Opinion

West Ham are currently 7th in the standings, just one point behind Manchester United at the 5th position. However, this weekend the Hammers have a much easier task, as they welcome Sunderland, while United will be involved in a huge derby match against Arsenal.

Manchester United managed to turn the game around and qualify for the Europa League next round. The main man for the home side was the teenager Marcus Rashford, who made an impressive debut, scoring twice.

Manchester City’s went into last night’s Champions League last-16 clash with Dynamo Kiev in poor spirits after their domestic stutters of late. However, the Citizens secured a 3-1 win against the Ukrainians champions courtesy of goals from Sergi Aguero, David Silva and Yaya Toure.

Liverpool have a big few days coming up with a Europa League tie against Augsburg on Thursday night at Anfield and then the Capital One Cup final against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon.

With the end of the Championship campaign nearing, the teams in the top 6 contest must find their best form and make the final sprint towards the Premier League. That is exactly what Brighton are doing at the moment, winning 4 of their last 5 games and achieving a draw in the other against league leaders Hull City.

Everton are widely considered to be underachieving in the Premier League this season. Some inexplicable defeats this season has seen the Toffees drop out of contention for a top four and maybe even top six spot.

After the short winter break in the German Bundesliga, Mainz showed some improvement and achieved good results, winning three of their four games for 2016. Mainz currently occupy the 6th position, but are just 2 points behind the 3rd place and Champions League football.

Borussia Dortmund clearly dominated at Signal Iduna Park last night and 2:0 was the least Porto could get away with. If, Porto don’t improve for the rematch, they hardly have any chances to overcome a 2:0 lead against such an opponent.

Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi reached yet another landmark moment in his career scoring his 300th La Liga goal against Sporting Gijon in a 3-1 win on Wednesday evening. The Argentinian international was not happy with just 300 goals though, as he added a second goal, before Luis Suarez added a third goal in the second half.

Chelsea were defeated 2-1 by French champions PSG in the Champions League last 16 first leg on Wednesday night. Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani scored the winning goal on 78 minutes to give the Parisians a slight advantage for the second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Reigning Premier League champions Chelsea’s struggles this season have been well-documented, but this time they produced a dominant performance to defeat struggling Newcastle 5-1 at Stamford Bridge.

This Sunday, Tottenham managed a highly important away win in the title race. They are now just 2 points behind the first place, while Manchester City are losing positions, after 2 consecutive defeats by title contenders.

The Premier League round began with another huge disappointment for Manchester United, who deservedly lost their visit to Sunderland. The home side were inspired to win this game and are now just one point off safety, while for United a top four finish now seems rather questionable.

This weekend should see another plot-twist as the top four are pitted against each other, which could mean by Monday we have a completely new title race landscape.

Relegation-threatened Sunderland host Manchester United at the Stadium of Light in the Premier League early kick-off on Saturday.

According to the newspaper reports, former-Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho is set to join Manchester United on a three-year deal. United have struggled to find their best form under veteran Dutch boss Louis van Gaal and the Red Devils poor campaign could lead to the former-Netherlands boss being replaced.

Following three 3:0 consecutive wins, Everton are surely one of the good form teams in the Premier League. Their tactical discipline and good implementation of a 4-2-3-1 formation sees the team move in the top half of the table, 6 points behind a European football spot.

Liverpool went out of the FA Cup on Tuesday night, after being defeated 2-1 at West Ham in the fourth replay. In truth the Reds were not terrible, so the winning goal in stoppage-time of extra-time by Angelo Ogbonna was a kick in the teeth for the team from Merseyside.

Liverpool faces a tricky FA Cup fourth round replay at West Ham on Tuesday night. The first game was a pretty lifeless game that finished goalless. The result was not a major surprise considering that Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp decided to field a weakened team, largely due to an injury crisis.

Manchester United threw away a late lead to draw 1-1 with reigning champions Chelsea on Sunday, after Diego Costa scored a stoppage-time equaliser to rescue a point for the reigning Premier League champions.