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This weekend’s football kicks off early with Liverpool taking on Newcastle at Anfield tonight. It will certainly be a battle of the strikers as Andy Carroll faces his former club. It has been almost a year since the Geordie lad moved to Liverpool for £35 million; however he has failed to impress at his new club. The same cannot be said for Demba Ba, who has scored 14 goals in 17 games for the Toon Army. Tonight is bound to be the tale of the two strikers – but who will come out on top? Carroll is in desperate need of some fantasy football points, he’s only scored 22 so far this season, and a game against his former club could be just the place to get started. However, don’t bet against Ba adding more points to his impressive tally either.
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Manchester United are now level on points with City after an impressive 5-0 at home to Wigan on Boxing Day. They face a Blackburn side which will be in high spirits after picking up a point at Anfield. However, Ferguson is likely to celebrate his 70th birthday with a United win on Saturday.
Manchester City do not play until Sunday, when Roberto Mancini’s side travel up north to the Stadium of Light to take on Sunderland. After City’s unimpressive 0-0 against West Brom, the blue team of Manchester is expected to go back to their winning ways. Sunderland still look vulnerable at the back and Aguero and Balotelli will certainly be looking to take advantage of this.
Owen Coyle has described Bolton’s game against Wolves this weekend as the biggest of their season. The Wanderers are experiencing a torrid time of late. Things were looking up after they won at Ewood Park however Bolton then went on to lose at home to Newcastle and it’s now been confirmed that Gary Cahill is almost definitely on his way to Chelsea. Nevertheless this should put the uncertainty to bed and may be the perfect time for other Bolton players to step up and be counted against a Wolves team that haven’t been too impressive either this season.
Chelsea have been poor lately and need to improve when they welcome Aston Villa on Saturday. Villa are short up front at the moment with both Heskey and Bent missing. Juan Mata has been the star of the Chelsea side so far this season and it is expected of him to add to his current fantasy football tally of 66 this weekend.
Premier league fixtures this weekend:
Friday – Liverpool v Newcastle
Saturday – Manchester United v Blackburn, Arsenal v QPR, Bolton v Wolves, Chelsea v Aston Villa, Norwich v Fulham, Stoke v Wigan, Swansea v Tottenham
Sunday – West Brom v Everton, Sunderland v Manchester City
