Half-time on the Premier League; Full-time on 2012 / Saturday Open Thread

Most of the teams in the Premier League have now played 19 matches - exactly halfway to the final tally of 38. Chelsea and Arsenal are two exceptions, the former due to extra successes achieved in 2012, the latter due to... uh... due to... ummm... a tube strike? Winning!

Anyhow, there's plenty of football today; ready to kick off the second half of the 2012-13 Premier League campaign. Up first, at 7:45 A.M. EST, is entirely uninspiring Sunderland (13th) hosting entirely AVB'd Tottenham (4th). AVB loves that fourth place - this time, last year, he was in the same place with Chelsa. So, Spurs to win the Champions League, right? Laugh.

Six additional matches will kick off at 10:00 A.M. EST, most interesting of which will probably be (entirely semi-runaway) league leaders Manchester United hosting everybody's entirely favorite second team West Bromwich Albion (hi Steve Clarke and Romelu Lukaku!). WBA have been entirely surprising so far and sit in a lofty 6th spot. Other matchups at the 10-spot will include Aston Villa - Wigan (meh); Fulham - Swansea (eh); Reading - West Ham United (ugh); Stoke City - Southampton (blergh); Norwich - Manchester City (because that's a fair contest...).

Lastly, the late slot at 12:30 P.M. EST will bear witness to Arsenal (entirely 7th) hosting entirely underachieving and disappointing Newcastle. The Magpies have zero away wins so far - that's Reading and QPR levels of bad, mind - so this would be a perfect time for them to get their act together.

Discuss.