is still hit by the injury bug a bit and b.) the Blues may need to rotate the side a tad as they will be hosting table topping Liverpool (who are also in UCL action on this night) next weekend.

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Filed Under: Chelsea, Football/Soccer

West Ham United vs Aston Villa Team News, Starting XI Predictions

September 15, 2019 By 1 Comment

There is just one game left to complete Premier League match day five, and it’s an extremely even match-up on paper, West Ham United at Aston Villa. The Hammers come in ninth in the table with 7 points, a -1 goal differential and a form guide that goes WWDL while Aston Villa currently sits in the drop zone, at 18th place.

They have a -2 goal differential with a form guide that reads LWLL.  Despite that vast differential, the projectionists and bookmakers see this as likely to be tightly contested. (Even the colors look almost identical) That said, let’s take a look at the team news and starting XI predictions for this one, starting with the visitors.

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Filed Under: Football/Soccer

Chelsea FC Wins Big with Youth, but Christian Pulisic Left Out

September 14, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Chelsea put in their biggest performance of the young season, and they did it mostly because of their stellar young players. Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori were all heroes as the Blues won 5-2 at Wolverhampton Wanderers, a side that was surprisingly solid last season.

One Chelsea name missing from the list above- their $73 million January signing Christian Pulisic. Yes, the 20-year-old American was not only dropped from the starting 11, he was an unused substitute at the Molineux.

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Filed Under: Chelsea, Football/Soccer

Arsenal FC Starting XI Prediction vs Watford FC 

September 13, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Quique Sanchez Flores is the main storyline heading into the Sunday matinee between his Watford FC side and visiting Arsenal.

Vicarage Road became the first club to sack their manager (Javi Gracia) this young season as the Hornets sit in dead last after the first four games. Flores knows he needs to hit the ground running.

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Filed Under: Arsenal, Football/Soccer

Arsenal vs Watford Team News: Lacazette, Holding, Tierney, Deeney

September 13, 2019 By Leave a Comment

It’s the first match in charge for Quique Sanchez Flores, as he takes over the reigns of Watford from the just sacked Javi Gracia. Currently, the league’s bottom side, the Hornets have just one point on the season and a -6 goal differential.

Thus, Gracia became the first manager casualty of the Premier League season. The last place team will host Arsenal, who currently sit exactly where they finished last season- fifth place. That said, let’s take a look at the team news for both sides, starting with the hosts.

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Filed Under: Arsenal, Football/Soccer

Manchester City Starting XI Prediction at Norwich City

September 13, 2019 By 1 Comment

Norwich City head coach Daniel Farke has a massive task on his hands tomorrow, as he’ll take on Manchester City, the first team in history to spend one billion Euros on building a roster. He’ll also have to do it with nothing short of an injury crisis on his hands.

“Sometimes when you have many muscle injuries, you have to look at doing something different in training,” said Farke. “But these injuries are so unlucky. We cannot complain too much. We won’t cry, it’s tricky, but we will try to search for some solutions.”

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Filed Under: Football/Soccer, Manchester City

Manchester City at Norwich Team News: Laporte, Jesus, Sane, Krul, Hanley

September 13, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Manchester City travel to newly promoted Norwich City tomorrow before kicking off their 2019-20 Champions League campaign against Shakhtar Donestsk on Wednesday. The big news in regards to City this past international break was the serious knee injury to starting defender Aymeric Laporte.

When asked about the severity of the first teamer’s injury, City manager Pep Guardiola said at his press conference today: “Five months, six months. Next year sure, January or February.”

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Filed Under: Football/Soccer, Manchester City

Chicago Fire Might Need to Run the Table to Make MLS Postseason

September 13, 2019 By Leave a Comment

chicago fire

The proverbial “run in” for the Chicago Fire is now here and it begins Saturday. The 10th place Fire (8-12-10, 34 points) currently sit within five points of a playoff position with just four games remaining in the 2019 regular season. However, the team they’re chasing, the seventh place New England Revolution, also have a game in hand on them. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that the Fire have a very favorable goal differential on the season (+1) versus the two teams sandwiched between them and the Revs: the eighth place Montreal Impact (-14) and ninth place Orlando City SC (-4). However, given the small margin for error, it’s clear that #cf97 can only afford to drop points in one of their four remaining matches.

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Filed Under: Football/Soccer

Chelsea vs Wolves Team News: Hudson-Odoi, Kovacic, Kante, Saiss, Doherty

September 13, 2019 By 5 Comments

callum-hudson-odoi

Chelsea got off to a very rough start this season, but there is good news, as the club is getting healthier. Reinforcements are on the way as stellar young winger Callum Hudson-Odoi is expected to feature for the U23 squad in its PL2 match on Friday against Brighton & Hove Albion U23s at Stamford Bridge. CHO is making his way back from the devastating Achilles injury he suffered last spring.

On the comeback trail defender Reece James (ankle) is also expected to play. Of course, that’s the more long term view. In looking at Saturday’s clash at Wolverhampton Wanderers, defender Emerson Palmieri is a minor doubt after sustaining a knock while on international duty with Italy.

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Filed Under: Chelsea, Football/Soccer
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