Gameweek 36 arrives with the title race and relegation battle closely entwined, producing a weekend of high stakes across the division.<\/p>\n
Liverpool host Chelsea in a fixture heavy with history but fragile form. Chelsea arrive having lost six consecutive league games and were comprehensively beaten by a heavily rotated Nottingham Forest side on Monday. Arne Slot\u2019s soon-to-be-dethroned champions have shown similar frailties this term, while Liverpool likely need just a point to secure Champions League football. Last week\u2019s defeat at Old Trafford leaves Liverpool with questions, so a competitive affair looks likely. Prediction: Liverpool 1\u20131 Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Brighton travel to Wolves, a tie with relegation context. Wolves had shown signs of recovery under Rob Edwards but recent momentum has stalled. They earned a point at home to Sunderland after three straight defeats, and remain without an away win in the Premier League this season. Brighton seek to respond to a poor result on Tyneside and recently extended Fabian H\u00fcrzeler\u2019s contract, aiming to justify that faith with European qualification. Prediction: Brighton 2\u20130 Wolves.<\/p>\n
Fulham host Bournemouth, who have remained unbeaten since parting ways with Antoine Semenyo in January and sit sixth. Fulham have been generally meek on the road but possess the sixth-best home record, with 10 wins from 17. Both clubs still harbour continental hopes, making this a tight contest. Prediction: Fulham 1\u20131 Bournemouth.<\/p>\n
Manchester United travel to Sunderland after completing a first league double over Liverpool in a decade and sealing Champions League qualification. Sunderland are winless in three and conceded five to Forest at home previously. United have won the last three meetings, including 2\u20130 in the reverse fixture, and will be without suspended Dan Ballard. Prediction: Sunderland 0\u20131 Man Utd.<\/p>\n
Manchester City welcome Brentford aiming to apply pressure on Arsenal after J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku\u2019s stoppage-time equaliser salvaged a point. City can push the title race back on Arsenal by beating Brentford, a side that has won at the Etihad since Covid. Prediction: Man City 3\u20131 Brentford.<\/p>\n
Other selections: Burnley 0\u20131 Aston Villa, Crystal Palace 0\u20132 Everton, Nott\u2019m Forest 2\u20132 Newcastle, West Ham 1\u20132 Arsenal and Tottenham 2\u20131 Leeds. Across the weekend the ties could produce decisive movement in both the title fight and relegation zone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gameweek 36 predictions: how title and relegation battles could shift across a decisive weekend. GW36<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660,175,969],"tags":[1162,1305],"class_list":["post-13696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gameweek-36","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-bench-selection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}