Good morning followers, on this fine Friday. The weekend starts here and so on. The proper football returns this weekend, involving men who are actually paid to play it. I've got nothing against San Marino et al, I'd probably have more in common with them as individuals than those fooking prats in the England team, but they're dogshit at football and I don't want to watch them attempt to play it. I will endeavour to put out a second section this afternoon with some picks from lower leagues in this country and around Europe too. In a few weeks time I am planning on doing an In-Running betting blog with my workmate on a Saturday. We're hoping it'll give you an insight into the mind of an inveterate gambler and hopefully provide some laughs as well as some truly horrendous language! Enough of that, here's some tips...
Arsenal v Birmingham City, Saturday 1500
Now, there are those people who will point to Arsenal's loss at home to West Brom and the fact Brum were comfortably safe last year and tell you this is a tough match for the Gunners. In short, that's crap. If you take a look at Birmingham's results they have only 2 wins from their last 17 matches and they were both at home. The fans are getting on the managers back and it all adds up to a team currently low on confidence. Arsenal have come out of the international break relatively unscathed, only 90's boyband MN8 lookalike Bacary Sagna is a new injury. And he's not going to be a miss when he's been poor for a while now anyway. Arsenal don't lose at home often and are capable of blowing lesser teams out of the water at The Emirates, and that's what I think will happen here. Stan James will give you a -1.75 handicap at 2.1 and I think that's mighty generous of them.
Bolton v Stoke City, Saturday 1500
It has been a suprise to many to see Bolton doing relatively well this season, and even play some nice football. Not to me. If you go back to my Premier League preview I fancied the Trotters to improve under Owen Coyle and they have done just that. I have had a soft spot for Stoke kicking the shit out of the nancies in the Prem, but it's wearing thin when their football is so poor. Pulis has bought the odd flair player like Tuncay, but has then unfathomably benched them or let them leave. Stoke are out of the bottom 3 currently, but that owes more to a never say die attitude and Kenwyne Jones presence than any real skill. I think they'll come unstuck against a Bolton side that have plenty of battle in them too, but have players like Martin Petrov who can do major damage. The match odds seem plenty reasonable to me and I'll take William Hill's 2.25 the home win.
Fulham v Tottenham, Saturday 1500
There will only be one result in this match for me, and that is yet another draw for Mark Hughes specialists. They are the cream paint of the Prem, utterly nondescript and fairly unoffensive. They will start picking up wins at home at some point I think, but it'll be against a worse team than Harry 'Bare bones, droopy faced twat' Redknapp's outfit. They are again facing a daunting Champions League tie against Inter Milan, which they will lose and Eto'o will score, and may rest anyone who has a slight strain. Some of you might fancy Fulham to take advantage of that, and fair play if you do, but with no fit strikers I think we could see a fairly low scoring draw. Coral are the biggest price at 3.3 so I'll have that.
Manchester United v West Brom, Saturday 1500
This is an intriguing match up for me. WBA will still be on a high from their amazing win at Arsenal before the international break, and United are in something of a mess. Rooney's contradiction of Fergie's 'ankle injury' statement a few weeks back will make it very interesting to see if Red Nose still thinks no-one is bigger than the club. It should be an easy decision, I'd drop him just for being absolutely toilet for the last 6 months anyway. He has never been World Class, he's a good player in the Prem who's serious lack of touch would be shown up in 5 minutes in Spain. I think West Brom might grab a goal here, but I'd fancy United to win which means over 2.5 might be the bet here, but not at odds of 1.5! Betfred go 4.5 on a Draw HT/ Utd FT and I'd rather take a punt on that.
Newcastle v Wigan, Saturday 1500
These are my 2 teams not to bet on the match result! Both are hugely unpredictable and therefore calling a result is a minefield. A quick glance at Wigan's goals clumn reveals that away from home they're actually pretty tight at the back only conceding 2 goals in 2 games away from the DW. Maybe they like playing in front of more than 8 people? Newcastle have scored 7 in 3, but 6 of those came in one game against Villa. I think there's some value in under 2.5 goals in this. Stan James go 1.8 on that and I'm happy with that.
Wolves v West Ham, Saturday 1500
Good Lord this could be shit! Two of the bottom 4 meet at Molineux and I don't think there will be much for the neutral in this one. West Ham are without an away win since winning here on the first day of last season. Wolves have not been performing well at all so far this season and are fast gaining a reputation for being a horrendously dirty side. Their 'tough-tackling', read dirty get, Karl Henry is suspended and this should see Scotty Parker dominating midfield. He and Mark Noble have been the Irons best players so far this year and I think they can get another rare away victory because of that. Betfair are currently 3.55 on the away win and I think that's a great bet.
Aston Villa v Chelsea, Saturday 1730
If Chelsea have a bogey team then it's Villa, as strange as that may seem. They have only 1 victory against them in recent seasons and that makes this a very interesting game. If Chelsea were to lose, making it 2 losses on the spin, then we might seean uncharacteristic wobble. With John Terry still looking likely to be out and with their best centre back Alex also injured it could see 18 year old Jeffrey Bruma drafted in. Now, having seen him in action in pre-season this would worry me, because he's gash. If you throw 'Big' John Carew up against him then I think he might see the first man to shit himself live in the Premier League. This would also see Marc Albrighton up against Paulo Ferreira, another chance for Villa to take the intiative. I'd love to see them win to open up the title race again, but I'm not certain enough to back them outright. Far better to get on Villa and the Draw in the Double chance market, odds of 2.1 are widely available and that's my bet.
Everton v Liverpool, Sunday 1330
Let's all take a minute to laugh at Liverpool first. Ok? All done? The back to it. The constant 'we were great in the 80's so it's our rightful place at the top' has worn incredibly thin for me. It was 20 years ago now, it is no more significant than in the 1930's when Huddersfield dominated, and I don't hear them piping up? The court case this week has also turned into a complete farce and it must be affecting the players and management in some way. Everton finally got a win in their last match at Brum and will take some confidence from that. However, they need their strikers fit and firing to really improve. I might have acheeky bet on 1-1 for this game I think and Stan James will give you 8.0 on that, only half stakes for me though.
Blackpool v Manchester City, Sunday 1600
It shouldn't need saying, but this is the sort of game City must win if they are to seriously make a push for the title. If Chelsea do fail to get a result then they can cut the gap and Mancini should use that to fire them up. Hopefully poor little lamb Carlos Tevez will manage to get out of bed and not to retire as he is key to City. Sir Wrigley dropped a huge bollock in letting Tevez slip away as he has proved that given a run he will score plenty of goals, more than Rooney this season I'd be willing to bet. I think that as usual City wil start cagey and not to concede before going for it after the hour if they aren't yet ahead. Ian Holloways men have performed admirably this season, but City's power was too much for Chelsea and should be far too much for the men from the seaside. I can't get excited about match odds of 1.6 so I'm going to back Tevez to score anytime at 2.0 with Stan James.
Blackburn v Sunderland, Monday 2000
This match sees the 2 biggest gobshites in Prem managers go head-to-head. Big Fat Sam Allardyce literally can't keep his shut for want of self-promotion or sucking up to Fergie. And Bruce just will never accept that a match was lost because his team didn't perform. There's an argument that he is deflecting negative press from the players, but sometimes they need to hear it. Lee Cattermole is a case in point. He's a fine defensive midfielder when on the pitch, but he's not on it enough. Bruce's refusal to condemn him for being nothing short of a right dickhead means he carries on making silly challenges and berating referee's. And Allardyce is just a prick. His teams wont go down, they'll bully their way to enough victories to ensure it, but to listen to him you'd tink he'd invented total football. What a prat. Enough ranting, this has got home win written all over it for me, probably with cattermole getting sent off again as it gets 'tasty'. Willaim Hill go 2.15 on the home win so I'll take them on.
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