No games on the schedule this weekend in the Premier League but it certainly is not quiet in the Premiership.
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From Sean Dyche joining Everton in hopes of avoiding relegation to Liverpool and Chelsea battling to stay relevant for European competitions to FA Cup matchup predictions and bets this weekend, Jay Croucher (@croucherJD) and Brad Thomas (@MrBradThomas) sat and discussed all with talkSPORT’s Tom Rennie (@thomasjrennie) at the NBC Sports Soccer Pub.
Crisis Averted in Everton?
On all things Everton, Croucher spoke of the insipid performance of the club against West Ham in “El Sackico” to which Rennie responded, “It’s a total mess at Everton…something like nine managers in nine years. A great drinking game is try to name those nine managers in order. Just try it. Its incredible.”
On Everton’s hire of Sean Dyche, Rennie offered hope for fans: “Sean Dyche is a guy who can organize a team. Sean Dyche is a guy who can play better football than we give him credit for and there’s nothing wrong with playing 4-4-2 football as well.”
When asked what it would take to stay in the league, Rennie sarcastically remarked, “There’s a bunch of teams that could go down. You just have to be really bad to stay in the league and I think they (Everton) can do that.”
Top of the Table Set?
Later, the trio discussed the top of the table. Rennie does not believe the Top Four are set. “I think its going to be wild this year at the top of the table. I think the only guarantees I would make are the Top Two are going to be the Top Two.”
(Latest: Premier League Table in Full)
Dissecting the Table from there, Rennie ripped off commentary on the contenders for spots three through five in the standings. “You look at Newcastle United…you simply do not score against Newcastle…There are still issues there at Man United which make me doubt them…There’s so much wrong at Tottenham Hotspur…. I think Brighton’ll fall away…Fulham may have peaked for the season…On Brentford, I could see them dropping once they get to 40 points…I wouldn’t fancy Liverpool because I think they need massive reinvestment and its not coming…If any team out of that group can make a run for it, Chelsea would be my pick.”
To close out this week’s episode, Croucher and Thomas laid out their top plays for the weekend. Thomas likes Brighton and Liverpool in the FA Cup to both score and Over 2.5 goals while Croucher likes Brighton to finish in the Top 6 in the Premier League.
