Arsenal will now be looking to return to winning form when they welcome Wigan Athletic on Saturday at the Emirates Stadium.
Wigan Athletic on the other hand snapped a three-match losing streak when they took the 1:0 triumph over West Ham United last week. They will aim to extend their winning form at the expense of Arsenal.
Match Time: 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time Saturday 19, 2009
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Soccer Betting Verdict: The bookies fancy a home win and many goals in this match as Arsenal are conspicuously favoured at -450 to win outright and the totals are listed at 3 goals over/under.
The Gunners have only played one match at home thus far, a 4:1 victory over Portsmouth. They are 2-0-2 overall in four cycles in Premier League action. The two losses came to Manchester United and Man City and were a revealing sign of the inherent weakness of the Arsenal bench that is riddled with injuries.
They recently snapped the two-match losing streak when they beat Standard de Liege in European action, coming back from two-goals down to win 3:2. The comeback win will be a huge confidence boost for Arsene Wenger’s men. Another positive is the return of Tomas Rosicky. The Czech midfielder has been sidelined for a long time with injury, but was seen playing for most of the Champions League match and his return to full action will be a much-needed boost for the Gunners.
Wigan Athletic are struggling right now in Premier League action but their plight is hardly surprising. They are under new stewardship with Roberto Martinez and the team is currently in the re-building phase after losing several key players during the summer transfer window. That they returned to winning ways over a solid West Ham United is encouraging, but not enough to convince bookies they are ready to take the victory on the away.
Blackburn will still be searching for their first points of this campaign when they take on West Ham this Saturday. Even though it is early in the season, this weekend will prove to be quite important for both Blackburn and West Ham utd. West Ham will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing loss to Tottenham on the weekend although they should take comfort in the fact that they played well. On the other hand Blackburn has not been able to win a game so far as of yet and need one soon.
Blackburn are looking to bring in Pascal Chimbonda as it appears that Stephen Warnock is headed to Aston Villa.
Burnley claimed a major scalp in their first home match back in the top flight as they pulled off a shock 1-0 victory against champions Manchester United at Turf Moor in midweek.
While Burnley did lose their first game this season they bounced back in a big way thanks to a win over Manchester United. They stayed strong and competed well with the English giants and pulled out the victory thanks to a goal from Robbie Blake in the 18th minute. If they can get the same impressive play from Blake and goalkeeper Brian Jensen then Burnley may be able to pull off another upset this weekend.
In their only game so far this EPL season Everton was blown out of the water by Arsenal. They could not get anything started except for a goal from Saha, and couldn’t stop the barrage of goals from Arsenal. They will need to come up with a much more consistent all around effort if they want to compete against Burnley and climb out of the basement of the English Premier League. You can be sure David Moyes will have his team fired up and ready for the game this weekend.
That saw them bounce back from their opening day defeat at Stoke City while Everton also recovered. After going down 6-1 at home to Arsenal, they chalked up a 4-0 win over Sigma Olomouc in the Europa League qualifer.
The Clarets have not lost in their last five top flight meetings with the Merseysiders, the most recent in 1976.
Birmingham's first win back in the Barclays Premier League came in midweek as a last-minute penalty gave them a 1-0 success at home to Portsmouth.
The Blues now host a Stoke City side who beat Burnley 2-0 on the opening day but then lost 4-0 at Liverpool in midweek.
Stoke City got off to a good start this season with an important victory but were dominated by Liverpool in their most recent game. Stoke was unable to get anything going offensively and had a very difficult time shutting down a high powered Liverpool team as they lost by a final score of 0-4.
Liverpool scored within the first five minutes as Torres scored and then Steven Gerrard led the way for the rest of the game. Stoke City and manager Tony Pulis will need much better performances from players such as James Beattie and Ryan Shawcross if they hope to win against Birmingham
It is 21 years since the Potters last won at St Andrews where Birmingham were beaten only once during 2007/08, their last season in the top flight.
Stoke won only twice away from home after taking the Blues' place in the Barclays Premier League.
Chelsea will be taking on Hull City on August 15th as the English Premier League gets underway. Chelsea will be hoping for a quick start this year and should be the favorites heading into the game. Hull City will be looking to prove that they are ready to compete in the EPL and would get a lot of confidence through a victory. Tune in right here on OleOleFootball to watch Chelsea vs. Hull City live on August 15th.
Chelsea
Official name : Chelsea FC
City : London
Founded : 1905
Club colors : Blue / Blue / White
Hull City
Official name : Hull City AFC
City : Hull
Founded : 1904
Club colors : Black-Orange / Black / Black
Fifa World Cup 2010 Qualifying : The match between Algeria and Zambia, counting for the 4th day of the combined playoffs WC-ACN 2010, scheduled for September 5, will be held at the ‘5 July Stadium’, said Monday evening the national Coach, Rabah Saadane.
The match is expected to determine the leadership of this group as both Algeria and Zambia are tied on four points each after two matches with the North Africans ahead on a better goals difference.
French coach Herve Renard confirmed Mbesuma’s exclusion after the national team’s morning work out at Sunset Stadium.
Many pundits believe that this could well be the end of era for one of Zambia’s most talented player in the last decade after he missed a penalty over the weekend against Rwanda.
The first-half substitute was also replaced in the second half with Renard insisting he did his best but was most probably put off by his penalty miss only minutes after he came off the bench.
