London Soccer Shorts…

Friday, October 27

Premier League

Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur – Selhurst Park

Roy Hodgson has several injury concerns ahead of Crystal Palace’s capital derby with table-topping Tottenham at Selhurst Park.

Palace looks likely to be without Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze, Nathan Ferguson, James Tomkins, Dean Henderson, and Jeffrey Schlupp against the unbeaten Lilywhites.

Ange Postecoglou has Yves Bissouma available following his one-match ban. Tottenham’s 2-0 victory over Fulham on Monday night was their sixth from eight games in the Premier League. Another three points in South London will extend their lead over Manchester City to five points ahead of the weekend’s games.

Saturday, October 28

Premier League

Chelsea v Brentford – Stamford Bridge

Brentford faces a tough task enhancing their excellent recent record against local rivals Chelsea.

The Bees have won both of their Premier League meetings with the Blues at Stamford Bridge and indeed, have remained unbeaten in each of their last twelve London derby fixtures.

However, Chelsea has shown great improvement of late, picking up seven points from a possible nine following victories over Fulham and Burnley followed by a pulsating draw with Arsenal.

Arsenal v Sheffield United – The Emirates Stadium

Mikel Arteta will be without striker Jesus after teh player picked up a hamstring injury during the Gunners UEFA Champions League win in Sevilla.

The Arsenal boss is already without Jurrien Timber and Thomas Partey. Nevertheless, the North Londoners will be confident of continuing their unbeaten league sequence against bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United who have picked up just a single point from their nine games to date.

Sky Bet Championship

Queens Park Rangers v Leicester City – Loftus Road

Pressure continues to mount on Gareth Ainsworth and the R’s boss isn’t going to have it easy when league leaders Leicester City are the visitors to Loftus Road on Saturday.

Whilst the Foxes are flying, Rangers are currently third from bottom and without a win in eight.

Speaking to www.qpr.co.uk following their midweek loss at West Bromwich Albion, Ainsworth said: “It’s not effort or football tonight, it is silly things that have cost us – it’s another defeat and I understand that. I know where the club is and I want to fight and get us out of it.”

Watford v Millwall – Vicarage Road

Watford will be keen to build on their midweek win at Swansea when Millwall head to the Old Vic on Saturday.

Ken Sema snatched the only goal of the game to hand the Hornets their first win on the road in nine months: “It was a brilliant performance in a difficult away game. We managed the challenge well. We were strong again, compact, disciplined and focused on our game,” Watford boss Valerien Ismael told BBC Sport.

Meanwhile, Adam Barrett looks likely to remain in interim charge of the Lions following the departure of Gary Rowett.

The former Southend United defender was at the helm as Millwall went down by the odd goal in three at the hands of Blackburn Rovers at The Den during the week: “You look back at little key moments. The first goal was offside, I wasn’t happy with our defending, the build-up to it, so that’s annoying,” he told BBC Sport.

“Bradders [Tom Bradshaw] has a shout for a penalty, it doesn’t get given, so obviously I’m not happy with that.

“Second half was a lot better, that’s how I want to play, with tempo. We looked on the front foot more coming out of the duals winning tackles, so I was pleased with the second half.

“We’ve now got to put that together over a 90-minute spell.”

Sky Bet League One

Burton Albion v Leyton Orient – Pirelli Stadium

Richie Wellens will demand more of the same from his Leyton Orient side after they extended their recent unbeaten sequence to four matches during the weeks at Northampton Town.

The O’s salvaged a share of the spoils thanks to Shaq Forde’s stoppage-time strike. However, they are likely to find the going tougher against a Burton side beaten by Carlisle on Tuesday evening but having won their previous four.

Speaking to www.leytonorient.com, Wellens said: “The last eighteen months or so we’ve never given up. It’s something I’d never expect from the group of players I’ve got.

“Every single one of them are professional, determined and work hard.”

Charlton Athletic v Bolton Wanderers – The Valley

Charlton will be looking to bounce back when high-flying Bolton Wanderers are the visitors to The Valley on Saturday.

The Addicks went down by three goals to one against Lincoln City at the LNER Stadium last time out, ending a run of seven league matches without defeat.

Speaking to CharltonTV, boss Michael Appleton said: “We just didn’t give ourselves a chance tonight. We didn’t compete enough with them.

“And if you do that against a really physical side like Lincoln, there’s only going to be one scenario that’s going to happen and that’s what happened.”

Looking ahead to Bolton’s visit, Appleton added: We’ve seen with the group that they are capable of winning those type of games,” he explained. “We’ve played some decent sides so far and, if anything, the bigger the club, the better the performance.

“It’s at the Valley, which has been good to us in recent weeks. We’ve scored lots of goals and haven’t conceded many there, so hopefully that will be the same on Saturday.”

Sky Bet League Two

Morecambe v AFC Wimbledon – The Mazuma Stadium

Johnnie Jackson pulled no punches following AFC Wimbledon’s defeat at teh hands of in-form Accrington Stanley and has demanded better from his charges when they head to Morecambe on Saturday.

The Dons went down 4-2 to Stanley at Plough Lane: “It was a terrible first half,” Jackson told www.afcwimbledon.co.uk.

“We were second best by miles. We lost duels, we lost headers and we lost tackles. We got outworked and that’s the first time I’ve seen that from this group. I didn’t see it coming, it shocked me, to be honest.”

Jackson continued: “We take collective responsibility for it, we made changes to try and freshen the team up but it didn’t work. There’s a lot of food for thought. 

“The good thing is now that we’ve not got a lot of time to stew on it, we need a reaction and we need it fast. In two days’ time, we’ll be on the train and going back up to a difficult place. If we show up for 45 minutes like we did today, the same thing will happen at Morecambe.

“I hope and I believe that we’ll get a real response after this because the boys know – they don’t need me to tell them, I have told them, they don’t need me to point out that it wasn’t good enough.”

Sutton United v Bradford City – VBS Community Stadium

Rock-bottom Sutton United will be looking to record only their third League Two victory of the season when Bradford City are the visitors to the VBS Community Stadium.

Nevertheless, boss Matt Gray took heart from his side’s performance, despite witnessing them slip to a last-gasp home defeat at the hands of promotion-chasing Wrexham on Tuesday evening: “It hasn’t gone for us tonight and that’s extremely hard to take,” he told www.suttonunited.net.

Sunday, October 29

Premier League

West Ham United v Everton – London Stadium 

West Ham United boss, David Moyes could be without defender Vladimir Coufal for the visit of Everton on Sunday lunchtime.

Coufal didn’t travel to the Hammeres UEFA Europa Conference tie with Olympiakos due to illness. Meanwhile, the Scotsman could hand Mohammed Kudus a start as the East Londoners look to bounce back from last weekend’s 4-1 thumping at Aston Villa.

Brighton & Hove Albion v Fulham – AMEX Stadium

Fulham head to the south coast looking to extend their impressive sequence over Brighton.

The Cottagers haven’t lost any of their six Premier League meetings with the Seagulls and completed the double over them last season.

Nevertheless, Marco Silva will be keen to see his side eradicate the errors which proved so costly during Monday night’s 2-0 defeat at Tottenham: ““We were punished by the mistakes that we made”, he bemoaned.

“We didn’t want to give the space behind for them to score. We knew that they are in a very good moment. Some dangerous moments for them, but I think until the first goal we controlled them well.”