we have a big weekend ahead, there's already 3 PL matches canceled
GL

The European soccer ecosystem is facing its latest COVID-19 crisis, forcing leagues across the continent to snap judgments affecting their respective season calendars.

Dec. 17, 12 p.m. ET: According to a number of reports, manager Pep Guardiola of Manchester City has posted an inconclusive COVID-19 test and missed his pre-match press conference. The Cityzens are due to battle Newcastle United on Sunday and Guardiola will await the result of another test to determine whether he’ll be on the bench at St. James’ Park.

Dec. 17, 12 p.m. ET: Manager Thomas Frank of Brentford has called for all Premier League and League Cup fixtures to be postponed. As of this writing, the Bees have 13 positive tests within the club. Brentford had its midweek fixture against Manchester United postponed and has already had its weekend fixture against Southampton pushed back.

Now, the key item to recognize with Frank is that — on paper — he’s not calling for as big of a shutdown as others.

“We think we should postpone the full round of Premier League games this weekend,” said Frank, referring to the slate of games. “To postpone this round and also the Carabao Cup round would give everyone a week at least.”

Dec. 17, 12 p.m. ET: La Liga leader Real Madrid is facing a COVID-19 crisis ahead of Sunday’s match with Cadiz. Los Blancos will be without Marco Asensio, Gareth Bale, Rodrygo, Luka Modric and Marcelo, as well as assistant manager Davide Ancelotti.

The somewhat good news for Real is that after its visit to Cadiz, the Spanish giant faces only one more fixture this year, which comes in a scheduled match against Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday’s card.

Atalanta v Roma | Saturday 18th November 2021, 9:00

We are going to keep our run with Atalanta when the Bergamaschi host AS Roma at the Azzurri d’Italia. No wonder they are in a Scudetto rush, with 6 consecutive wins, including Juventus and Atalanta (both away!).

We often laid Roma against big teams this season, and it has paid dividends so far with Jose Mourinho still far from being impactful as he was in his old days.

I don’t see this trend to change today, despite the Giallorossi having back some of their important players.

That’s why I will go for a simple home win for the home side.

Bologna vs Juventus | Saturday 18th November 2021, 12:00

I expect a surprise when Bologna host Juve today. The Bianconeri are facing several injuries with Paulo Dybala and Federico Chiesa ruled out for the game. Also Manuel Locatelli, by far the best midfielder in the roster, will not play and a lineup of Kulusevski-Morata-Bernardeschi is not exciting at all.

That is why I am taking Bologna Double Chance. Of course, Bologna’s quality is still lower, but I expect them to fight at least for a draw, especially in this promising season.

Dec. 18, 9 a.m. ET: Saturday’s Premier League fixture between Aston Villa and Burnley has been postponed. According to Aston Villa’s team website, the decision came down after “an increased amount of positive COVID-19 test results within our playing squad.” That leaves only four EPL fixtures across the weekend and means at least 13 teams have at least one game to make up.

Manchester City will be looking to maintain their one point advantage at the top of the table when they travel to Newcastle on Sunday. Pep Guardiola's team have been in sparking form reeling off seven consecutive league wins, their most recent a 7-0 thrashing off Leeds United midweek an ominous warning for Newcastle who have registered the solitary win all season.

A 7-0 victory over Leeds on Tuesday cemented Man City’s place at the top of the table, and also drastically improved their goal difference so now they’re in the mix with Liverpool and Chelsea in that regard.

Kevin de Bruyne was back to his very best in that game, while Jack Grealish also put in arguably his best performance in a City shirt, so it’s all looking up here for Pep Guardiola’s men who enter this off the back of seven successive league wins.

Eddie Howe’s men got off to a blistering start away at Anfield when Jonjo Shelvey’s strike found the bottom corner, though a quickfire Liverpool double restored normal service and resigned Newcastle to successive defeats, and it doesn’t get any easier here against the league leaders.

Despite being second bottom in the league, the Magpies are actually unbeaten from their eight matches against current bottom-half opponents this season, though while that may be a surprising statistic, it won’t do them any good here as they’ve lost all nine other matches against sides in the top-half. It would be incredibly shocking if City didn’t make that a clean sweep.

While City have been impressive both home and away, their defensive record is superior on home soil.

Indeed, they’ve kept clean sheets in seven of their nine outings at the Etihad, but on the road they’ve only kept their hosts out in three games.

Only against Chelsea have Newcastle failed to score at St James’ Park this season, and that leaves the both teams to score market looking like great value on this occasion, even if the result does fall the way of the visitors as expected.

That’s even more the case when considering the citizens will be without both first choice full-backs for this outing, with Kyle Walker battling illness and Joao Cancelo now suspended having accumulated too many yellows.

It’s also likely that Bernardo Silva won’t be risked here having picked up a muscular niggle, though the return of Kevin de Bruyne morethan covers for that.

Newcastle have gone W1-D1-L1 at home against Pep Guardiola’s side over the last three seasons, scoring at least twice in each outing with City edging this fixture last season in a seven-goal thriller.

We wouldn’t expect the same again, though with very few absentees for the hosts as it stands, we’d expect them do get on the scoresheet in front of their own fans.