FOOTBALL VIEWS

FRIDAY: SUNDERLAND V NOTTINGHAM FOREST Sunderland gave Villa a good game last weekend and could've won it had Diarra squared it for Talbi to tap home. The Black Cats still have a chance of reaching Europe as they're only four behind behind 6th placed Brighton and a win for them here will move them up to seventh because of Chelsea and not Bournemouth not playing. Forest have steadily been picking up points in recent weeks and their win last weekend over Burnley pretty much sec

The World Cup has witnessed many of the world's best midfielders light up the stage over the years and a lot of them have gone on to win the tournament itself. The role of a midfielder has changed immensely over the years as there are now different kind of midfielders in attacking, defensive and box-to-box midfielders and it was at the World Cup where we arguably first saw it change. The early years of the game had just all-round midfielders who would do a bit of everything a

TUESDAY: BRIGHTON V CHELSEA Brighton won the reverse fixture 3-1 back in September and also swept Chelsea aside 3-0 in this fixture last season. Fabian Hurzeler's side will no doubt be feeling confident of getting another win against them in this on and especially with the current form they're in compared to Chelsea. Chelsea have to win this game in order to keep their hopes of Champions League football alive as they now find themselves seven points outside those spots. Liam

Liam Rosenior is under pressure One win from their last six games, four defeats and no goals scored in their last four games and now seven points outside the Champions League places. These are not good reading for Chelsea and their manager Liam Rosenior has to be a man under pressure because of this. His reign got off to an encouraging start as he won his first four league games in charge and began to prove his doubters wrong alongside that. But he's won just one of his last

SATURDAY: BRENTFORD V FULHAM Brentford come into this game on a run of four straight draws and if they want to qualify for Europe, they need to start turning those draws into wins. Fulham are also pushing for Europe as they're only three points behind the Bees despite being 12th in the league. Marco Silva's side have won their last three games against the Bees including their 3-1 win in the reverse fixture which will give them a great of confidence heading into this game. Bre