Matchday 20/10/07

After a week of international football, it's back to epl again. This time, i have a feeling there may be a few surprises....

I'm not going to exactly say which teams are going to be in for a shock but international football will definitely take a toll on the conditions of players in bigger clubs. Travelling long distances results in jetlag. Playing for your own country is something u take pride in. These factors essentially require more commitment and focus than weekly club football so dun be alarmed to see bigger clubs like chelsea and liverpool suffer in this case.

This week i'm going for something bolder than usual. I'm backing birmingham to at least grab a point from city of manchester because the lack of international football in their squad will make them fresher compared to city's. The star performers for city (Elano, Petrov and Richards) have all played tough international games. Petrov full 90 mins in albania, elano long trip from brazil and of course, richards on the gruelling pitch in russia. These will adversely affect their performances coming tomorrow, so watch out for birmingham.

I also believe that liverpool will not take 3 points from everton(maybe 3 red cards will be a possibility). So i am going for another liverpool draw cos i always believe that boring teams are normally draw specialist. 1-1 for them.

And surely, villa will get whacked by man u.