From Napoli to Milan, two Dons settle score in London

DEC 19 — It was around this time last year that things started to go wrong for then Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.

After a storming start to the season, the Blues started dropping points consistently beginning with a 0-0 home draw against Newcastle United in late November, subsequently losing to Arsenal at home at the start of December.

Losses to title-rivals Manchester United (MU) and Liverpool followed in this 3-month spell, as well as draws to teams from the lower half of the division.

The final straw came in the goalless home draw with Hull City on 7 February. Two days later it was thank you, goodbye, and here’s your £7.5 million (RM41.66 million). Who wouldn’t want to work at the top leagues with such retirement benefits!

Chelsea began this season in equally striking fashion, and after they squashed Arsenal at the Emirates quite casually a couple of weeks ago, they looked like champions-elect.

Now, not so much. Last weekend their defending against Everton was shambolic, and though they did beat Portsmouth in midweek, they were far from convincing. Carlo Ancelotti will have to work to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.

Thankfully for Ancelotti, up next is West Ham United, a side struggling to find form. Being a local London derby, we witnessed two almighty battles last season with the Hammers claiming a hard fought 1-1 draw at the Bridge and Chelsea winning their return fixture 1-0 at Upton Park.

The difference now is that there are two renowned Italian football greats, Ancelotti and Gianfranco Zola, leading the teams and while one has a Russian billionaire backing him, the other is backed by Russell Brand and Katy Perry in Hammers underwear!

West Ham are in a mess with three successive defeats which have seen them slip to second from bottom in the English Premier League (EPL).

The only up side West Ham can have looking into this fixture is that Chelsea have not been all impressive of late. They have won three and drawn three of their last six on the road and have let in a total of 11 goals in 5 games (though in all competitions). Still, my money is on Chelsea to seal this win convincingly.

Second placed MU will travel to Craven Cottage to play a tricky tie against Fulham. Roy Hodgson’s men are enjoying a strong season, particularly at home, where they’ve only lost two league games and conceded just six goals.

They have taken 13 points from a possible 15 in front of their own fans while the champions have won four of their last five matches.

MU will again be facing some selection woes. Nemanja Vidic has a chance of recovering from a calf injury but Edwin van der Sar will not return against his former club. Meanwhile, Ryan Giggs and Nani might join Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand, John O’Shea, Jonny Evans, Gary Neville and Owen Hargreaves on the injury list.

These injuries only mean one thing, Bobby Zamora, who looks to be back to his best after scoring four goals in his last three games, can look forward to adding to his tally.

Fulham are certainly no pushovers as they showed against Liverpool and despite losing twice this season – one of which was to Arsenal who only won thanks to incredible goalkeeping by Vito Mannone – I think they have what it takes to deal with a rampaging MU forward line which still sorely misses the creativity of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Speaking of the Gunners, should MU slip, then Arsenal will be looking to narrow the gap and, with that game in hand, they will be perfectly poised to pip MU into second.

Arsenal look a sure bet against Hull City tonight (1.30am, early Sunday morning). Firstly, they would want to lay to rest that disappointing draw to Burnley in the midweek and, secondly, to win one for their skipper Cesc Fabregas who won’t be present personally to stick it to Hull manager Phil Brown for his stupidly wild allegations at the end of a contentious FA Cup tie which the Gunners won at home last season.

The Tigers have yet to win away this season, taking just two points from their eight fixtures. Meanwhile Arsenal have won six out of seven at the Emirates and Arsene Wenger’s men will aim to continue that fine form against the Tigers. It might not be a 6-goal thrashing like Liverpool delivered earlier this season, but it will a good win done the Arsenal way...leading by one or two goals then slack defending and goalkeeping causing a few heart attacks in the last 10 minutes of the game.

Next to Brown, the only other manager who has done nothing but damage the game of football for true football lovers is Mark Hughes. His billionaire-funded Manchester City team have only won once in ten games, including draws against Wigan Athletic, Hull and Bolton Wanderers.

Hughes might complain that unreasonable expectations have been placed on him, and while a stack of cash does not a title-challenge make, spending more than £150 million in the last year and a half should at least buy you three points against half the league.

They face Sunderland this weekend and the team which beat Liverpool and Arsenal, besides drawing at Old Trafford, might need to restore some lost pride from the mid-week loss at home to Aston Villa. The other ex-MU player turned manager in this tie, Steve Bruce, was a great defender, and he will prove to be the key to helping Sunderland take yet another two points (or more) off a less than effective City.

While all the limelight has been on the above teams, we have not realised the form Birmingham City have been in. A quick check on the form guide will tell u that they currently top it with five wins in a row and even remarkably are on an 8-game unbeaten run. Looks like all that Hong Kong dollars from the new owner has really paid off for the club and its supporters.

They travel to Goodison Park this weekend to play an Everton side who are closer to the tail-end of that form guide I mentioned, with three losses and two draws. Everton have only won twice at home this season, with the last of those two wins being way back in September. They desperately need maximum points to start climbing the table and rescue their season.

Interestingly, Everton had this same problem last season. At the same stage in 2008 they had just one victory at Goodison Park from eight matches (while only losing twice away), before turning things around and winning seven of the remaining 11 matches at home to end the season inn fifth place.

But, unless Birmingham’s confidence is shattered by a couple of early goals from the Toffees, I see no way for David Moyes to outsmart his counterpart, and fellow Scot, Alex McLeish in this tie. Birmingham will win or, at worst, draw this match.

Birmingham’s local rivals, Aston Villa, have also been in great form of late. Hmmm . . . must be something in the water there these past few months. But I digress.

The Villans take on Stoke City at Villa Park, having not lost at home since going down to Wigan on the opening day of the campaign. Five wins and two draws have been added to that tally since.

They have also have won four and drawn two of their last six overall. However, nobody has steam-rolled Stoke this season and their record of six clean sheets in 16 matches bears testament to that incredible achievement.

With Martin O’Neill’s men returning home after a highly-successful outing, taking maximum points from two away matches, I have little faith for Stoke to keep another clean sheet, let alone get a point here.

I will go with a 2-1 win for Aston Villa that will keep them in the top four. The only question is, for how long?

On a final note, a famous pundit once commented, “we are not astrologers, we are only speculators”. So, to anyone who likes to comment with the benefit of hindsight, please try to take a chance for once in your life and actually say something before the weekend’s results are known.