1. Barcelona vs Getafe
This game is set to light up the La Liga this weekend with Barcelona play host to Getafe as they keep surprising everyone this season.
Barcelona lost their reign at the summit of the league to Real Madrid after a brief dip in form which they are now gradually shaking off as they now sit second.
Getafe, on the other hand, has actually punched beyond their weight already this season as their impressive and fantasy run in the league continues, sitting third at this point of the season will look to steal a show at the Camp Nou to further consolidate their position.
At home this season in 11 matches, Barcelona are yet to lose a game keeping a massive record of 10 wins and just one draw earning them 31 points from a possible 33 points.
Barcelona has found scoring come easily at home in their 11 games with an outrageous 37 goals and have conceded just 11 in the process.
Well, Getafe has not had major problems on the road this season, 5 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses is not utterly bad for a side that has surprised the whole of European football.
They will be hoping to finish the business end of the season strongly and see if they can nick a European football ticket in the end.
Getafe will present a proper threat to Barcelona as they are unbeaten in their last 4 matches, in fact, they have won the last 2 away games and will be looking to complete a hat-trick of away wins; there is no better way of doing that than beating Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
Note that Getafe’s last back-to-back victories came against two traditional Spanish sides – Valencia (3-0) and Athletic Bilbao (2-0) – so under-rate them at your own peril.
From Getafe 11 away games, they have scored 14 good goals and conceded 10 which is just one less than the amount Barcelona have conceded at home in the league.
Their last meeting saw Barcelona in September was won that made it 4 wins over Getafe in the last 5 match-ups, all of which Barcelona scored 2 goals, the only time Barcelona did not score was when they had their draw which ended barren.
Barcelona will be desperate for a win and Lionel Messi will also be anticipating towards finding his scoring boots again having not scored in the last 3 games, although he kept giving assists as he has done so in the last 3 games.
Barcelona defense will also need to keep a keen interest in fending off Jaime Mata of Getafe as he has been scoring the winning goals especially in the last 2 away games.
Effectively, Barcelona should win this game, though they could as well concede along the line hence making it an interesting game to look forward to.
2. Arsenal vs Newcastle
This is another game involving two sides that have been very very poor this season, more than Newcastle United, it has been damning on Arsenal that a lot of people expect them to be doing well after spending quite a lot in the last summer.
Both teams are floating in the middle of the table as Arsenal occupy the 10th position while Newcastle United stay in 12th but share something similar as they both have 31 points to show for those efforts this season.
From 25 rounds of games, Arsenal is the only team with the highest amount of drawn games with 13 so far managing only 6 victories and 6 draws.
The story at the Emirates, the home ground for Arsenal where this game will take place is not in any way different. All 12 games played there have seen more draws, 5 actually and 4 wins with 3 losses.
Their visitor is even in more precarious situations as they have found playing away this season to be a big challenge on its own.
Newcastle United have struggled to take just 11 points from a possible 36 points from their 12 away games making them the poorest sides in the league, by the virtue of that alone, they sit 15th position on the away standing league.
7 losses, 2 draws and 3 wins are all they have had away, although they have drawn the last 2 away league games to further continue their poor runs which has now seen them recorded only 1 win in the last 5 away matches.
Arsenal has the best chance to pounce on Newcastle like they always do, they are well-rested, well trained and hopefully would have sync even more into Mikel Arteta’s tactic with the few days they had in Dubai as part of their winter break.
Arsenal should continue their dominance over Newcastle as they are yet to lose to them in their 16 previous matches with Arsenal taking 13 solid wins, 2 draws and just one loss.
More importantly, Arsenal has won the last 7 matches between them when they play at home and have scored between 2-7 goals on 5 occasions in those meetings.
Arsenal is traveling 4 days after this match to honor a Europa League match at Olympiakos Piraeus; this might be the only hindrance that could likely play in their head as it serves them the sole realistic chance to get back into the elusive UEFA Champions League for next season.
Despite Arsenal’s poor runs, they have managed to score at home in all of their last 10 games except for the defeat of Manchester City. They have also conceded in 8 of those 10 matches; shockingly, they have only won 2, lost 4 and drawn 4.
Newcastle has conceded in all of their last 10 away games except 1 which was against Sheffield United. Both teams have scored also in 6 of those games. While Arsenal has also had both teams scoring in 7 of their last 10 home matches.
In a nutshell, Arsenal should be winning this game to escape the pressure coming from their fans for a while, expect both teams to score in this game and it will be very high scoring with goals between 2-4 expected. Find the best odds for betting on these games at NetBet.
