NJIRU: Liverpool have no chance to slip up; United should watch out on Burnley

With Liverpool crashing out of Europe this week and West Ham United edging Leicester 3-2 last week, the race for the Top Four just became more interesting than the title race.

Leeds United vs Liverpool

Liverpool’s focus is now solely on the top four while West Ham believe they can qualify for the Champions League as outsiders as the fixtures list favour them.

As of Friday afternoon, Leicester was third on 56 points, West Ham a point behind, Chelsea fifth on 54 points, Liverpool sixth on 52 while Tottenham and Everton are 7th and 8th on 49 and 48 respectively ahead of Friday’s fixture.

Liverpool face a tricky Leeds United side on Monday evening with the Marcelo Bielsa coached side going into the game on the back of three Premier League wins. The last meeting at Anfield ended 4-3 in favour of Liverpool but a lot has changed since then including 10-man Leeds stunning Man City last week.

Even though Liverpool have won five of their last six away matches in the league, Leeds are not to be under-estimated. I see a 1-2 win for Liverpool.

Arsenal vs Fulham

Arsenal are back at Emirates Stadium after qualifying for the Europa League semis but what concerns me is the absence of captain Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang who is suffering from Malaria but Nicolas Pepe and Willian should be able to step up.

This week I’ll give Arsenal a straight win as Fulham have lost their last four matches and have been drawing at half time and losing at full time.

Manchester United vs Burnley

Manchester United are in high spirits after the win over Tottenham Hotspur last week in London and another in the Europa League against Granada. However, Burnley will be a problem for them.

Burnley have had 2.5 goals in their last four away matches and have scored at least two goals in their last three away matches against Man United in all competitions. Burnely are remarkably unbeaten on their last four trips at Old Trafford. 1-1 for me.

Chelsea vs Manchester City

The biggest game of the week is definitely Chelsea vs Manchester City in the FA Cup semifinals at Wembley. The first chance for Pep Guardiola as he targets a possible quadruple while Thomas Tuchel can make a statement by winning the first title in the first four months on the job.

These are two clubs that have done exceptionally well in the FA Cup with Man City winning 14 of their last 15 FA Cup matches while Chelsea have won 9 out of 10. 

Chelsea’s defence has improved under Tuchel but was exposed by Big Sam; Pep’s City are monsters going forward and will put the Chelsea back three to the sword. Man City’s performance graph has dropped in the last two matches compared to recent form as Chelsea bounced back from the 5-2 defeat to West Brom.

This will be a close one but Chelsea should try to hold City off and force penalty shoot-out since they have a very good goalkeeper.