Scottish Premiership.
The Predictions
St Mirren 1 Aberdeen 2
Dundee United 3 Kilmarnock 0
Hibs 1 Ross County 1
Inverness 0 Hearts 1
Motherwell 1 Partick Thistle 0
Celtic 1 St Johnstone 1
The weekend after a round of cup games is always very interesting. So many stories came out of last weekend and it'll be interesting to see how clubs move on from what happened. The big story was obviously Celtic's exit at the hands of Aberdeen. How will they bounce back and motivate themselves with only the already won (if not mathematically) league title left to play for. Is it time for experimentation or will they be able to focus on trying to finish the season unbeaten in the league. St Johnstone are a bit of a jekyll and hyde side this season but recently they have managed to get some decent results against Celtic. So i'm thinking they'll take the lead only for Celtic to get the point with a late equaliser.On the flipside to that, Aberdeen will look to build on their success and kick on to secure 2nd place in the league in a bid for an outstanding acheivement of 2 cups and their highest league placing in decades. You have to think their squad is strong enough that they should continue against a St Mirren side who may be a little low on confidence after their cup defeat at Tannadice.
Elsewhere, there were sides that Dundee United were working towards playing the kind of football that earned so many plaudits at the end of last year and should get a first league win of the year against Killie. I think Hearts could surprise an Inverness side who stumbled to a replay against Straraer and continue their bid to make a late surge towards possibly staying up. Motherwell should see off Partick to stay on Aberdeen's tail and a share of the spoils at Easter Road as Butchers revival of Hibs continues to falter - it'll take a summer transfer window for him to get the side together he wants.
Player to Watch - Garry Kenneth and Derek Riordan
Okay not involved in the Premiership but both are players that were tipped for big things and had the footballing world at their feet and are now plying their trade at lower levels after this week signing for Brechin City and Alloa respectively. Garry Kenneth was a Scotland international not long ago and left Dundee United expecting to go on to bigger things but i fear his cavalier defending style has been found out since his move and moving down to league 1 may be the kick up the arse he needs to work on his game. He's still got time to turn his career around again. Derek Riordan however, is running out of time. A prolific scorer at Hibs and possessor of a cracking left foot - he should've played at the highest level and won trophies and caps galore. However, his attitude has always stank and he's always been more interested in going out in and getting barred from Edinburgh night spots and you have to feel that pretty soon he's going to look back at his career and kick himself at how its gone. Can he still redeem himself? even if it is at a part-time Championship club.
FA Cup
Sunderland 2 Southampton 1
Cardiff 0 Wigan 1
Sheff Wed 2 Charlton 0
Man City 2 Chelsea 1
Everton 1 Swansea 0
Sheff Utd 1 Nottm Forest 1
Arsenal 1 Liverpool 2
Brighton 1 Hull 0
Its the opposite way round down south. Its a cup weekend on the back of what was an intriguing week as the top clubs continue to do their best not to take advantage of being top of the league. Those same clubs will be playing repeats of recent head to heads. Most notably Arsenal take on Liverpool a week on from being ripped apart by them in the league at Anfield. A midweek draw against Man Utd at least gave the defence some confidence again with a clean sheet and i'd expect a closer run thing this week. However, Liverpool are really starting to look the business and i still take them to edge the Arsenal as they will have their usual stumble out of all trophy contention in the new year.The other big one is Man City playing Chelsea. It was only a couple of weeks ago that Chelsea defeated the sky blues to open up their league challenge and they have stuttered a bit since then. I take them to narrowly edge a tight game against Chelsea. Elsewhere, i think Sunderland will edge Southampton and continue to edge towards a second place at Wembley this season. Wigan's defence will continue with a surprise win at Cardiff. Everton are my tip to win the trophy and win Martinez a place in history by winning two finals in a row with two different teams and they'll just see off stuttering Swansea. Brighton to edge out Hull in another shock and Sheff Utd to earn a replay against Forest.
Player To Watch - Mesut Ozil
He's done little of late to live up to his large transfer fee of late after the early bounce he gave to Arsenal. As their season reaches a critical stage in their bid to finally wrap up some silverware again, the fans will be looking to see him step up and help their side pick up some results from the big games to come.
German game to watch - Bayer 04 Leverkusen v Schalke 04. 4's in the name - what price a vier - vier draw?
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