The Barclays Premier League returns after the final international break of 2014.
Matchday 12 features Arsenal vs Manchester United—to teams with top four aspirations, but riddled with injuries, forcing their managers to dig deep into their squad in order to claim an important victory.
Here are the five Premier League games to watch this weekend.
Sunday programming alert: Watch Crystal Palace vs Liverpool on Sportsnet World at 8:00 am ET and Hull City vs Tottenham on Sportsnet World at 10:30 am ET. || Sportsnet World NOW || Broadcast schedule
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool
Liverpool was set to welcome back Daniel Sturridge from a thigh injury, but he suffered another setback and will be out for another six weeks. That means Brendan Rodgers’ misfiring strikers Mario Balotelli, Ricky Lambert and Fabio Borini will have to carry the load up front again when they travel to Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Jordan Henderson, Emre Can and Jose Enrique will be touch-and-go heading into the game as Rodgers will assess them leading up to kickoff. Crystal Palace will be welcoming back captain Mile Jedinak after an injury absence. Stuart O’Keefe is the only player that won’t play in the match.
Liverpool hasn’t been at their best this season, winning just four of a possible 11 Premier League games. Palace hasn’t recorded a victory in five straight matches, so this is a perfect opportunity for the Reds to claim all three points.
Chelsea vs West Bromwich Albion
Chelsea will continue to be hounded by “Invincibles” talk the longer its undefeated season continues. They’re undoubtedly the favourites to win the league, but it’s still very early to be suggesting a repeat of what Arsenal accomplished over a decade ago.
Nonetheless, the Blues will try to extend their lead at the top of the table when they face West Bromwich Albion on Saturday at Stamford Bridge. Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa skipped international duty with Spain due to injuries, so they should be fresh and ready to play. Andre Schurrle succumbed to an illness when he was with Germany, but he should be recovered by now.
West Brom defender Jonas Olsson will miss the match due to injury. Sebastian Pocognoli is listed as doubtful, but he also didn’t play.
Saturday programming alert: Watch Chelsea vs West Bromwich Albion on Sportsnet at 9:30 am ET, Leicester City vs Sunderland on Sportsnet 360 at 9:30 am ET, and Newcastle United vs Queens Park Rangers on Sportsnet World at 9:30 am ET. || Sportsnet World NOW || Broadcast schedule
Newcastle United vs Queens Park Rangers
It seemed like it was just yesterday when Alan Pardew was on the brink of getting sacked, but thanks to four consecutive wins, Newcastle is flying high and their manager is safe at the moment. The Magpies will be gunning for their fifth straight victory when they face Queens Park Rangers at home on Saturday, but the London club is also fired up from their draw against champions Manchester City.
Newcastle has only allowed one goal during its winning streak, which came in a 2-1 triumph against Tottenham at the end of October. However, Pardew’s side has had problems scoring. They’ve had to rely on Ayoze Perez’s timely strikes in order to salvage wins. The Spanish striker is most likely going to start again, but Newcastle is also rife with injuries. Davide Santon, Siem de Jong, Gabriel Obertan and five others are ruled out of the game.
QPR’s only two absentees will be Alejandro Faurlin (injury) and Rio Ferdinand (suspension), so Harry Redknapp should have a strong squad to choose from this weekend.
Arsenal vs Manchester United
Both Arsenal and Manchester United are plagued with injuries, leaving both Arsene Wenger and Louis van Gaal with a lot of decisions to make on Saturday.
The two teams are separated by just one point, and a win could lift either side into the top four. However, a total of 16 players could miss the match, although there are some positives signs for some of them.
David De Gea, Angel Di Maria, Michael Carrick, Radamel Falcao, Phil Jones and Jonny Evans could all play a part in the match for United, although it’s unlikely all six will get minutes.
Arsenal will not have Olivier Giroud, Mathieu Debuchy, Mesut Ozil, Laurent Koscielny and Mikel Arteta. Danny Welbeck should be fine despite limping out of England duty this past week.
Manchester City vs Swansea City
Manchester City has been average, and should be worse off than third place, but some terrific individual efforts by Sergio Aguero have masked some of their issues.
The champions have only lost twice this season, but have drawn three other games, which has the Citizens eight points behind leaders Chelsea. If the Sky Blues fail to win again this weekend, the hole they’ve dug for themselves might be too deep to climb out of in order to defend their title.
Swansea City will try to repeat what they did against Arsenal in Wales in their last game. They scored two quick goals to claim a come-from-behind win against the Gunners.
Vincent Kompany is listed as doubtful, but might be okay to start. If the Belgian cannot play, Eliaquim Mangala will partner Martin Demichelis in defence. David Silva, Aleksandar Kolarov and Edin Dzeko won’t be available for Manuel Pellegrini.
Swansea won’t have three players, including defender Federico Fernandez, but Kyle Bartley will start beside Ashley Williams at centre-back in his place.
