Manchester City 4 – 3 Wolverhampton Wanderers

I did say it was probably too much to ask from Wolves and it was “just.” Coming back from 4-1 down showed a lot guts and determination. I would go as far to say that Wolves deserved the points, but Lady Luck was not playing the game. Mick McCarthy’s team don’t deserve to be sitting in the relegation zone. Whatever you are doing Mick should be working. The question, of course, is why is it not?

Wolves (12/5) meet Liverpool (7/5) on their home turf on Saturday. This should be a difficult one to call given the poor form by Liverpool recently. The odds on the draw are 12/5 so very iffy.

Tottenham 0 – 0 Manchester United

What is it that Manchester United have got that is eluding Wolves and perhaps at least half of the rest of the teams in the Premier League? Their unbeaten reign continues and Harry Rednapp has said that this is not a great United team. Well they have played 21 games in the Premier League this season without defeat. Is it simply that they have an unshakeable belief in themselves? United were severely tested in this match and you might say that Tottenham should have taken the points. However it seems that United are not prepared to take a back seat to anyone.

United (2/1) meet Birmingham City (17/1) at home on Saturday. The draw at 6/1 is worth a punt.

Birmingham City 1 – 1 Aston Villa

Birmingham continued to slide downwards and Aston Villa continue to hover just above the relegation zone with this one all draw. Alex McLeish pointed out the obvious when he said we don’t score enough goals. There is no doubt that the lack of an effective striker is a major drawback and Birmingham will rue the day if this causes them to fall out of the Premier League.

This week-end betting tips

Everton v West Ham

Everton meet West Ham on Saturday with the odds clearly favouring Everton at 8/15 and West Ham at 7/1 and the draw at 100/30. West Ham need to get their skates on if they are to crawl out of the relegation zone. There is still time to do this, but don’t wait too long. The draw is worth a bet. 

Arsenal v Wigan

Arsenal are clear favourites at 2/9 for this tie with Wigan who badly need the points coming in at 16/1. However Wigan are a team who can get the odd result and at 6/1 for the draw this could be worth a look

We finish the week-end round up with a look at the top goal scorers to date 

Barclays Premier League Top Scorers

 Happy punting

The Weekend Results

Wolverhampton Wonderers 1 – 2 Wigan Athletic

Wigan had this match sown up in its first 20 minutes. Hugo Rodallega scored in the 9^th minute with Tom Cleverley taking the 2^nd goal in the 20^th minute. Mick McCarthy’s team are beset with injury problems and the Premier League is not a forgiving place to be under such circumstances. Wolves hit back in the 87^th minute through Steven Fletcher but it was a case of too little too late. Although Wolves dominated the possession it did not stop them leaving the pitch at the final whistle with the fans booing ringing in their ears.

Fulham 1 – 3 West Ham United

This was the other relegation zone fixture with both teams desperately needing points to move them out of their perilous position at the bottom of the league. However it was Fulham who took first blood in 11 minutes through Aaron Hughes. However, as I said last week, West Ham needed to dig in to get the points. This is exactly what they did replying in the 37^th minute through Carlton Cole. Nine minutes later and one minute into extra time Frédéric Piquionne made it two in the 46^th minute. Cole wrapped the game up in the 73^rd minute to secure the much needed points for West Ham. Fulham’s manager Mark Hughes left the ground to shouts of “Hughes out.”

Coming Week-End Choices

The week-end fixtures if it happens will look like this for me.

Birmingham City v Arsenal

This will be a tough match for Birmingham at 5/1 on. Arsenal now sitting third in the table have become a much sharper team of late and are fancied at 8/11 and 3/1 for the draw. The relative positions in the league and stats say it all. Alex McLeish will need to pull something out of the hat to get a share of the points in this match.

Stoke v Everton

This is the battle for the middle ground with only 2 points separating the teams. Everton will leap-frog Stoke in their positions if they can grab a victory at 15/8 to win. Stoke, on the other hand can increase the points difference to 5 with a victory at 9/5. This will be a close run thing with draw being forecast at 12/5. So a tight forecast for what will be a tight game.

We finish the week-end round up with a look at the top goal scorers to date

Have a good new year and happy punting.

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.

LIVERPOOL 2 – 0 CHELSEA

A crowd of 44,238 fans watched Liverpool give the Premiership League leaders a 2-0 sting from goals by Fernando Torres in the 11th and 44th minutes. At 3/1 on the betting this was a nice one to get although no one really thought that Liverpool was ready at this stage.

Perhaps the point was made on Wednesday when Liverpool visited Wigan where they were held to a 1-1 draw. However we mustn’t cry over spilt milk. Liverpool are now in 9th position in the league. They should be in more positive frame of mind individually and as a team. It’s nice to see them getting back to where they should be.

FULHAM 1 – 1 ASTON VILLA

This proved to be a tough encounter as expected with Fulham just managing to snatch a share of the points in the 95th minute. The very late equaliser knocked the stuffing out of the Aston Villa players who thought the game was as good as done.

Coming up This Weekend

Aston Villa v Manchester United

Manchester United are the bookies favourites for this match with betting at 4/1 for an Aston Villa win, 4/5 for Manchester United and 11/4 for the draw. However the results of the most recent meetings, below don’t suggest that Man U should be the clear favourites. However the league positions at 2nd for Man U on 24 points and 10th for Aston Villa with 16 points is a more convincing argument.

Most recent meetings

28/02/2010 Aston Villa 1-2 Man Utd
10/02/2010 Aston Villa 1-1 Man Utd
12/12/2009 Man Utd 0-1 Aston Villa

Everton  v Arsenal

Everton are sitting 12th in the league with 15 points and Arsenal are 3rd with 23 points.

We did see a blip in Everton’s performance when Arsenal trounced them 1 – 6 at home for Everton. Arsenal are given the edge by the bookies at 5/4 with Everton sitting at 12/5 and 5/2 for the draw.

Most recent meetings

09/01/2010 Arsenal 2-2 Everton
15/08/2009 Everton 1-6 Arsenal
28/01/2009 Everton 1-1 Arsenal

As usual I like to keep you up to date with the leading goal scorers.

Have a nice week end.

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.

Remember if you haven’t already, sign up to Betfair or any of the other betting companies and you will get a FREE bet, check out the banners in the sidebar to take up this great offer.