However it seems yet again that no one will touch Chelsea this season with a satisfying 2 – 0 win over Arsenal…

Drogba did the business as usual hitting the back of the net in 39 minutes. Arsenal tried hard to find an equaliser but were not up to the task before Alex put the game beyond Arsenal’s reach with a strike in the 85th minute.

To sum up, this simply meant that there were no upsets for the Bookies.

What is interesting of course is that Liverpool appears to have been to sold New England Sports Ventures a group that owns the Boston Red Sox. However will this change Liverpool’s fortunes as the club drop into the relegation zone for the first time in 46 years?

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.

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)

However Chelsea playing against Marseilles on the same night played good game and almost bad game to over-come the French champions 2 goals to nil.

Chelsea meet Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Sunday 3 October at 4pm. The match is screened live on Sky Sports 2 and the early betting suggests that Chelsea are the on-form team. On-form may not be
a totally accurate description at the moment.

However there is not a lot separating the two teams in the Premiership. Chelsea are top on 15 points with Arsenal 3rd on 11 points after playing their first 6 games of the season.

This will be the fixture of the weekend and is certainly worth a flutter at your local bookie.

Chelsea have been the victors in the last three meetings between the two teams and the odds seem to be in their favour.

The odds are in favour of Chelsea at 4/5 and Arsenal at 4/1 to win and 3/1 for a draw. However this is not a forgone conclusion by any means. A bet on a draw is very tantalising and probably realistic.
Arsenal on their game could upset the applecart.

However if you are not persuaded by this, there are many other ways that you can lay a bet on the game.

Who do you fancy to score the first goal? Will it be Walcott, Nasri or Arshavin for Arsenal? Will it be Malouda, Drogba or Kalou for Chelsea?

When all is said and done Abramovich has told his team he expects them to win every competition they play in this year. Indeed the betting is again in favour of them taking the 2010/11 title.

It’s been a season of so many twists and turns, where each title rival have done their best to hand the title to each other, it seems like no one wants to win it this season.  The title is still in Chelsea’s hands, but PremiershipBettingBanter still believes Manchester United can win it, winning the key games against Arsenal and City have been important and if they win the two games against Spurs & Liverpool, a fourth successive title could be making its way to Old Trafford.

So who’ll win it you ask? Well PremiershipBettingBanter will stick its neck on the line and say, go with Man Utd…Chelsea…or maybe Arsenal!!!

If you fancy a small flutter on the upcoming premiership games, then why not take a look at the offers available from one of the free bets uk based websites on the Internet?

Both teams won’t want to lose this game and both teams will surely settle for a draw if the chance should occur, you can back these at odds of 3.45(12/5) on Betfair.   But the main betting tip of the day should be to back Drogba to score at anytime, he’s been in good form lately and will be a handful for an untried United defensive pairing.

Premiership Betting tip-  Lampard was on the scoresheet mid-week with a penalty.  Back him to score anytime against Chelsea’s London rivals with Betfair, you can get odds of 2.92.

Premiership Betting tip-Drogba is looking sharp and most of all interested, so we’ll be tipping him to score in a second game running, Betfair have him at odds of 2.64 to score at anytime, take it!!

So who is going to win the Premiership then?  United for the fourth time? Liverpool finally? Ancelotti’s Chelsea? Arsenal back to winning ways?  Or will an outsider like Manchester City shake things up?

Well as usual it’s a tough call, but Premiership betting Banter are going to back Chelsea.  Looking on Betfair they are favourites at odds of 2/1 with second favourites Manchester United 12/5.  We’re backing the Blues as they’ve have had the minimum impact to their squad out of all the possible championship contender, vital members like Terry have stuck around (was never in doubt).  Whereas their rivals have become weakened, Ronaldo, Tevez, Alonso, Toure, Adebayor all making their way out of their respective teams. 

Of course everything will be dependent on how quick Chelsea can adapt to Ancelotti’s formations (diamonds anyone?) and whether he can kep the respect of players like Drogba.  Blues fans will be hoping that he doesn’t go the way of Big Phil, but we expect them to put up a serious challenge this year, back them on Betfair now!

No matter who wins, we know this season will have thrills, major talking points and great entertainment, it is the Premiership of course!!

Premiership Betting tip- Chelsea are favourites to win this match at odds of 2.34 despite not beating Villa at Villa Park in 10 visits.  Chelsea may well have to play a patched up back four due to suspensions and injuries.  I’m going to tip Aston Villa to beat Chelsea, at odds of 3.6 the odds look pretty decent to back an in form home team.

This is the 143rd London derby between the teams, Chelsea haven’t lost in 5 games, whereas Arsenal have lost 4 out of the last 5 games.  Last year this fixture saw Chelsea win 2-1, with a double from Drogba.  Football fans who like to see goals will be relieved to know that in 29 games there’s only been one goalless game.

Premiership betting tip: The odds (1.88) show that Chelsea are the favourites to take the points in this match.  I’m tempted to go for a draw in this London derby,  but I’m also swayed into believing that history may repeat itself and we may see Arsenal topple Chelsea at Stamford Bridge like they did in the season where Liverpool also beat Chelsea.  Let’s go for the bet of laying Chelsea at odds of around 1.88, Arsenal will take confidence from their midweek win and thy will also be welcoming back some key players like striker Adebayor.

It might also be interesting to look at backing for fun former players of both sides, Anelka and Gallas to score at anytime.

UPDATE- Chelsea 1-2 Arsenal. It was a disappointing Sunday afternoon if you are a Blue fan (no not the boy band), Chelsea only had one shot on goal throughout the whole 90 minutes, taking that into account, Arsenal deserved to win this match.  The Gunner’s first goal looked to be slightly offside and we got confirmation that it probably was when Wenger told Sky: ‘I didn’t see it’.  Laying Chelsea to win this match at about 1.88 on Betfair instead of backing the draw was a good decision in the end, bringing us a winning Premiership bet for the last day of November!

Betting tip:  Betfair have Chelsea priced at 1.33 to win this match, the odds are a little skinny for me.  So I’ll be backing John Terry to score at anytime, at odds of 9.4 on Betfair.

Arsenal v Aston Villa
Blackburn v Sunderland
Bolton v Liverpool
Fulham v Tottenham
Man Utd v Stoke
Newcastle v Wigan
West Brom v Chelsea
West Ham v Portsmouth
Everton v Middlesbrough
Hull v Man City