As our dreams simply line up to fade & die without so much as a whimper:PL games for 24 - 26 January.

[Mike Oxsaw]

Saturday, 24 January 2026 12:30
West Ham United v Sunderland
Venue: The London Stadium
League Positions: 18 v 7
Current Forms: 28 v 30

Do we really need this game? At the London Stadium? Abandon hope (from last week), all who enter here. Sunderland are spluttering a bit and will be looking to get back to winning ways. A game against West Ham is just what the doctor ordered. Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Nope, it's just Sullivan sporting an Aldi budget miner's lamp bringing the manager gifts he can't use...again. I'm tempted to be brave and go for a draw, but sadly:

Prediction: Away Win

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Saturday, 24 January 2026 14:00
Crystal Palace v Chelsea
Venue: Selhurst Park
League Positions: 13 v 6
Current Forms: 4 v 25

Chelsea scraped a win in Europe, which will buoy them coming into this game. Palace seem all over the place, both on & off the pitch and I think Chelsea will (just) have enough to see them off:

Prediction: Away Win

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Saturday, 24 January 2026 14:00
Newcastle United v Aston Villa
Venue: St James' Park
League Positions: 9 v 3
Current Forms: 23 v 21

The Toon Army thumped PSV earlier, and Villa also won by a less impressive scoreline, albeit away from home, as they find themselves again this weekend. The Villains really need the 3 points to help cement a CL spot next year. Newcastle also desperately need points on the table. A feisty:

Prediction: Draw

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Saturday, 24 January 2026 15:00
Burnley v Tottenham Hotspur
Venue: Turf Moor
League Positions: 19 v 14
Current Forms: 20 v 3

After the Lillywhites took out the Germans this week, what better way to ease themselves back into the bread & butter monotony of the Premier League than a trip to Burnley? And I didn't even say "Let's be frank!"........Damn! Damn! Blast & Blinkey-flip. I vow of silence on those words I held for 6 days. Might as well sing it from the rafters now.  Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la. However, what happens to the table if we lose and Burnley win doesn't bear thinking about. Don't believe that they will win, however, but neither will the mighty, mighty spurs:

Prediction: Draw

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Saturday, 24 January 2026 15:00
Fulham v Brighton & Hove Albion
Venue: Craven Cottage
League Positions: 11 v 12
Current Forms: 24 v 27

This has so much got "Draw" written all over it, I can't be arsed with adding any more.

Prediction: Draw

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Saturday, 24 January 2026 15:00
Manchester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Venue: The Etihad Stadium
League Positions: 2 v 20
Current Forms: 24 v 27

This should will be a fore-gone conclusion, even though Wolves managed 6 goals in their recent FA Cup game. City scored 10 (but got thoroughly rinsed by Manchester United last weekend). Notwithstanding all that twaddle, I really can't see Wolves doing much more than keeping the score reasonably respectable as they play for their pride.

Prediction: Home Win

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Saturday, 24 January 2026 16:30
Arsenal v Manchester United
Venue: Emirates Stadium
League Positions: 1 v 5
Current Forms: 31 v 21

I think we need Arsenal to lose this one, if only to keep the top of the table (a bit) more interesting. Manchester United will be buzzin' after their last outing, but Arsenal's European away win will not have done them much harm. Current form and home advantage suggests an Arsenal victory, but I'm not so sure:

Prediction: Draw

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Saturday, 24 January 2026 17:30
A. F. C. Bournemouth v Liverpool
Venue: Dean Court
League Positions: 15 v 4
Current Forms: 15 v 23

Looking at the stats, you'd put your house on Liverpool coming away with the spoils here. Might have to be your kid's Wendy House though as Liverpool are still blowing hot and cold, despite the fawning claims in the media. Bournemouth, though, still don't yet seem to enjoying a Cherry mo-jo.

Prediction: Away Win

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Sunday, 25 January 2026 14:00
Brentford v Nottingham Forest
Venue: Brentford Community Stadium
League Positions: 8 v 17
Current Forms: 28 v 14

That result in Europe won't have done Forest's self-belief any favours. Brentford seem to be bubbling along nicely on their way to cementing an upper-mid-table finish.

Prediction: Home Win

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Monday, 26 January 2026 20:00
Everton v Leeds United
Venue: The Hill Dickinson Stadium
League Positions: 10 v 16
Current Forms: 21 v 30

Leeds have the better current form but Everton have league position and home advantage to their, err, advantage. Is it too soon to ask that nice Mr. Moyes to do us another favour? Suspect such a request will fall on deaf ears, anyway.

Prediction: Draw

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Your very own, personal, copy & paste fixture list, brought to you at no expense whatsoever:

West Ham United v Sunderland -
Crystal Palace v Chelsea -
Newcastle United v Aston Villa -
Burnley v Tottenham Hotspur -
Fulham v Brighton & Hove Albion -
Manchester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers -
Arsenal v Manchester United -
A. F. C. Bournemouth v Liverpool -
Brentford v Nottingham Forest -
Everton v Leeds United -

---

My acca...don't snigger, Pearson.

Manchester City @ Home to Wolverhampton Wanderers 2/11)
Liverpool (Away @ A. F. C. Bournemouth 20/23)
Sunderland (Away @ West Ham United 15/8)
Brentford (@ Home to Nottingham Forest 19/20)

Total stake: £11.00
Potential returns: £62.69


 

[Tomshardware]

Lovely goal from Dorgu.  Arsenal looking very average.

[Tomshardware]

Flukey Arsenal goal.

[the exile]

Bit of a blow Forest winning. Anyone noticed, Palace are sinking like a stone.

[Leonard Hatred]

I fucking hate Brentford. 

Cunts.

[Takashi Miike]

it's surprising the way palace are letting their season slip away by hanging on to the want away cry baby glasner. maybe they're hoping he changes his mind if they win the conference trophy

[El Scorchio]

Ajer and Damsgard both off injured for Brentford. Terrific. 

[El Scorchio]

Brentford doing the same thing with goal kicks us and Sunderland were doing yesterday. Clearly a new trend but what’s behind it?

And FFS can they please win this game 

[Westham67]

Tend to agree with you Miike on the “hope vs prediction” idea.  A kind of cognitive dissonance” ?  

But I do have a respect for those with “faith” despite evidence to the contrary. West Ham makes me a proper old grimpy git whereas acpositive outlook probably the better approach psychologically even if dillusional?.

Im a miserable pessimist, or as I like to call it, “reluctant realist” when it comes to West Ham. There have been 5 or so seasons over the last 60 odd years following our club ( curse of grandad and whole family living in the East End ) where this pessimism lifted. Especially 85/86 when watching wach week from the North Bank, we all just kept thinking its all gonna “turn to sh*t” soon.  It actually took the next season and the usual “sit on yer laurels” recruitment and investment strategy to then fall back to where we usually sit and ultimately led to the end for John Lyall and Mick Mcgiven. 

Last Sat we won at Spurs in a game that over 2 halves was probably worth a draw. The effort and attitude was the improvement and working as a team and the win went our way. The opposite of the home games against Fulham, Brighton and Forest where I thought we were worth a draw but the margins (VAR etc ) led to narrow undeserved defeats.  

We struggle at home more as the onus is on us to take the game to teams as the home team. If they sit back, compact, in shape we have been hopeless at breaking teams down. We are better usually at home when the opposition comes at us more ( not always but the lesser teams I mean) and there is space for Summerville and Bowen etc.   The only thing that has changed really is having 2 grafters / runners up top willing to try and press and contest each duel. This puts pressure on the opposition defence, rushes them into passing etc and tends to lead to us regaining the ball but also means when under pressure we have an outball rather than it coming straight back.

The hope against Sunderland is higher than it perhaps should be because the Spurs win was unexpected and after 10 games without a win with us almost conpletely cut adrift.

We simply have to work as hard as last week and hope again this causes the marginal stuff to go our way. There is more chance than before but it is hope based, there is  no firm evidence as we have only put together back to back wins once in months.  

I think we are still so weak as a squad. We might be in front but once it gets to the 60 min mark and the effort put in catches up with the front 2 and in midfield, we have no one still to bring on. The fact is 3 weeks have gone without us addressing this too.  Sullivan not fully backing the manager. Yep he might not like all players via Mendes but he has to go with Nuno’s request at this point but his narcissism always kicks in and we see recruitment paralysis. 

Thanks for the dissertation, but most of our posters voted for a win

[Mex Martillo]

West Ham United v Sunderland - Home
Crystal Palace v Chelsea - Home
Newcastle United v Aston Villa - agree Draw
Burnley v Tottenham Hotspur - Home, ha ha ha 
Fulham v Brighton & Hove Albion - Home
Manchester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers - agree Home
Arsenal v Manchester United - Away
A. F. C. Bournemouth v Liverpool - agree Away
Brentford v Nottingham Forest - agree Home
Everton v Leeds United - Draw

copy paste fixture list is a winner, inspired development!
Thanks Mike

[cheesebgt]

West Ham United v Sunderland - Draw
Crystal Palace v Chelsea - Away
Newcastle United v Aston Villa - Draw
Burnley v Tottenham Hotspur - Away
Fulham v Brighton & Hove Albion - Home
Manchester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Home
Arsenal v Manchester United - Home
A. F. C. Bournemouth v Liverpool - Away
Brentford v Nottingham Forest - Home
Everton v Leeds United - Home

[honky cat]

West Ham United v Sunderland: Home
Crystal Palace v Chelsea: Away
Newcastle United v Aston Villa: Away
Burnley v Tottenham Hotspur: Home
Fulham v Brighton & Hove Albion: home
Manchester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers: Home
Arsenal v Manchester United: Away
A. F. C. Bournemouth v Liverpool: Draw
Brentford v Nottingham Forest: Draw 
Everton v Leeds United: Draw

​​​​​​For all our efforts, i do think the other results will go against us . . .

[Sweep]

West Ham United v Sunderland - DRAW
Crystal Palace v Chelsea - AWAY WIN
Newcastle United v Aston Villa - HOME WIN
Burnley v Tottenham Hotspur - HOME WIN
Fulham v Brighton & Hove Albion - HOME WIN
Manchester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers - DRAW
Arsenal v Manchester United - AWAY WIN
A. F. C. Bournemouth v Liverpool - AWAY WIN
Brentford v Nottingham Forest - HOME WIN
Everton v Leeds United - HOME WIN

[Sir Alf]

Tend to agree with you Miike on the “hope vs prediction” idea.  A kind of cognitive dissonance” ?  

But I do have a respect for those with “faith” despite evidence to the contrary. West Ham makes me a proper old grimpy git whereas acpositive outlook probably the better approach psychologically even if dillusional?.

Im a miserable pessimist, or as I like to call it, “reluctant realist” when it comes to West Ham. There have been 5 or so seasons over the last 60 odd years following our club ( curse of grandad and whole family living in the East End ) where this pessimism lifted. Especially 85/86 when watching wach week from the North Bank, we all just kept thinking its all gonna “turn to sh*t” soon.  It actually took the next season and the usual “sit on yer laurels” recruitment and investment strategy to then fall back to where we usually sit and ultimately led to the end for John Lyall and Mick Mcgiven. 

Last Sat we won at Spurs in a game that over 2 halves was probably worth a draw. The effort and attitude was the improvement and working as a team and the win went our way. The opposite of the home games against Fulham, Brighton and Forest where I thought we were worth a draw but the margins (VAR etc ) led to narrow undeserved defeats.  

We struggle at home more as the onus is on us to take the game to teams as the home team. If they sit back, compact, in shape we have been hopeless at breaking teams down. We are better usually at home when the opposition comes at us more ( not always but the lesser teams I mean) and there is space for Summerville and Bowen etc.   The only thing that has changed really is having 2 grafters / runners up top willing to try and press and contest each duel. This puts pressure on the opposition defence, rushes them into passing etc and tends to lead to us regaining the ball but also means when under pressure we have an outball rather than it coming straight back.

The hope against Sunderland is higher than it perhaps should be because the Spurs win was unexpected and after 10 games without a win with us almost conpletely cut adrift.

We simply have to work as hard as last week and hope again this causes the marginal stuff to go our way. There is more chance than before but it is hope based, there is  no firm evidence as we have only put together back to back wins once in months.  

I think we are still so weak as a squad. We might be in front but once it gets to the 60 min mark and the effort put in catches up with the front 2 and in midfield, we have no one still to bring on. The fact is 3 weeks have gone without us addressing this too.  Sullivan not fully backing the manager. Yep he might not like all players via Mendes but he has to go with Nuno’s request at this point but his narcissism always kicks in and we see recruitment paralysis. 

[Westham67]

I cut and pasted Mad Ferret becuse I agree, Tatty to shine Pablo to find his feet and score

West Ham United v Sunderland: Home 
Crystal Palace v Chelsea: Away
Newcastle United v Aston Villa: Home
Burnley v Tottenham Hotspur: Away
Fulham v Brighton & Hove Albion: Draw
Manchester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers: Home
Arsenal v Manchester United: Home
A. F. C. Bournemouth v Liverpool: Away
Brentford v Nottingham Forest: Draw
Everton v Leeds United: Home

[Mike Oxsaw]

Oxsaw predicts a defeat, very predictable.

If Nuno sticks with last weeks line up, maybe Diouf for Scarles, then we will win.

Only in the mind of an imbecile are hope and prediction interchangeable. They're not even remotely similar.

Nobody is stopping other posters from posting up a thread of hopes each week to counter my predictions - you never know, it may become WHO Gold.

[twoleftfeet]

Oxsaw predicts a defeat, very predictable.

If Nuno sticks with last weeks line up, maybe Diouf for Scarles, then we will win.

[Sir Alf]

Not predicting a positive result for West Ham these last few seasons and especially this is perhaps better termed “The cսnt always predicts an accurate WHU result”

[Mad Ferret]

You clearly want 'us' to lose, but fancy you will be disappointed and fuck up your acca.

The cսnt never predicts a positive WHU result.

[El Scorchio]

Home win just because it has to be. And I am sure we will keep getting strung along with hope until right at the end of the season. 

[Mad Ferret]

West Ham United v Sunderland: Home 
Crystal Palace v Chelsea: Away
Newcastle United v Aston Villa: Home
Burnley v Tottenham Hotspur: Away
Fulham v Brighton & Hove Albion: Draw
Manchester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers: Home
Arsenal v Manchester United: Home
A. F. C. Bournemouth v Liverpool: Away
Brentford v Nottingham Forest: Draw
Everton v Leeds United: Home

[Manuel]

You clearly want 'us' to lose, but fancy you will be disappointed and fuck up your acca.