There seems to be as much news off the pitch, if not more, than what is actually happening on it.

Before I get started I agree with the sentiments on a fans banner at Old Trafford that asked the question “Who’s the whore now Wayne?”

Much as I admire Sir Alex Ferguson I would have let poor Mr Rooney go. However, having said that, I will concede that Sir Alex knows what he doing. How much more money do you want to stuff into your pants Wayne? You’ve a lot to prove now mate. I don’t think you’re up to it. However you won’t be making a trip to the dole queue like a lot of the fans who pay your wages.

Pick of Last Weekend’s Fixtures

LIVERPOOL FC 2-1 BLACKBURN ROVERS

My faith in Liverpool was upheld at the weekend with this 2-1 victory over Blackburn. Yes it is too soon to say that the revival is under way. However the victory should help to lift the team’s spirits and confidence a bit. I had hoped that the victory would have lifted them out of the relegation zone but that will need to wait for another week or two. The goal scorers were Kyrgiakos (48) and Torres (53) for Liverpool with Carragher scoring an own goal for Blackburn (50).

Premiership Betting tip

Liverpool meet Bolton Wanderers this coming weekend. The odds are sitting at 5/2 for a Bolton win at home, 11/8 for Liverpool and 12/5 for a draw.

Here are the results for the most recent meetings between the two teams.

30/01/2010  Liverpool 2-0 Bolton

29/08/2009  Bolton 2-3 Liverpool

26/12/2008  Liverpool 3-0 Bolton

The question is, can Liverpool lift their game to reflect these recent scores? The betting suggests a close tie. I think Roy Hodgson will be able to lift his team to a close victory and get the team fired up for the rest of the season.

Elsewhere in the Premiership there were no upsets with Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal winning their games, meaning that Manchester City slipped up to Arsenal.

Premiership Betting tip- In derby games you are never sure what’s going to happen as form goes out the window, although saying that both team’s form has been pretty good (United 1 defeat,City undefeated in the Premiership).  One thing that we can almost guarantee is that there will be passion and passion usually means fouls and yellow cards! Lets look at players who are likely to play and pick up yellows, Scholes is suspended for this game so lets back Fletcher & Evra for United and Nigel de Jong for City, back them all on Betfair (prices no available at present).  Lets all hope for some tasty challenges!

Surely this game we will show us how the Arsenal players react when the pressure is on them, will they prosper or will they wilt?

Betting tips- United away from home are favourite to win this match at odds of 2.34 on Betfair.  But Manchester United haven’t won at the Emirates yet and have only have 1 win in 8 games away to Arsenal.  So the best bet would be to back the draw at odds of 3.3 currently on Betfair.  Also go for a small bet on Berbatov to score at anytime at odds of 3.35.

UPDATE- What a great match to watch, chances at both ends and some great football played by both of these title challengers.  I’m sure that if United had scored then they wouldn’t have ended up on the losing team.  The bet to go for the draw wasn’t successful this time, looking back at it, no matter how bad the Gunners’ last results have been, it was a little crazy for them not to be favourites when playing at home.

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

Betting tips

We’ll try and ease ourselves in the Champions League betting this season, so bet on over 1.5 goals in the Juventus v Zenit St Petersburg match at odds of 1.34, hopefully it will be an open match like I’ve seen in the past Zenit games. 

Fun bet-  With all the England players Cole, Lampard and Gerrard scoring yesterday, lets got for a small fun, bet on Wayne Rooney to score at anytime against Villarreal at odds of 2.8.  Let’s pray Rooney follows the good example set by his England teammates!!

UPDATE- In the end it was a tight match and the two teams could only muster one goal between them and there wasn’t quite the amount of goals as I expected.  A better value would of been to lay Lyon at odds of 1.75 against Fiorentina, that’s the benefit of hindsight!!! 

Liverpool v Man Utd- This Saturday lunchtime it’s the big match, Liverpool come up against the team they haven’t beaten in 6 consecutive matches at Anfield.  The last time Liverpool picked up a point against United was in 2005, the score was 0-0.  The odds point in favour of Man Utd, bookmakers Paddy Power have them to win at 2.4 and for the home team to win the game at odds of 3.0. 

Betting tip- This fixture has produced under 2.5 goals in the last 5 seasons and the odds of it occurring again from Betfair is 1.58.  Knowing my luck it will be 3 goals in the first 15 minutes, but I’ll be following the stats and backing unders as these games seem to always pretty tight.  This match usually has some tasty challenges, so there should be some yellow cards shown,  If you can find a bookings market on an of the betting sites then I would back small, Mascherano, Scholes and Carragher all to be booked.

UPDATE: -  An early goal from United set this game up to have a potential of alot of goals.  Unfortunately for me then I backed under 2.5 goals.  Liverpool played the better football overall and deserved the three points, but without the mistakes made from United it didn’t look like they were going to score without Torres playing.  Hopefully there will be a change of betting luck soon!!

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