adminLONDON. — Unbeaten Chelsea take a six-point lead at the top of the English Premier League soccer table to Newcastle, while faltering Southampton face Manchester United. Chelsea will be hoping to continue their unbeaten run this weekend as they take their six-point lead at the top of the Premier League to Newcastle.
Jose Mourinho described Chelsea’s season as perfect during the week and it is hard to argue with his review.
Chelsea travel north to Newcastle having equalled a club record of 23 games unbeaten in all competitions on Wednesday night and will set a new record should they avoid defeat at St James Park.
Mourinho would love nothing more than to equal his old foe Arsene Wenger’s achievement of going through a whole Premier League campaign undefeated, though he will be wary of his poor record on Tyneside.
In four previous trips to St James’ Park in the Premier League, he has never tasted victory (D2 L2). A first win at the ground on Saturday lunchtime will have Chelsea fans dreaming of reaching May with an unblemished record.
With 11 wins and three draws from their 14 games, Mourinho’s side have opened up a healthy gap on champions Manchester City.
Seemingly impregnable in defence, robust and classy in midfield and clinical in attack, already this year’s title race is being talked of in terms of only two teams.
But for a man who loves to talk, Mourinho is being modest in his assessment of his side and their title chances.
“We are doing well, getting good results in every competition,” he said. “(But) I don’t think we should speak too much about it. We must go game after game, play the best we can and try to get the best results.”
Chelsea coped comfortably without the suspended Diego Costa in midweek as they beat Tottenham 3-0 but the Spain striker will be back for the trip to Newcastle.
The performances of Didier Drogba and Loic Remy may give Mourinho a few things to consider before naming his team.
“If we don’t have a player we don’t cry about it,” he said. “We give confidence to the other players and they respond in the best way. Obviously Drogba did very well, Remy the same, but I would prefer to speak about the team. It was an important victory.”
City showed they are coming into form nicely, after an inconsistent start to the season, with their 4-1 win at Sunderland their third straight league victory.
Manager Manuel Pellegrini, whose team host Everton this weekend, praised the performance of Sergio Aguero, who scored two of their four goals.
But Pellegrini also said the team’s all-round displays gave him confidence they can catch Chelsea.
“We have players in high performance,” he said. “Yaya (Toure) has played very well in the last few games, Fernandinho is coming back to his normal performance and Samir Nasri is also in high performance.
“All the players are having more trust in what we are doing but we must continue the same way because there is (only) a slight difference between winning and losing.”
Third meets fourth as the two Dutch managers in the Premier League go head to head, with Southampton hosting a Manchester United side who have won four matches in a row.
Louis Van Gaal and Ronald Koeman have a chequered relationship, stemming from their time together at Barcelona and then Ajax, but Koeman will be more concerned with avoiding a third straight defeat.
Van Gaal will monitor the fitness of injured duo Wayne Rooney and Angel Di Maria before finalising his line-up.
At the other end of the table, bottom side Leicester travel to an Aston Villa side who will be fresh from their first win in 10 matches.
Second-bottom Queens Park Rangers play third-bottom Burnley while the two sides just outside the relegation zone, Hull and West Brom, clash at the KC Stadium.
Fifth-placed West Ham host Swansea, looking over their shoulder at sixth-placed Arsenal, who travel to Stoke.
Alexis Sanchez again spared Arsenal’s blushes this week with a late winner against Southampton, but the team’s performance will have done little to ease Arsene Wenger’s concerns.
Had all games ended in the 85th minute this season, the Gunners would be 12th in the table, 25 points behind leaders Chelsea; a fact that again highlights Arsenal’s fragility.
And Wenger’s men will be severely tested again this weekend against perennial bogey team Stoke City.
Arsenal have only won one of their last eight trips to the Britannia Stadium in all competitions, and they needed two 90th-minute goals to secure that 2010 victory in a game overshadowed by a horrific injury to Aaron Ramsey.
Wenger would love nothing more than a drama-free victory this time around, but the omens are not in his favour.
Liverpool take on Sunderland and Tottenham welcome Crystal Palace in the weekend’s other matches.
Meanwhile, Wenger has revealed that Arsenal are tracking highly-rated Ipswich Town defender Tyrone Mings as well as a few other young players.
The 21-year-old, who has impressed at Portman Road in 2014-15, was the subject of interest from Crystal Palace in the summer but shunned interest from Selhurst Park to sign a new contract until 2017 in September.
Nevertheless, Wenger admits that he is keeping a close eye on Mings’ progress at Ipswich as he continues to scope out potential transfer targets, whilst also scouting a number of other youth stars.
The Frenchman told reporters: “We are following a few young players but we are not close to signing anybody.
And, when directly asked about Mings, he added: “He is one of the young players we follow”.
Wenger has been forced to utilise a series of defensive combinations this season due to injuries, with Kieran Gibbs, Nacho Monreal, Laurent Koscielny and Mathieu Debuchy all spending time on the sidelines this season.
Fixtures (all 5pm unless otherwise stated)
Today: Newcastle v Chelsea (2:45pm); Hull v West Brom; Liverpool v Sunderland; QPR v Burnley; Stoke v Arsenal; Tottenham v Crystal Palace; Manchester City v Everton (7:30pm)
Tomorrow: West Ham v Swansea (3:30pm); Aston Villa v Leicester (6pm).
Monday: Southampton v Manchester United (10pm). — AFP.
Online Reporter