Nov 30

West Ham and Chelsea

A decent wager in this game can be found at Coral, who offer odds of 29/20 on either one of West Ham or Chelsea failing to score on Saturday. Given that Chelsea are coming off the back of two goalless draws, thems not bad odds.
Arsenal vs. Swansea

Bad and all as Swansea’s away form has been of late, Arsenal’s home form is terrible. Arsenal have won just 3 of their last 10 at home and only one of those 3 wins was against 11 men! A real value bet is Swansea+1 in the Handicap market at 17/10 with Paddy Power. Basically, your bet pays out if Swansea win or draw. Can’t say fairer than that!

Liverpool vs. Southampton

Liverpool have been leaving it late this season. The Half-Time/Full-Time market has Draw/Liverpool available at 10/3 at BWin. You can also get a very decent 7/2 on the league’s leading scorer, Luis Suarez, to score 2 or more goals against the league’s worst defence.

Man City vs. Everton

This is a match-up between the league’s best starters and the league’s strongest finishers. Everton have scored 2/3 of their goals in the first half, while City have scored 3/4 of theirs in the second. Are you thinking what I’m thinking!? Everton/City in the Half-Time/Full-Time is available at 28/1 if you fancy the punt. Don’t like the statistical approach? Well, have a look at Marouane Fellaini’s odds with BetFred in the ScoreCast. SkyBet and Ladbrokes have him at a very mediocre 9/1, but BetFred will give you 18/1 on the Belgian scoring in a Toffee’s victory!

QPR vs. Aston Villa

‘Arry gets his best chance for a first league win of the season when lowly Villa travel to Loftus Road on Saturday. There has been a flourish of betting in the Win market, so QPR lack value at Evens there. The ScoreCast offers better odds, with Djibril Cisse at 7/2 and the in-form Jamie Mackie at 4/1.

West Brom vs. Stoke City

Who can remember the last time the biggest derby in the Black Country featured these two!? West Brom are flying high and Stoke are on a fine run themselves, typified by their brilliant come-from-behind victory over Newcastle on Wednesday. This will be a tight game, but we can’t see Stoke winning it. Maybe you should look at the Score Draw at 19/5 with BetVictor or West Brom to win by 1 Goal at 29/10 with Ladbrokes. If you’re finding those to be a tough call then why not split your money on both? If either bet comes in, you’re still gonna be up!

Norwich City vs. Sunderland

The Sunday game this week is a repeat of the 1985 League Cup Final. What!? How do we remember that, you say!? Well, that was the last time two relegated teams faced off in a major cup final and it is also a game famous for featuring the youngest ever Wembley captain. Barry Venison was just 20 as he skippered Sunderland to a 1-0 defeat. In 2012, however, Norwich are doing very well, though they seem to save their best performances for bigger fry than Sunderland. However, we expect Sunderland’s miserable run to continue at Carrow Road. Grant Holt is 6/1 to be the first scorer, while Norwich are 3/1 for the win with a one goal handicap against.

Enjoy the weekend, folks!

written by bob \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Jan 13

Last Weekend

Liverpool FC

King Kenny reigns, long live the king. There was not a lot happening on the pitch as far as the Premier League was concerned. Plenty of cup action though and no Liverpool did not progress under, new manager, Kenny Dalglish’s management. A penalty conceded in the 2nd minute was enough for Manchester United to take this match. A lot is being asked of Dalglish to take a shaky team out of the doldrums. I fear that the Liverpool fans will have to be happy with simply managing to stay in the Premier League this season.

Newcastle United

Newcastle are also not living the dream and they will take no further part in the FA Cup. They were summarily despatched by Stevenage by 3 goals to 1. This was the classic ideal of convincing your team that it your 11 versus another 11. There was no respect for the might of Newcastle, nor their talent. However the talent was in short supply for this game. I have seen this time and again when the big clubs show no respect for the minnows or in this case Stevenage who are sitting 15th in League Two. Let’s take bets on how far Stevenage will go in this tournament this year.

Derby County

I felt that I had to mention this other pathetic performance by Derby County. Sitting 13th in the middle of the NPower Championship, Derby should have made short work of non-league Crawley Town. However, again they pay the price for showing no respect to the non-league team. Maybe if the players of Derby County spent less time playing bingo online and more time practicing they could improve their performance! Crawley sitting second in the Blue Square Bet Premier League are in a strong position to secure promotion into the football league next season.

This weekend

Chelsea v Blackburn

Blackburn visit Chelsea on Saturday. At 13/1 Blackburn are not the fancied team. However Chelsea have not been entirely consistent of late. However there is a matter of 7 goals against Ipswich Town in last week-end’s cup game. Chelsea are 30/100 to win and no doubt bolstered by their annihilation of Ipswich. At 9/2 for a draw I would not be surprised if Blackburn pulled this off.

Manchester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers

This is probably too much to ask from Wolves. Come on Mick think of Stevenage. Manchester City are 1/3 while Wolves are placed at 11/1 and the draw sitting at 9/2. My theme for the week-end is that it is simply 11 men versus another 11 men. Don’t measure your standards by what you perceive theirs to be. Enough of the psychology go for the draw at best.

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

 
 
Top Goal Scorers  

 

Rank Name Team Matches Goals   
1 Berbatov, Dimitar Man Utd 17 14   
2 Tevez, Carlos Man City 19 12   
3 Carroll, Andy Newcastle 19 11   
4 Cahill, Tim Everton 19 9   
4 Drogba, Didier Chelsea 20 9   
4 Elmander, Johan Bolton 22 9   
4 Nasri, Samir Arsenal 18 9   
4 Nolan, Kevin Newcastle 17 9   
4 van der Vaart, Rafael Tottenham 15 9   
10 Bent, Darren Sunderland 19 8   
10 Malouda, Florent Chelsea 21 8   
12 Bale, Gareth Tottenham 21 7   
12 Chamakh, Marouane Arsenal 19 7   
12 Davies, Kevin Bolton 22 7   
15 Campbell, D.J. Blackpool 16 6   
15 Dempsey, Clint Fulham 21 6   
15 Gyan, Asamoah Sunderland 18 6  
15 Hernandez, Javier Man Utd 14 6
15 Kalou, Salomon Chelsea 17 6
15 Nani Man Utd 16 6
15 Odemwingie, Peter W.B.A. 16 6
15 Torres, Fernando Liverpool 19 6
15 Welbeck, Danny Sunderland 20 6  

 

 Happy punting.

written by premiershipbanter \\ tags: , , , , , , , ,

Dec 22

All the Weekend Results

Yes you read it correctly. These are the full Premier League results for last week-end. Only two games survived the extreme and unusual freezing and blizzard conditions.

Sunderland 1 – 0 Bolton Wanderers

The result sums up the positions of both teams in the Premier League with Sunderland sitting 6th and Bolton in 7th place. Danny Welbeck made a fine header in the 32nd minute to give Sunderland the points and to leap-frog Bolton from 7th to 6th place before a crowd of 35,101. Sunderland travel to Manchester for their Boxing Day match with Manchester United. Man Utd are clear favourites at 30/100 with Sunderland at 12/1. The draw could be a possibility at 5/1. Bolton Wanderers meet West Bromwich Albion on Boxing Day in what should be a close fought match. Bolton are favourites at 6/5 with West Brom on 3/1. The draw at 5/2 is worth a bet.

Blackburn Rovers 1 – 1 West Ham United

Blackburn should have made a better job of this fixture given their relative positions in the Premier League. Blackburn are 12th while West Ham are at the bottom of the league. In other words this is a pretty good result for West Ham. However sitting at the bottom of the league is not a good place to be. You only get a view of everyone else’s back side. Blackburn scored first though Ryan Nelsen in 51 minutes. West Ham responded in the 78th minute through Junior Stanislas. As you might appreciate, the Blackburn fans were not best pleased. Caretaker manager Steve Kean did not improve his prospects of landing the full-time job at Ewood Park. Blackburn meet Stoke at the week-end with both team sitting 12th and 13th respectively. Blackburn are 5/4 favourites with Stoke on 12/4. The draw at 12/5 is worth consideration given Blackburn’s slip-up this week-end.

Coming Week-End Choices

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

Blackpool v Liverpool

As you know I have been following both of these teams and my loyalty is a bit divided for this match. Liverpool are just ahead of Blackpool at 9th and 10th place respectively. This is a close match on paper with Liverpool favourites at 4/5. Blackpool are 4/1 and the draw is forecast at 3/1. This Premier League is so up-in-the-air and Liverpool are still fragile that this game could go any way. I would go for the draw on this occasion, if it happens.

Fulham v West Ham United

This bottom of the table fixture is a must for West Ham. They need to dig in and get the points if relegation is to pass them by. We are almost at the half-way stage and it is time to think about (avoiding) relegation. Fulham are evens for this match with West Ham on 100/30 for the win. The draw is 5/2 and this would be my bet of the week-end. Go for it.

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

Rank Name Team Matches Goals  
1 Berbatov, Dimitar Man Utd 13 11   
2 Carroll, Andy Newcastle 17 10   
2 Tevez, Carlos Man City 16 10   
4 Cahill, Tim Everton 17 9   
5 Drogba, Didier Chelsea 16 8   
5 Elmander, Johan Bolton 18 8   
5 Nasri, Samir Arsenal 14 8   
5 Nolan, Kevin Newcastle 14 8   
9 Bent, Darren Sunderland 15 7   
9 Chamakh, Marouane Arsenal 17 7   
9 Malouda, Florent Chelsea 17 7   
12 Davies, Kevin Bolton 18 6   
12 Kalou, Salomon Chelsea 13 6   
12 Odemwingie, Peter W.B.A. 12 6   
12 van der Vaart, Rafael Tottenham 11 6   
16 Bale, Gareth Tottenham 17 5   
16 Dempsey, Clint Fulham 17 5   
16 Downing, Stewart Aston Villa 17 5   
16 Gyan, Asamoah Sunderland 14 5
16 Harewood, Marlon Blackpool 11 5
16 Nani Man Utd 15 5
16 Pavlyuchenko, Roman Tottenham 15 5
16 Torres, Fernando Liverpool 16 5
16 Varney, Luke Blackpool 13 5
16 Welbeck, Danny Sunderland 17 5  

 

Have a good week-end and happy punting.

written by premiershipbanter \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dec 16

Selected Weekend Results

Newcastle United 3 – 1 Liverpool

Liverpool were effectively blown out of the water in a match were Newcastle set about their business in making this a victory for their deposed manager Chris Hughton. Liverpool were the fancied team with the bookies at 6/5. The feeling was that Newcastle would have enough distractions at 11/4 when Hughton was shown the door earlier in the week. The lesson to be learned here is don’t make assumptions about things. I don’t want to see any of these great team suffer. Come on get back on track the both of you.

Tottenham Hotspur 1 – 1 Chelsea

I said that Chelsea had definitely lost their touch, last week end with the one all draw at home to 15thplaced Everton. Here we are again away from home to Spurs with a crowd of 35,787 watching yet another draw. Spurs scored first through Pavlyuchenko in 15 minutes. It took Chelsea, late into the second half, again through Drogba to even the score in 70th minute. Chelsea are at home to Manchester United on Sunday. The odds favour Manchester United at 11/4 with Chelsea on 6/5 and the draw at 12/5. The draw might be an option if you fancy your luck.

Coming Week-End Betting Choices

Blackpool v Tottenham Hotspur

Spurs are clear favourites here at 4/6 on with the bookies. However I think that Blackpool will tough this out. They are 9/2 for the win and I think this will be the bet of the week-end. Alternatively if you are not sure about it, I think the draw at 16/5 is a must to put a few quid in your pocket. We all know that this has been the most unpredictable Premier League start for years. Take my advice and go for it.

Wigan v Aston Villa

Wigan need a result to get them out of the relegation zone. The bookies are predicting a close tie with Wigan at 2/1 and Aston Villa at 7/4 and 9/4 for the draw. Wigan showed their metal against Everton last week end when they held them to a nil – nil draw. This will be a good match. Come on Wigan you can do it.

Sam Allardyce

We saw Chris Hughton go last week-end and the merry manager go-round caught up with Sam Allardyce this week-end. A “shocked and disappointed” ex-manager had fallen out of favour with his new owners over their plan to use Kentaro a Swiss sports agency to handle their transfer deals. However the bookies still have a future for him with to replace Avram Grant at West Ham. However sources close to Allardyce state that discussions have taken place on the matter.

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

 

Name Team Matches Goals
Berbatov, Dimitar Man Utd 13 11
Carroll, Andy Newcastle 17 10
Tevez, Carlos Man City 15 10
Cahill, Tim Everton 16 8
Drogba, Didier Chelsea 16 8
Elmander, Johan Bolton 17 8
Nasri, Samir Arsenal 14 8
Nolan, Kevin Newcastle 14 8
Bent, Darren Sunderland 14 7
Chamakh, Marouane Arsenal 17 7
Malouda, Florent Chelsea 17 7
Davies, Kevin Bolton 17 6
Kalou, Salomon Chelsea 13 6
Odemwingie, Peter W.B.A. 12 6
van der Vaart, Rafael Tottenham 11 6
Bale, Gareth Tottenham 17 5
Dempsey, Clint Fulham 17 5
Downing, Stewart Aston Villa 17 5
Gyan, Asamoah Sunderland 13 5
Harewood, Marlon Blackpool 11 5
Nani Man Utd 15 5
Pavlyuchenko, Roman Tottenham 15 5
Torres, Fernando Liverpool 16 5
Varney, Luke Blackpool 13 5

 Have a good week-end and happy punting

written by premiershipbanter \\ tags: , , , , , , ,