Premiership Betting tips: Everton v Liverpool- It’s the Merseyside derby and both teams go into this game with injury problems and poor form.  This Premiership game has seen 17 red cards, a record number for any Premiership game.  So that’s why we’ll concentrate on betting on the ‘Shown a card’ market instead of predicting a winner.  Lets back repeat offender Mascherano to pick up a yellow, you can get odds of 2.94 on Betfair or check out Partybets.  Also back the two Lucas players playing on both sides (Lucas Neil and Liverpool Lucas -what’s his other name???) at odds of 2.0 and 3.6.

Betting tip-Everton can boast a record of being unbeaten against Middlesbrough in the last 5 Premiership meetings, but this as they say is the cup and Boro have had some good results in it so far .  The last time the two teams played in the FA Cup, Everton were beaten in the quarter-finals.  I’m going to go for the outsider and back Middlesbrough to beat Everton at odds of 5.9on Betfair.

The weekend brings us a much better Premiership football schedule for Saturday 3pm kick offs, compared to only one from last week.

Everton v Fulham-Both of these teams will be buoyed by their mid week victories and both managers will be looking for another 3 points to take the pressure off them.  Everton have history on their side, winning all 14 previous encounters at home against Fulham. 

Betting tips (losing)-Everton conceded 11 goals in their opening 5 games of the season.  They are without a clean sheet since April.  In the ‘Everton Clean Sheet’ market, bet on no clean sheet at odds of 1.68 on Betfair.

Also Andy Johnson will be looking to come back to Goodison and haunt his old team with a goal.  Lets back him in the  ‘To score’ market at nice odds of 4.3 on Betfair.

Update- No luck with the bets, Everton finally kept a clean sheet which meant our no clean sheet bet was lost.  Andy Johnson couldn’t score aginst his old team either.  Knowing that past results were on Everton’s side, we should of gone with the bet to back Everton to win.

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

Everton v Liverpool

The big game this week has to the be the 179th Merseyside derby.  If you are fan of backing red cards and yellow cards then this is the game for you,  16 out of the 32 meetings have resulted in red cards.  I can always guarantee Phil Neville will find himself in the book for a hasty challenge (1.9 odds on Betfair) and an own goal may just occur once again in this fixture!!!

Betting tips:  Who will win this derby?…Who knows?  It’s hard to predict these derby games, but judging on form Liverpool look to be likely winners, especially with Everton only picking up points away from home this season.  But the main bet I’ll be backing is Stephen Gerrard to score.  Needing one more to make 100 goals, what better team his 100th against? Back him to score at anytime at odds of 3.75 on PaddyPower.  Also back Robbie Keane to score at odds of 3.25.

Wigan v Man City

The last time City played Wigan away from home the scoreline was 1-1.  From a quick glance this game may look like a Man City win, but City have failed to beat Wigan in the Premiership.  Wigan have been in good form lately, with the 5-0 win over Hull being their biggest result this season.

Betting tip: City are the favourites to win this game at odds of 2.46 (Betfair) with the home team priced at odds of around 3.25.  Let go for the value bet here and back Wigan, they’ve been in good form and Man City may be a little weary after having to play extra time mid-week.  This looks like it could be cracking game, I would like to think there will be goals galore!!!

UPDATE- The Merseyside Derby produced alot of whistle blowing moments by the referee, meaning that there was no flow to the game.  Liverpool deserved the victory (as predicted), but Everton can count themselves unlucky to have Cahill sent off.  There was no luck in picking Gerrard and Keane to score, but I had to back Neville to get a yellow card when I saw the odds for a yellow jump up to around 2.3 on Betfair, so when he made that crashing challenge I celebrated like it was a goal!!

The Wigan game brought us the biggest betting winner of the season, courtesy of a Zaki penalty.  Hopefully this will be the turning point and we can get a good run of winning bets now.  Goals were predicted in this game, if only I had backed over 2.5 goals as well!!

Arsenal 1-2 Hull
Aston Villa 2-1 Sunderland
Everton 0-2 Liverpool
Fulham 1-2 West Ham
Man Utd 2-0 Bolton
Middlesbrough 0-1 West Brom
Newcastle 1-2 Blackburn
Stoke 0-2 Chelsea
Portsmouth 2-0 Tottenham
Wigan 2-1 Man City

With the Premiership starting, all talk will be on who will lift the title at the end of the season and what team will be dropping down in to the Championship. 

It will take a brave person to back Manchester United to be relegated this season, they are priced at odds of 2501.00 (2500-1, put £1 on and you make £2500) by Ladbrokes.  Somehow I don’t see many people taking up these value odds.  But Man Utd are favourites to lift the title again this season with all the major bookmakers, on Betfair they have odds of 2.88 and William Hill prices them at around 2.38. 

After United there are the usual title contentders, Chelsea are priced as second favourites at 2.63 (William Hill), next it’s Arsenal (6.0 with Paddy Power) and Liverpool at 8.5 (Hills).  After the top four the odds get pretty big with Betfair pricing Tottenham at 50.0 and Manchester City at 190.0.  Below is a summary of the possible title challengers and odds from the different betting companies.

The main relegation candidates are Hull City (1.30), Stoke City (1.36), West Brom (1.90)  all priced on Ladbrokes, in other words all three promoted sides are favourites with the betting companies to get relegated.  Fulham are at odds of 3.75 to be relegated this season, but with Roy Hodgson in charge, I think they will surprise a few people and stay up again this year.

Betting Tip: Its tough to pick out who will be top of the Premiership come end of July 2009, but I’m looking away from favourites Manchester United after the disruptive summer they’ve had.  One bet I would recommend is on Betfair, the ‘Month End Top-Aug’ market.  With the number of winnable fixtures for Arsenal in August (ending with Hull at home) and how they always start quick out of the blocks, I’m tipping the Gunners to be top of the Premiership at the end of August with odds of 3.5 on Betfair.

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