Four of the top five are all in action on Wednesday night as Chelsea will look to extend their seven point gap at the top and Man City will look to find their form again after just one win in six. Alan Pardew faces Newcastle for the first time since he introduced The Pardew Factor at Crystal Palace. Will Louis Van Gaal pick the right players in the right positions or will he pursue with long balls? Six games, 12 very different stories. 

Chelsea v Everton

Mourinho’s men extended their lead at the top of the table to 7 points with a 2-1 win over Aston Villa, whilst Everton squeezed out a 0-0 draw against arch rivals Liverpool. That was Everton’s third clean sheet in a row and it’s no coincidence that their improved defensive form has coincided with John Stones’ return to the starting 11. At 20 years old he is already Everton’s best centre back and at 5.2m he could be a cheaper differential to Baines or Coleman.

Continuing the theme of impressive defences, Chelsea have kept an outstanding 15 clean sheets in their last 19 Premier League home games.  The King of the Assists Cesc Fabregas is back and he has a good record against Everton with 3 goals and 3 assists in his last 4 appearances versus the Toffees.

Predicted Score: Chelsea 1 – 0 Everton

Man Utd v Burnley

Van Gaal seems to not know what do with the embarrassment of riches at his disposal. He’s tried Rooney in midfield & up front, he’s tried Di Maria in midfield and up front, he’s tried Fellaini in midfield and up front. His current tinkering trend is a diamond midfield with Di Maria at the tip, Rooney & Januzaj in the middle and Blind at the base. The Spanish talent worth £60m of Mata & Herrera are almost forgotten men. Herrera was their best player in pre-season and Mata has consistently scored and assisted since making his big money move from Stamford Bridge. Di Maria hasn’t assisted since November. The Argentinian was named in the Fifa team of the year last year so he must play in midfield for Van Gaal. Down the left with a rampaging Luke Shaw behind him they could be devastating. If Di Maria doesn’t pick up points tomorrow versus Burnley then I can see a lot of FPL managers dropping him. He has never been a prolific scorer, having never scored more than 8 La Liga goals in a season during his time at free-scoring Real Madrid and without Rooney in front of him; he is getting little chance to assist anything.

In my opinion Van Gaal should play a 4-2-3-1 with Blind & Carrick/Herrera sitting then Di Maria on the left & Januzaj on the right with Rooney in the number 10 role. Up top, you have 2 strikers prone to tiredness and injuries so rotate them.

This should be a routine win but nothing about United’s season has been routine. Burnley’s number 10 Danny Ings will be the most in form player on the pitch tomorrow night with 4 goals in his last 5 appearances.  In contrast, Man United’s number 10 has not hit a shot on target in 2015.

Predicted score: Man United 2 – 1 Burnley

Southampton v West Ham

Southampton have lost 3 of their last 6 home games and this promises to be a tight affair against a West Ham side exceeding everyone’s expectations this season.  Pelle has 8 goals this season but incredibly has hit the woodwork 6 times whilst also contributing 5 assists. Surely he is due another good run of goals? Sadio Mané has scored four in his last five Premier League games and in four successive PL starts but at just 4.8m James Ward Prowse has grabbed 7 assists in just 10 starts and looks the best budget midfielder in the game right now.

Stewart Downing has drawn a blank in the last 2 game weeks but he does have a tendency this season to draw blanks for 2 or 3 games at a time before being in scintillating form for 3-4. I have a sneaky feeling he could come good tomorrow but it won’t be enough to cover the talent in Southampton’s squad.

Predicted score: Southampton 2 – 1 West Ham

Stoke v Man City

Both teams drew their games 1-1 at the weekend but Stoke will be a lot happier with their last minute earned draw away at Newcastle than City who limped their way to a point at home to struggling Hull City. City have now won just once in their last six games.

Since his return from injury, Sergio Aguero hasn’t been as razor sharp as earlier in the season where his form had many touting him as the best finisher in the world. As every game goes by he is going to only get closer to his top gear and it’s a matter of time before he unleashes his goal power on someone. Can he do it on a cold Wednesday night in Stoke? Probably. The Potters have kept just 1 clean sheet in their last 8 home games.

Newcastle should have had the game dead and buried before Peter Crouch saved Stoke in the dying minutes but Mark Hughes’ side are hard to beat recently with only 2 defeats in their last 10 and they came at the hands of Chelsea & Arsenal.

Predicted score: Stoke 0 -2 Man City

Crystal Palace v Newcastle

Pardew v The Toon Army. The arrogant Alan Pardew will want nothing more than to get one over on the fans that abused him for years but it was with good reason given he broke most NUFC records for all the wrong reasons during his tenure. However, you must have heard of The Pardew Factor being the catalyst to have ignited Crystal Palace’s recent form with five wins in his first six games. With Gayle, Puncheon & the returning Bolasie, Palace have pace to really hurt an ugly Newcastle back line. No matter how well Newcastle play they always look vulnerable to a goal and in Mike Williamson they have one of the worst starting centre backs in the league. The shining light of that defence is Daryl Janmaat, a bargain £5m signing from Feyenoord who has delivered five assists this season from his consistent energetic surges down the right hand wing.

Pardew had no idea how to get the best out any technically gifted player whether that be Ben Arfa, Marveaux, Anita or most recently Remy Cabella, who struggled to get a game over the forever inefficient Yoan Gouffran. However, caretaker Head Coach John Carver is Newcastle United through and through. A Geordie who knows exactly what the fans want and is ready to give it to them. He has brought Cabella in from the cold, and has taken the shackles off him allowing him the freedom to torment and destroy defenders at will. He was wrongly denied his first goal in England when his goal at Leicester was ruled out for offside. However, he was on the score sheet a week later at Hull and nearly added to that with a glancing header at Stoke. He scored 14 goals in Ligue 1 last season and I would be surprised if he didn’t score at least 5 this season.

WBA v Swansea

FPL favourite Andre Wisdom has seen only 60 minutes over the last two game weeks so could now be time to cash in on the Liverpool loanee? New boss Tony Pulis is renowned for building defensively solid teams so could this affect the attacking potential of wantaway striker Berahino. Right now I would rather pay 5.8m for Danny Ings than 5.5 for Berahino.

Despite a good 1-0 win away at Southampton, I feel Swansea could find themselves slipping very slowly down the table. Although, they are hard to beat, without Bony they lack that clinical touch and have found it hard to win games with just one win in six.

Predicted score: WBA 1 – 1 Swansea