With Fabregas leaving Arsenal following Ronaldo to Spain, what players can we count on to provide that bit of magic and excitement? Gone are the players of the past such as Ginola, Kinkladze, Zola and Le Tissier. Those were the players who would get the crowd on their feet and the kids trying to copy their tricks in the playground on a Monday morning.

Has the Premiership become more mundane with managers not allowing their players to express themselves? Have all the ‘world class’ players left to play abroad? Has the Premiership become less interesting?……only time will tell, but one thing fo sure to keep us interested is a football bet!!

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 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)

Aston Villa v Blackburn- Villa are unbeaten at home so far this season and Blackburn have drawn their last two Premiership games.  Blackburn last won at Villa Park in 2004, this is their only win in 7 games away to Villa. 

Betting tip (Winner)- It’s tempting to go for the draw here just like last year, but I do believe that Aston Villa can take all three points, they are priced at 1.69 currently on Betfair.  I’m tipping ’Over 2.5 goals’ in this match, you can currently get a price of 1.97 on Betfair.

UPDATE- Well we’ll start with the amazing match at the Emirates stadium, it’s fair to say that this match had 4-4 written all over it….even after 65 minutes!!!  On to the betting tip, the Villa v Blackburn produced 5 goals, which meant the over 2.5 goals tip was a winner, a great way to just abut double your money midweek!!

Newcastle 2-1 West Brom
Arsenal 4-4 Tottenham
Aston Villa 3-2 Blackburn
Bolton 0-1Everton
Fulham 2-0 Wigan
Hull 0-3 Chelsea
Liverpool 1-0 Portsmouth
Man Utd 2-0 West Ham
Middlesbrough 2-0 Man City
Stoke 1-0 Sunderland

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.

Check out the video below and you might just learn a few skills from Remi (like how to run away from a cyclist)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFsHPFhtEYQ

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