Weekend Preview — April 13–14

Kick­ing off the week­end action on Fri­day is West Brom v Sheffield Wednes­day. I hope for EPL Talk Com­mu­nity mem­ber fsquid’s sake that Wednes­day pull a result West Brom will want all three points to keep them­selves in the thick of the play­off race.

On Sat­ur­day Birm­ing­ham host Southamp­ton, whose play-off hopes have been dealt a blow with the news that left-back and free-kick spe­cial­ist Gareth Bale is out for two weeks with a slight calf mus­cle tear. Sun­der­land will look to main­tain or extend their lead when they host 18th place QPR. QPR have won three straight to pull them­selves out of rel­e­ga­tion danger.

Sec­ond place Derby travel to Ipswich with hopes of improv­ing on their fan­tas­tic away record. Derby have twelve wins on their trav­els this sea­son while Ipswich have only won 11 times at home. It has the mak­ings of a good match as Ipswich’s offence has come to life in recent matches scor­ing 5 against both Hull and Barns­ley in recent weeks while putting up three goals against Plymouth.

Early sea­son lead­ers Cardiff have falled out of the play­off pic­ture but vis­i­tors Stoke would be right in the thick of it with a win on Sat­ur­day. Stoke, who cur­rently sit sev­enth, have won three in a row and a fourth con­sec­u­tive win would really put pres­sure on the other clubs in the play­off positions.

The mas­sive rel­e­ga­tion bat­tle this week­end sees Leeds host Burn­ley with Southend hosts Barnsely. Southend could vault out of the rel­e­ga­tion spots with a win. Hull could also find them­selves in trou­ble if they lose and both Leeds and Southend win this weekend.

The sched­uled games are as follows:

April 13
West Brom v Sheff Wed

April 14
Birm­ing­ham v Southamp­ton
Cardiff v Stoke
Coven­try v Pre­ston
Crys­tal Palace v Wolver­hamp­ton
Hull v Colch­ester
Ipswich v Derby
Leeds v Burn­ley
Leices­ter v Nor­wich
Luton v Ply­mouth
Southend v Barns­ley
Sun­der­land v QPR