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 15^thplaced 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 70^th 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

 Have a good week-end and happy punting

Betting tips-It’s easy to go for the favourites Manchester United to win this cup final based on current league standing, but cup games can always bring results that are against the odds.  I won’t be tipping a winner here, but I will be going for 4 anytime goalscorers in the hope of making some profit.  Firstly for Spurs I’m tipping Pavlyuchenko to score (odds of 3.45), he’s scored in every round so far and he’ll be hoping he can make an impression in the final as well.  Also back last year’s winning goal scorer Woodgate at odds of 14.0 to make a repeat in the 2009 Wembley final.  For Man United, back Tevez to get the ball in the back of the net (odds of 2.52), he’ll also be wanting to score in the final after having previously scored in every round of the cup so far.  Finally back old the ex Tottenham player Carrick to score against his old team at odds of 7.6 from Betfair.

The Premiership takes a break this weekend and it’s back to the International World Cup fixtures.  With two wins out of two for England, everything looks rosy for them…..until the next bad performance and the fans boo them again.

England v Kazakhstan

A nation expects an easy England win here, but the nation should know by now that it’s never easy when England play the ‘smaller’ teams!!!  There’s no doubt that the confidence will be back in the England team after the win against Croatia, but there seems to be very little point in backing them to win as they are priced at a measly 1.07 on Betfair to beat Kazakhstan. 

Betting tip (loser): The England strikers are expected by the bookies to score goals at Wembley and that’s reflected in the way they’ve been priced.  It might be best to go with either Lampard or Gerrard to get a goal from midfield.  I’ll be backing Gerrard at odds of 2.46 on Betfair to score at anytime.

Scotland v Norway

After Scotland lost to Macedonia in their opening game, they managed to the 3 points against Iceland and they’ll be looking to follow up that victory with a win against Norway.  Norway on the other hand have only played 1 game and only have 1 point.  With Holland in their group it may be a case of which team can finish second after the Dutch.

Betting tip (loser): John Carew has be on great form for Aston Villa and hopefully he will be able to continue this for his country.  Let’s back him at 3.46 to score at anytime, price can be found on Betfair.

UPDATE- Although there were alot of goals in the England match, unfortunately none were scored by Gerrard, making the first losing bet of the weekend.  Well I should get some credit for this game, I did predict that there would be boos at Wembley, I’m sure Lampard will be relievedgutted that his Chelsea teammate Ashley Cole was booed! The Scotland match produced no goals, meaning we lost our second bet of the weekend, hopefully we’ll have better luck with the next round of games.

Belgium v Armenia
Bulgaria v Italy
Denmark v Malta
England v Kazakhstan
Estonia v Spain
Faroe Islands v Austria
Finland v Azerbaijan
Georgia v Cyprus
Germany v Russia
Greece v Moldova
Holland v Iceland
Hungary v Albania
Luxembourg v Israel
Poland v Czech Republic
Romania v France
San Marino v Slovakia
Scotland v Norway
Serbia v Lithuania
Slovenia v Northern Ireland
Sweden v Portugal
Switzerland v Latvia
Turkey v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Ukraine v Croatia
Wales v Liechtenstein

Tottenham v Hull- Can Spurs win their first league game this season? Or will they be beaten by Hull at home like their red rivals last week?  Hull have yet to lose on the road this season and will definitely give Tottenham a hard test.  The last time the two teams played each other in the league, Spurs came out 1-0 winners, but that was in 1978!!

Betting tip (LOSER):Tottenham haven’t looked a threat upfront and it’s very hard to tell where the next goal is coming from, but Hull have yet to keep a clean sheet.  If Spurs can get ahead then they’ll have a chance at picking up the three points.  But I’ll be looking at the ‘Over 2.5 goals’ market and backing ‘Over 2.5 goals’ at odds of 1.81.   It might be interesting to also look into Fraizer Campbell to score against Hull, the team he was on loan to last season(if he starts).

Man City v Liverpool- Richard Dunne is an injury doubt for Manchester City, but Bulgarian Martin Petrov could start.  City have won three out of their six league games this season and Liverpool  can boast an unbeaten record. 

Betting tip (WINNER): City have not scored against Liverpool in the league for over 9 hour of football and the scoreline between the two teams has either been 0-0 or 0-1.  But I’m going to go against the odds here and back ‘Over 2.5 goals’ at odds of 2.28 on Betfair.  Liverpool have some fantastic attacking players and I will hoping(preying) that City can score at least one goal against their mean defence!!  Let’s hope in the selected matches it will be raining goals!!

UPDATE- It was one winning and one losing bet for the weekend, backing over 2.5 goals made an easy winning bet for the City match where the score ended up as 3-2 to Liverpool.  Although it was the Spurs match which let us down this weekend, Tottenham just couldn’t break down a resilient Hull defence. Backing over 2.5 goals in a Tottenham match may not prove to be so profitable this season with them finding it hard to hit the back of the net.

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

This fixture last season was Ramos’ first game in charge of Tottenham, the scoreline ended in a draw at 1-1.   Both teams have a poor opening day record, losing the opening fixtures for the last two seasons.  This game looks like it could be a tough one for Spurs, a draw may be the best to bet on if you are looking at the ‘Match odds’ market. 

Betting tip-  Darren Bent has been on great form in pre-season, which obviously means he will not score for the whole season!!  But I’ll be backing him in the ‘To Score’ market at odds of 3.1 today on Betfair, with Keane gone and Berbatov’s depature imminent, he will have to take on the scoring responsibilites.