League leaders Celtic will travel to Edinburgh on Sunday as they are hosted by Hibs at Easter Road. Can the Hoops keep a hold of their lead?
Hibs finally got back to their winning ways last weekend after two months of misery in which the Hibees were only able to achieve draws and suffer several defeats.
The club’s season got off to a hectic start, albeit a positive one. Neil Lennon’s side fought hard to retain some consistency during their performances, as many of their games saw vast amounts of goals, both for and against. Their goal-filled games saw them climb all the way to second place in the league, just behind city rivals Hearts. However, something changed at the start of October following Hibs’ 6-0 thrashing of Hamilton.
The Hibees would embark on a winless run that lasted a huge 7 games in the span of two months. This bad form included some equally bad results, such as defeats to Celtic, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock. Their most recent fixture saw them finally break away from their bad spell, beating Hamilton narrowly by 1-0 thanks to an Oli Shaw goal 65 minutes into the game.
Hibs have dropped down into the lower half of the league and they now find themselves four points off Aberdeen who currently hold the sixth-place position.
Celtic’s week ended on an absolute high, as the club managed to qualify for the next stage of the Europa League. It wasn’t the easiest path for the reigning champions, but thanks to a late equliser from Roseborg in their game against RB Leipzig, Celtic finished runners-up in their group- despite being beaten 2-1 at home to Salzburg.
It was an underwhelming performance by Brendan Rodgers side, and far from the team that has been dominating so much throughout the last couple of months in all competitions, including the Europa League. The Hoops only needed a draw to progress, and the hosts did exceptionally well at keeping a cleansheet, even if there were a number of times that Salzburg could have opened the score. But Moanes Dabour’s 67th minute strike silenced the stadium, and Celtic now needed a goal no matter what.
Celtic pushed for a goal but struggled to do so, and their night was summed up after Craig Gordon gifted the ball to Gulbrandsen with less than 15 minutes to go and the Salzburg player tucked it away.
Olivier Ntcham pulled one back for Celtic in the last minutes of the game, but by that point the stadium was rocking once again as news of a Rosenborg goal echoed throughout the stands.
New Southampton manager Ralph Hassenhuttl certainly has a job on his hands. The former RB Leipzig coach took charge of his first game at his new club last weekend as they paid a visit to fellow relegation battlers Cardiff, but despite the new hand at the tiller it was the same old Southampton in Wales.
They lost that game 1-0, following on from their 3-1 defeat at Spurs to make it 12 Premier League games without a win. That 2-0 win over Crystal Palace was their only league victory of the season, and with 9 defeats from their 16 games they find themselves down in 19th place and only ahead of Fulham on goal difference.
There doesn’t look to be much hope for them this weekend either, because they’re facing an Arsenal side who look reborn under Unai Emery this season. The Gunners lost their opening 2 league matches against Manchester City and Chelsea, but since then it’s been a blinding success.
Arsenal rounded off their Europa League group stage campaign with yet another win in midweek, and that 1-0 success over Qarabag extends their unbeaten run to an incredible 22 matches in all competitions. 14 of these have been in the Premier League, a record which has put them well in the running for a top 4 spot this season.
Currently, they lie just outside the top 4, trailing Chelsea on goal difference and behind North London rivals Tottenham by a 2 point margin. The Gunners may be rank outsiders for a title challenge this season, but it’s a massive step in the right direction for them.
The visitors have won 4 of their last 6 Premier League away games, and they’re facing a Saints side who are yet to win a home league game this season. In fact, Southampton have won just 1 of their last 18 Premier League matches at St Mary’s, and they have only won 2 of their last 17 Premier League meetings with Arsenal.
Heerenveen sit eighth in the table following their impressive 5-1 win at Willem II last weekend, but remain five points and four places behind Sunday’s guests Utrecht. The visitors beat high flying Heracles 3-1 and in the process leapfrogged them into fourth spot in the Eredivisie. We’re expecting goals when Heerenveen host Utrecht on Sunday as this fixture has done for the passed three seasons without fail.
Mihajlović handed Heerenveen a fifteenth minute lead away at Willem II, but the hosts responded just two minutes later through Akkaynak to make it 1-1. A Rienstra penalty late in the half would ensure Heerenveen went in at the break with a one goal advantage, and the visitors killed off their hosts in the opening twenty minutes of the second half. Valp made it 3-1 in the fifty-third minute and van Bergen helped himself to a brace to help wrap up a fantastic attacking display from Heerenveen with twenty-five minutes of the match remaining.
Utrecht destroyed Heracles in the opening twenty minutes of their encounter last weekend, with Simon Gustafson breaking the deadlock from the penalty spot after just four minutes. Two goals in the space of sixty-seconds ended any hopes of a comeback for Heracles, as goal from Kerk and Emanuelson made it 3-0 to the hosts. The visitors were able to pull a goal back with fifteen minutes left on the clock, but Rossmann’s strike was no more than a consolation as Heracles endured their fifth defeat in six matches.
These two teams met at the end of last season in the Play-Offs’s to decide who would enter the Europa League. After losing 4-3 in Heerenveen, Utrecht managed a 2-1 win in their own backyard which saw them progress on the away goals rule. Strieder scored the only goal of the first half for Utrecht, and the hosts doubled that advantage shortly before the hour mark through van der Maarel. Rojas pulled a goal back for Heerenveen to setup a very tense final twelve minutes of the match, but Utrecht held on to claim their aggregate victory.
Both teams have been playing some good football or late and that is reflected in their results, but its Utrecht that claim the title of form favourites after they picked up four wins, one draw, and one defeat from their last six matches. Vlap top scores for the hosts with seven Eredivisie goals this season, but teammate Lammers is just one goal behind on six. Gustafson has scored four league goals for Utrecht this season, three from the penalty spot, while Emanuelson, Janssen, Kerk, and van de Streek have all chipped in with three goals.
Sevilla will be looking to keep pace with Barcelona at the top of La Liga this Sunday as they entertain Girona at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. It has been a decent week for the Andalusian side but they take on a Girona side that is also enjoying a great season and has been getting results in tough away games.
Indeed the Catalan club were unbeaten away heading into Monday night’s trip to Athletic Bilbao but La Liga’s only remaining unbeaten away record went as the Basques scored a stoppage time penalty to seal a 1-0 win. Girona could have gone 5th had they won that match and overall things are going well under Eusebio, although they have ridden their luck at times and remain dependent on Cristhian Stuani for goals, with the Uruguayan having netted 65% of his team’s total.
Sevilla have been sharing the goals around a bit better and it was Wissam Ben Yedder who was the hero in midweek. He scored twice in the opening 10 minutes to set Sevilla up for victory in a decisive final Europa League group game against Krasnodar. That ensured progress in Europe but Sevilla will still be wondering how they failed to win at Valencia last weekend with the visitors spurning several good chances before letting in an injury time leveller.
This game will see Pablo Machin come up against the side he left to join Sevilla in the summer and he has reason to expect the three points. Girona aren’t quite as good as their results suggest in truth and the fact they’ve only created 1.16 expected goals in La Liga this term but conceded 1.7 suggests they have been a little fortunate at times. They were second best against struggling Athletic last time out, conceding 2.95 expected goals whilst creating precious little themselves.
Sevilla have players with the finishing qualities to better exploit a Girona side that is short on numbers right now with numerous injury problems. Sevilla have a few absentees too but they have a much bigger squad and have been juggling the demands of European and domestic action pretty well. They’ve been very solid at home again, winning 71% of their home games in La Liga and it’s now 9 straight victories at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan for Sevilla in all competitions.