Weekend Football Review: Big Clubs to Struggle

The weekend after a break in the domestic leagues for International football can be a very dangerous time for the big clubs. Their squad departs to all corners of the World for a two week period, often coming back with injuries.It is a small window of opportunity for the lesser teams to cause a surprise result, as Middlesbrough and West Brom have shown when beating Arsenal after an International break this season.Having already lost twice this term after a gap in the league season, there is good justifcation in taking Wigan at 4/1 to inflict a third such defeat on the Gunners. The two weeks since consildating their second spot would have been extremely beneficial to the Latics in allowing their small squad to recover and recharge the batteries.Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger will have been sweating on his players who were involved all over Europe in crucial qualifiers, or some tough friendly fixtures (England/Argentina and France/Germany were played at a very high intensity). Also losing most of their squad to the International scene were the league leaders. Like their london rivals, the prepartation time for Jose Mourihno would have been limited, and so they may not be at their best for the home match against Newcastle. The Blues have of course lost their last couple of games at Betis and Manchester United, and so will be keen to get back on the winning trail. However, in their way is a Newcastle unit that has a very confident Michael Owen in outstanding form.The Magpies have of course had their own disruptions, and so winning at Stamford Bridge is probably somewhat wishful thinking. What isn't is the prospect of England's goalscoring hero against Argentina finding the back of the net at anytime. Finally, it is worth chancing that Charlton can beat Manchester United for the first time ever in the Premiership. The Addicks do not have the most impressive record at the Valley so far this season, although some of their defeats have been rather harsh. Beating Chelsea was a great result but that took an enormous amount of effort, and I very much doubt that suddenly everything is back to normal at the club. Charlton are worth chancing at 4/1 to haul themseleves back into the European picture.