In a week, there are two big games in the Serie A. And the first one is between Milan and Roma in San Siro. This is one of the toughest games for Milan in the league. They played against Napoli short time ago here and lost it by 1-0. It was really interesting to see them struggling to score even one goal against Napoli in that one. But I don't expect same thing to happen again. Roma are an unpredictable team especially after witnessing their 4-1 win against Atalanta away. But I think that Milan will be able to defeat Roma by one goal and won't let Inter pull away more.

It is so unfortunate for Chelsea as they drew with Brighton by 1-1. But this is absolutely Chelsea's fault. Because they couldn't manage to score their second goal. And Brighton had always a silver lining to equalize the score. And the equalizer came very late that Chelsea couldn't even react to it properly. Welbeck saved one point for his team with a nice goal that Mendy couldn't even react to the header.

Chelsea and Manchester City both are leading their games by 1-0 now. It was the expected thing from them to dominate those games. I don't think that any of them will lose points. Chelsea have a big chance in front of them to leave Liverpool behind in the standings and have a three-point difference also. And Manchester City have another big chance to widen the point difference with Liverpool more.

I believe that Dortmund should do their best to win the Europa League championship. Because they won't most probably be winning the Bundesliga championship this season as they already are far away from Bayern Munich in the standings now. But they should at least thrive for winning a championship in this season. Maybe they don't need the title of this tournament as they would join the Champions League by ending the season at a decent position in the Bundesliga. But it is worse for them if they end it without any title.

There are two days for the next week to start. And the first game is Valencia - Espanyol. Espanyol are facing serious problems right now. Because there are many players who have got covid-19. This might even lead the game to be postponed. But if it doesn't, then I think that Valencia have a big chance to win ahead of them. They are already on the rise now and have a winning streak. This would be another addition to their streak. I really like Valencia in this season. But we will see if they will keep their effort at this level to the end.

1. Sheffield Utd  - over - 2:1
2. Blackpool  - over - 2:1
3. Coventry  - over - 2:1
4. Bristol City  - over - 2:1
5. Birmingham - over - 2:1
6. Blackburn - over - 2:1
7. West Brom  - over - 2:1
8. Nottingham  - over - 2:1
9. Reading - over - 2:1
10. Stoke - over - 2:1
11. Swansea  - over - 2:1
12. Bournemouth - over - 2:1


Sportsbet username: mkakil23

As the transfer window is really close now, the most speculated transfer is Haaland's of course. But honestly, I don't have any expectation like he would leave in January already. If I was to decide his future, I would have definitely wanted him to leave already now. Because he can't achieve anything with Dortmund obviously. There is no meaning in staying here for longer. But in next summer, I'm pretty sure that he will be signed by Real Madrid together with Mbappe.

Liverpool made a fast start to the second half also. They want to win this game so bad and Leicester are really having a big problem on fighting back against them. So far, Liverpool managed to supress them very nicely. But they still can't score at least one goal. It was really unfortunate in the first half that Salah missed the penalty and couldn't finish it right after that as the ball bounced off the goal post. But maybe he could score the winning goal.

It has been a competitive season for some of the clubs at top positions in the league standings. I don't include PSG of course as they have already guaranteed their Ligue 1 championship logically I think. I see that there is no way any other club can close the gap with PSG and reach the title. PSG lost their title chance by a close call in the last season. So, I don't expect them to let it happen again consecutively. They have already started focusing more on the Champions League I think.

While I was waiting for Real Sociedad to stay in the competition for the title, Betis and Vallecano started to be at the forefront recently. Real Sociedad started to lose strength recently and they lost so many games. Betis and Vallecano benefited from this in a very nice way. Now, we are seeing Betis at the 3rd position and Vallecano right behind them. Maybe these teams won't be able to fight really hard for the title. But even one of them could make it to the Champions League groups directly if they maintain this level.

Game 1:  6' 3-1 Manchester City
Game 2:  6' 2-0 Southampton

Manchester United just can't show their real power in this game. They have just scored the equalizer finally thanks to Cavani. He entered the game at the beginning of the second half and they increased their chance of scoring a goal. But until this point, Newcastle really did a great job by keeping Manchester United at the level they wanted. Even though they are one of the worst teams now, they still fight back really well. We will see what Manchester United will do in the remaining minutes. But even they win somehow, I'm indicating it once more that I'm not contented with their performance absolutely.

Mundo Deportivo indicates that the Manchester City right winger Ferran Torres is too close to signing a deal with Barcelona. He is going to have a medical on Monday and then he is going to complete this deal. We have known already that he had a high probability of being transferred by Barcelona in January. It looks like this will get real. However, Barcelona will need to pay a great sum to sign him. I don't know if it is the right thing to do by pouring that much money only for him. He is a promising player though but I'm having second thoughts.

https://www.mundodeportivo.com/futbol/fc-barcelona/20211226/1001729777/fichaje-ferran-torres-barca-sera-oficial-lunes.html

Lewandowski is a really special striker for Bayern Munich and for football history also. He has had a very big role in Bayern Munich's championships so far. And it is even more fascinating that Bayern Munich are not a team that are depending highly on Lewandowski. They are performing superbly as a team. Even in the absence of Lewandowski, they still don't let their system shatter. Against a team like this, all the other teams in the league have a low chance.

And we have the last game between Newcastle and Manchester United in less than two hours. Manchester United are the absolute favourite side of this game undoubtedly. Manchester United have more games missing than Newcastle now. But I don't expect this situation to change anything for Manchester United in a comfortable game like this. They have been on the rise and they should be able to maintain this here.

It is rumoured that Manchester United are targeting the Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Florian Wirtz. He is only 18 years old now and he is a very promising attacking midfielder I believe. His market value is already 70 million euros now and he has a contract running until June 30, 2026. So far, he had 8 goals and 11 assists in total in 20 games. He is called as "the next Kai Havertz". But he is capable of being more than Havertz in the future.

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1540403/Man-Utd-transfer-news-Ralf-Rangnick-Kai-Havertz-Florian-Wirtz-70m-Premier-League

What a superb day for Manchester City and Arsenal especially! Because they obtained really perfect victories today against Leicester and Norwich respectively. In fact, Manchester City finished their opponent in the first half already by bringing the score to 4-0. However, Leicester were in no intention to give up and the second half was just something very special. They scored three consecutive goals in ten minutes (55', 59', 65'). And suddenly, it was 4-3! But I really admire Manchester City's calmness that they still scored two more goals and won by 6-3.

And Arsenal had a great game against Norwich. In this away game for them, they had everything under control in the first and second half both. And they obliterated Norwich by 5-0. Now, Arsenal have a winning streak of four games in the Premier League.

I agree that Milan are weaker in their defense now because of Kjaer's serious injury. But I believe that they are still strong enough to keep up with Inter and fight for the Serie A title to the end. Because Milan are really good at especially in their attacking side. Their effectiveness in attacking would help them score more than they concede most of the time. This is another big chance for Milan in terms of the league title. We will see if they'll mess it up again.

The Bundesliga is not boring in terms of the quality of each game we have. It is just boring in terms of the champion team. Because Bayern Munich are just dominating the league every year and this makes people really annoyed. I still enjoy watching so many games because of the fierce rivalries. But as for the title winner, it is just the same all the time. There are still no team that can put up a really good fight against Bayern Munich and end their dominance.

It is really fearsome that Inter are already in a very advantageous condition in the league standings now. By saying "fearsome", I meant that I'm afraid of the possibility that the competition level for the Serie A title can go down much earlier than I hoped. Maybe Milan would manage to keep up with them for so many weeks but we might see a competition only between these two teams. In fact, I want a competition among at least three teams for the title. And for the third team, the most probable candidate is Napoli. But they started to screw things up for themselves recently.