Things are starting to heat up in the race for the Premiership Crown this season with the top place changing hands now on a regular basis. Only four points separates first place team Chelsea and fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur which will add extra spice to the London derby in Week 13 of the Premier League. Most analysts are however tipping The Blues as the favorite due to their current outstanding form, but it is going to be tough against the only unbeaten side in the league.
Chelsea fans will be pleased to see their team sitting top of the table after the dreadful campaign run last season. The Blues are flying at the moment, have kept six clean sheets on the bounce by winning their last six matches. After the doom and gloom of being walloped by Arsenal 3-0, they have been unbeaten and not conceded a single goal. Credit has to go to new manager, Antonio Conte, who after that defeat has managed to solve their defensive problems and made them the most solid defense in the league.
Chelsea has a big advantage over the other teams chasing the league title as they did not qualify for Europe last season. It means they can fully concentrate on domestic competitions and gain from playing fewer matches. That will come in vital during the crunch time as we saw last season with Leicester City. In recent weeks the Blues have proved that they are genuine contenders for the league and are tipped as favorites.
It is however vital that Chelsea win its next two matches if they are going to be considered genuine title contenders. After playing Spurs, they will then face Manchester City and if they manage to beat both teams, they will increase their lead over the pack. It will give them an advantage over the busy Christmas period and if they continue their fine form, they will be very difficult to overturn.
Spurs remain the only unbeaten side in the Premier League but they have drawn too many games. With star striker, Harry Kane back from injury and saving them from their fifth draw in the league on the bounce in the finals minutes against West Ham with a brace, the fans at White Hart Lane will be extremely pleased to see their team back on track.
Though still one of the favorites for the title, they cannot afford a big slip or they will find themselves with too many points to catch up.
If they want to win the EPL this season they must beat Chelsea to close the gap to a single point between the two. If they lose, they will find themselves seven points adrift and therefore cannot afford too many more slip-ups if they are going to finish at the top.
Both teams are going to be up for this crunchy encounter, so fans should be in for a high-intensity game. The winners will be well placed to go into the busy Christmas period and will put themselves in a great place to win the title.
It is therefore not expected to be a high scoring match as they both have excellent defenses.
The Blues ended Spurs’ hopes of winning the Premier League title in May after they came from two goals down to secure a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge in a match that also produced 12 yellow cards.
But following Spurs’ disappointing Champions League exit in midweek at AS Monaco, Pochettino will be desperate for a better performance against England’s in-form team.
Manchester City visit Turf Moor in the first match of the weekend in a game Burnley must have to recover quickly from Monday’s 4-0 defeat by West Bromwich Albion to prepare for The Citizens.
Burley, however, can take encouragement from their previous encounters against the top sides in the Premier League, having beaten Liverpool at home, drawing at Manchester United and only losing to Arsenal due to a controversial last-minute goal.
“We need to pick ourselves up. It’s a massive game next weekend and hopefully we can get some points from that. This was definitely our worst game of the season. It’s tough to take but this is football and we have to keep going. We also need to learn from our mistakes.
We know what we did wrong and we just need to fix that and hopefully we will be all right next weekend. But we have shown against good teams we can play really well, so we will do that next weekend, definitely,” Johann Gudmundsson .
City are third in the table on 27 points, 13 ahead of 12th-placed Burnley after 12 games going into today’s encounter.
