Manchester City will meet Blackpool at home on Saturday and Mancini's men will do their best to grab the three points and at least remain tied on points with leaders Manchester United. Blackpool are in pretty good shape though: they won the last game 2-0 away at Sunderland and are sitting in 8th place! The Citizens also produced a good display in the last league game, 4-0 at home against Aston Villa with a hat-trick from Mario Balotelli.
Blackpool will face Nottingham Forest in the play-off semi-finals after they held onto third place with a 2-2 draw at Scunthorpe. Forest, fielding a number of fringe players, were two up at half-time thanks to goals from Joe Garner and on-loan George Boyd, but Scunthorpe pulled it back with goals from Niall Canavan and Garry Thompson. Forest had been three minutes away from a first away win since January.
New manager Kenny Dalglish will lead Liverpool in the first league game of his term next Wednesday when the Reds will meet promoted Blackpool away from home. Blackpool lost their last league game at home against Birmingham last Tuesday while Liverpool got beaten 3-1 at Blackburn which led to Roy Hodgson's departure. The interesting thing is that the two teams are very close in the league table: Liverpool are 12th on 25 points while Blackpool are 13th, also on 25 points.
Guy Moussi will return to the Nottingham Forest squad for the second leg of the Championship play-off semi-final against Blackpool at the City Ground. Forest must overturn a 2-1 deficit if they are to reach the final at Wembley on May 22.
League leaders Manchester United will be looking to extend the cushion over second placed Arsenal as they will play the "game in hand" against Blackpool on Tuesday. The Red Devils beat Birmingham 5-0 on Saturday while 12th placed Blackpool were beaten 2-1 at home by Sunderland.
Cardiff manager Dave Jones is under no illusions as to what promotion to the Barclays Premier League would mean for the club and for all of south Wales. Jones leads his side into Wednesday night's play-off semi-final second leg against Leicester at the Cardiff City Stadium holding a slender 1-0 advantage from Sunday's first leg in the east midlands.
Newly-promoted Blackpool will meet Tottenham on Tuesday in a game that could make a big difference for either of the two sides. A win would take Blackpool five points clear of the relegation zone while Tottenham would move up into third place if they get the three points tomorrow. Blackpool have lost four of their last five home games while Tottenham have lost just one of their last five away matches.
Blackpool reached the Premier League with a 3-2 victory over Cardiff in an action-packed Championship play-off final at Wembley. Brett Ormerod's first-half winner ensured a fairytale victory for Blackpool and the most lucrative promotion in the history of English football (£90 million).
Newcastle, Blackpool and West Brom were all promoted from the Championship to the Premier League last season but which of the three clubs do you think will finish highest this season? Vote now!
They surely can, Arsenal are not in full strength.
I'm afraid they'll get beaten quite convincingly by Arsenal.
Newly-promoted Blackpool had a shocking debut in the Premier League by beating Wigan 4-0 away from home. Now their next match is at the Emirates Stadium against Arsenal, can they pull off another upset?
