The question is where I start as there was a lot going on.

BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 – 0 CHELSEA

The St Andrew’s crowd (24,357) witnessed something that last occurred 30 years ago. A bit like the appearance of Halley’s Comet in the heavens, Birmingham achieved a victory over Chelsea with a 17th minute goal by Lee Bowyer. This was very much against the flow of play with Chelsea having something like 25 attempts on goal against the 2 attempts by Birmingham. However it only takes a bit of luck and the ball in the back of the net to make all the difference.

ARSENAL 2 – 3 TOTTENHAM

In a similar manner it has been 17 years since Spurs have won away to Arsenal. The Emirates crowd of 60,102 saw some entertaining football as Spurs pulled back from 2-0 down in the first half to score in the 50th minute by Gareth Bale, a penalty in the 67th minute from Rafael Van der Vaart and an 85th minute goal from Younes Kaboul to clinch a well deserved victory.

Betting- Coming up This Weekend

Aston Villa v Arsenal

Aston Villa are 14/5 to win against Arsenal at 11/10 and 5/2 for a draw. Arsenal look good for the victory as long as there are no slip ups.

Bolton Wanderers v Blackpool

Bolton stand at 4/6 for the win against Blackpool who are on 5/1 with the odds sitting at 16/2 for the draw. Blackpool might just upset the apple cart in this match.

Everton v West Bromwich Albion

This could be the match of the week end with Everton and West Brom sitting 16^th and 15^th respectively in the premiership. The betting stands at 5/8 for an Everton win, 11/2 for West Brom and 3/1 for the draw. Could be worth a bet on the draw.

Fulham v Birmingham

Not much separates these two although I fancy Birmingham for this match. The betting stands at 11/10 for a Fulham win with Birmingham standing at 3/1 and 12/5 for the draw. This should be an entertaining game.

As usual I like to keep you up to date with the Top Goal Scorers to date.

Happy betting and have a good weekend.

There seems to be as much news off the pitch, if not more, than what is actually happening on it.

Before I get started I agree with the sentiments on a fans banner at Old Trafford that asked the question “Who’s the whore now Wayne?”

Much as I admire Sir Alex Ferguson I would have let poor Mr Rooney go. However, having said that, I will concede that Sir Alex knows what he doing. How much more money do you want to stuff into your pants Wayne? You’ve a lot to prove now mate. I don’t think you’re up to it. However you won’t be making a trip to the dole queue like a lot of the fans who pay your wages.

Pick of Last Weekend’s Fixtures

LIVERPOOL FC 2-1 BLACKBURN ROVERS

My faith in Liverpool was upheld at the weekend with this 2-1 victory over Blackburn. Yes it is too soon to say that the revival is under way. However the victory should help to lift the team’s spirits and confidence a bit. I had hoped that the victory would have lifted them out of the relegation zone but that will need to wait for another week or two. The goal scorers were Kyrgiakos (48) and Torres (53) for Liverpool with Carragher scoring an own goal for Blackburn (50).

Premiership Betting tip

Liverpool meet Bolton Wanderers this coming weekend. The odds are sitting at 5/2 for a Bolton win at home, 11/8 for Liverpool and 12/5 for a draw.

Here are the results for the most recent meetings between the two teams.

30/01/2010  Liverpool 2-0 Bolton

29/08/2009  Bolton 2-3 Liverpool

26/12/2008  Liverpool 3-0 Bolton

The question is, can Liverpool lift their game to reflect these recent scores? The betting suggests a close tie. I think Roy Hodgson will be able to lift his team to a close victory and get the team fired up for the rest of the season.

Elsewhere in the Premiership there were no upsets with Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal winning their games, meaning that Manchester City slipped up to Arsenal.

The hot football topic is off the field as the Liverpool Wagon-Train circles the wagons against the attack by the Boston Red Sox. However this is one battle we want the Indians to win. Still hanging in there the Hicks and Gillett Jr “pardners” have high-tailed it back to Texas to highlight that this is a real cowboy outfit. A restraining order has been granted by another cowboy outfit called a Texas court.

It’s time to wake up “pardners.” The ref blew the whistle on your game a long time ago. Do us all a favour and go and crawl under your Stetson, never to be seen again.

Scotland

We had another round of Euro 2012 Qualifiers and it was Scotland who almost upset the world and European champions Spain. The Scottish fans as ever roared their loyalty for their team in a game which ended 3-2 for Spain. Hailed as coming from “zeroes to heroes” by one Scottish newspaper, the team must take some hope from the game and their prospects of qualification for Euro 2012.

Portsmouth

Another club with a financial headache is Portsmouth who are still looking £900,000 from Inter Milan who have ignored the club’s demands for the money which was part of the transfer deal for Sulley Muntari. The club, who are already in administration, will run out of money next week and player may be asked to defer some of their wages until the situation with Inter Milan is resolved.

Weekend Football.

As ever we have a number of interesting games coming up over the weekend.

My picks are Bolton Wanderers v Stoke City, Manchester United v West Bromwich Albion, and Newcastle v Wigan.

The Manchester game is tantalising in that I am waiting to see if Man Utd will slip up again. However the bookies are not taking the bait. At 10/1 for a WBA away win it could put some cash in your pocket for the night in the pub.

The Bolton Wanderers / Stoke game is too close to call at 11/10 for a home win, 9/4 for a draw and 9/4 for an away win.

My Bet of the Week

On balance I think that I am going to go for the Newcastle / Wigan game. At 4/5 for a home win, 23/10 for a draw and 10/3 for an away win. This is my bet of the week. Don’t mention Chelsea by the way.

Leading goal scorers to date are:

6 Berbatov (Manchester United)

6 Drogba (Chelsea)

6 Malouda (Chelsea)

5 Bent (Sunderland)

4 Elmander (Bolton Wanderers)

4 Tevez (Manchester City)

4 Carroll (Newcastle United)

4 Walcott Arsenal)

4 Kalou (Chelsea)

Premiership Betting tip-We won’t be betting on who will win this encounter, although if we had to, Sunderland to win at odds of 12/5 seem to be tempting.  Instead back new boy Darren Bent to score at anytime, you can get odds of 2/1 on Betfair.  He’ll be looking to impress and get off to a flying start after his time at Spurs.