English Premier League Fixtures, Previews, Picks: And The Club Game Comes To Restore Sanity To Our World

At the beginning of the season, few would have guessed that Bolton would sit just three points Behind Manchester City heading into December, but that is the case. The Trotters have been a surprise team in the Premier League this season, notching 23 points from 15 matches with a chance to jump City if they can manage three points at City of Manchester Stadium. The Citizens are sitting on 26 points, good for fourth in the table, and trail the league-leaders, Manchester United, by five points, but they are holding onto the final Champions League place by a single point.

Bolton heads to Manchester fresh off of a fantastic month of November in which they did not lose any of their five matches and Owen Coyle won Manager of the Month honors for his efforts. Coyle has remade Bolton in his short time there and have them flying, although a 2-2 draw to Blackpool last week can only be viewed as disappointing. Nonetheless, the Trotters are in good shape and haven’t just meandered their way up the table, but have looked like they belong. A win at City would be a step in proving that Bolton’s start of the season is no fluke.

If Spurs are going to make their way into the top four and secure a spot in the Champions League, they will have to find a way to get points from teams down in the table. Already this season Spurs have been beaten by West Ham and Wigan, while managing just one point at home versus West Brom. While Tottenham has done well to come up with victories over Inter Milan, Arsenal and Liverpool that many will remember for years, any hopes of challenging the top of the table rest on their ability to win the matches they should win. St. Andrews isn’t an easy place to come away with three points, but the top teams figure out a way to win matches like this.

Battle Within The Battle: Who can win the 90th minute? In the last four matches and five of the last six matches between Tottenham and Birmingham there has been a 90th minute goal. If that trend continues, who will have the spry legs and wherewithal to capitalize? Neither Spurs nor the Blues have done a very good job putting opposing teams away in league so odds are this match is close late and a 90th minute goal changes who comes away with what points.

It’s the match of the weekend, so say us: Bolton visiting Manchester City. Beyond a clash of fourth (City) versus sixth, it’s a stylistic, philosophical, even financial battle. There may be no more important match in world football than ... this one I’m getting completely carried away about. Pull back my delusions and this is still the English Premier League’s most exciting match.

Danny Pugsley over at Bitter and Blue, SB Nation’s Manchester City blog, realizes the dangers, calling Saturday’s match “potentially tricky.” But for Pugsley, recent history is on City’s side:

Due to freezing weather, Saturday’s English Premier League fixture between Blackpool and Manchester United has been postponed. Blackpool F.C.‘s staff had attempted to get the pitch ready for play, but they were unsuccessful. Bloomfield Road, Blackpool’s ground, does not have under soil heating.

A statement on the club’s website reads as follows:

For everybody outside of Russia and Qatar, Thursday had to be a trying day, whether you were vexed with confusion or made sullen by disappointment. As a means of moving on, consider FIFA’s announcements a foil for the coming English Premier League action - a characterization which will help illuminate the virtues of this weekend’s fixtures. In this case, Thursday’s hullabaloo foils not only the Premier League but club football in general, with its unwavering presence, dependable quality, and quick turnaround. Your disappointments have a chance to be erased within days.

It’s your favorite comforter, just back from the cleaners. The overbearing stress of the nationalism that periodically consumes our sport? That’s the work day from which we come home, disillusioned into dependence on 30 Rock, Chicago-style pizza, The Daily Show before bed, and our comforter. After the weight of Thursday’s news pressing against my frontal lobe since mid-morning, give me that comforter. Give me my club football.