Shay Says - Episode 18
Welcome to Shay Says, the latest football betting blog from LeoVegas’ Irish ambassador, Shay Given.
This week, the Republic of Ireland and Premier League legend previews three more big fixtures from the Premier League.
Let’s see what Shay Says!
Manchester City v Leeds United
Every game will feel like a cup final for Manchester City at the minute. They beat West Ham on Wednesday and now host Leeds on Saturday – both games are huge if they want to win the title.
There’s a lot of games to be played and anything can happen in sport, but they’re definitely looking good – let’s put it that way! They’re currently having a brilliant season, but it could be an unbelievable season if they pull the treble off.
I don’t think the Champions League fixtures will affect them – they’ve been in this stage of the competition for a while now and are accustomed to playing games every three or four days.
If anyone can keep Leeds up, Sam Allardyce can! Perhaps the bigger questions should be whether they should have got him in when they sacked Jesse Marsch so he could have been afforded more time.
One month is a very short period of time, and you couldn’t ask for a tougher first game than Manchester City away.
He’ll make them hard to beat and difficult to score against, which is what you need to do to have any chance of surviving.
I’m going to go with 2-1 to Manchester City – I think they’ll likely be too strong for them – with perhaps Ilkay Gundogan getting on the scoresheet.
SHAY SAYS: MANCHESTER CITY 2-1 LEEDS UNITED
Newcastle v Arsenal
Newcastle had a bit of a blip around the time of the League Cup Final, but Eddie Howe must have sat them down and said that they could use it as a restart for the rest of the season.
They’ve shown in recent weeks that they’re not up there by luck – they deserve to quality for the Champions League if they get there.
The team spirit looks brilliant and they’ll want to finish the season on a high, so great credit to the staff and the players for turning it around.
Arsenal played well against Chelsea and were back in the goals. Mikel Arteta spoke honestly about the Manchester City game and would have told the players to try and forget about it, and to try and finish the season on a high.
They remain a quality team and just need to continue doing what they’ve been doing, and hope that City can slip up at some point.
I think Newcastle are going to sneak it by a goal – I’m going with 1-0, with Callum Wilson grabbing the only goal.
SHAY SAYS: NEWCASTLE 1-0 ARSENAL
West Ham v Manchester United
West Ham are definitely still in danger of going down. The message from David Moyes will be that they need one more victory from their remaining games – I think 37 points will be enough to stay up.
This game has always had a lot of history and notable results, so the crowd will be optimistic that they can get three points here.
Manchester United will be wary about the likes of Liverpool and Brighton breathing down their necks as the season draws to a close.
They are firm favourites for finishing in the top four, but this will definitely be a tight game, so Erik ten Hag will demand 100% from his players.
I think West Ham just have enough to get a result here, so I’m going to go for a 1-1 draw, with Marcus Rashford getting on the scoresheet.
SHAY SAYS: WEST HAM 1-1 MANCHESTER UNITED
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