Premier League Predictions, Week 16

Welcome back to the weekly predictions, Premier League fans! The group stages of the Champions League and Europa League came to a tasty conclusion this week, which means two things: no midweek Premier League action this week, but also, queue winter holiday Premier League fixture pileup madness supreme, presented by Progressive Insurance (tm)!

Last week, in my first jumbo-sized prediction piece of the year, I did a pretty poor job, to be honest. Sure, I was right about Chelsea and Manchester City's wins over Watford, City's win over Aston Villa, and Liverpool's win over Wolves (just barely, though). But my lack of faith in Liverpool against their rivals Everton came back to bite me, as did my lack of confidence in West Ham's ability to upset Chelsea, and my overconfidence in Arsenal, who won 0 points on the week compared to my projected 4. All in all, I played out a 4/8 week, which brings my season total to 33.5/58. If that looks slightly better than last week, your eyes are playing tricks on you. My season percentage has dropped to 57% to date, sadly.

But, the matches have actually already kicked back off, so let's not waste any more time being nattering nabobs of negativity. Here are your 5 for Week 16!

Manchester City vs. Wolverhampton Wanderers

Wolves came achingly close to a massive point against Liverpool, but the truth is, said point would have belied the fact that they seem to have slowly been losing steam of late, with just 5 points from their last 15. A big part of that is having trouble finding the net; they've scored just one goal since the start of November. On the flip side, defensive play is stout-- they were one minute away from being the first team in any competition to hold Liverpool scoreless this season --but Manchester City represent nearly as much an attacking threat as Liverpool did, and unlike the Reds, City will have a home crowd at their backs and a consistently reliable midfield in support.

The Pick: Manchester City, 2-0

Chelsea vs. Leeds United

Chelsea's season thus far has been a weird one; it's been almost entirely great, but the couple bad weeks they've had all year have been BAD weeks. Case in point, for the second time this year, they dropped crucial points in the Premier League and Champions League in a span of a few days, following up their stunning collapse at West Ham last Saturday by conceding a last-minute equalizer to Zenit St. Petersburg, allowing Juventus to jump ahead and clinch 1st place in their Champions League group. There's plenty of football to play, and the Blues are still just a couple points out of first place, but in a year such as this, which seems poised for a wire-to-wire title race, every point lost feels massive. Fortunately for them, they've got a good opponent to launch their bounceback efforts against this weekend. Even the high-flying Leeds of last season would struggle against this vaunted Chelsea back line, and Bielsa's men have looked a shell of themselves in attack this season.

The Pick: Chelsea, 2-0

Liverpool vs. Aston Villa

There's no question the chief storyline about this matchup will be more centered around the touchline rather than on the pitch, as Liverpool icon Steven Gerrard makes his return to Anfield, albeit as manager of Aston Villa. However, the action on the pitch is worth the price of admission as well; Liverpool have been on an absolute tear since the last international break, winning 6 matches out of 6 in all competitions, and until that thriller at Wolverhampton, none were even close. Villa, though, have shown marked improvement in Gerrard's early tenure, having notched 3 wins out of 4-- and the sole loss being a competitive one against Manchester City --and quietly playing themselves back into the top half of the table. When these two met last year at Anfield, Aston Villa took an early lead and hung on to it for most of the match, forcing Liverpool to fight back in the second half and ultimately rely on a world-class stoppage-time winner from Trent Alexander-Arnold. Don't be surprised by a similar match this time around. I'm going with a Liverpool win, but I expect a dogfight to the end.

The Pick: Liverpool, 2-1

Norwich City vs. Manchester United

Manchester United has for the most part gotten the "new manager bounce" the fans and ownership alike were hoping for. Under caretaker manager Michael Carrick and now interim manager Ralf Rangnick, they're undefeated in 5 matches in all competitions, a stretch that included a resurgent Arsenal side and road matches at Chelsea and Villarreal. Norwich were riding a new manager bounce of their own, having gone undefeated in 3 after the appointment of Dean Smith, but were brought back to earth with a 3-0 drubbing at Tottenham last weekend. United have been a difficult team to count on this season, but surely you can count on a win against the last-placed team, right?

The Pick: Man United, 3-0

Burnley vs. West Ham United

Just when everybody thought West Ham's time in the limelight was done, Moyes' Boys pulled the king of all rabbits out of their hat. They had followed their thrilling victory over Liverpool with 1 point from 9, but with the league leaders Chelsea paying a visit, didn't miss out on the chance to notch another huge victory, and won yet another 3-2 thriller over a title contender. It's been a fantastic, albeit somewhat choppy, season for West Ham, and they're deservedly favored in this particular matchup. And yet? I haven't been impressed with the way they've responded to potentially season-altering victories this year, and Burnley seems like the epitome of a 'trap game' opponent, particularly when they're trying to scrap their way out of the relegation zone. I think the Clarets pull off a stunner.

The Pick: Burnley, 2-1