Tottenham -1.5 to beat Bolton 860/1000
Tottenham’s five game winning streak is currently the longest in the Premier League. They have also won their last four games in the league by two goals.
Sitting in third spot, two points behind Manchester United and with a game in hand, Harry Redknapp’s side are unsurprisingly at very short
odds this weekend (
1/3) to beat relegation-placed Bolton Wanderers at White Hart Lane on Saturday.
Both Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermain Defoe played well in their last outing, while Gareth Bale found his form in November on the left wing. Both Defoe and Bale played in Tottenham’s 2-1 home defeat at the hands of PAOK FC in the Europa League on Thursday night. As did Luka Modric. Rafael van der Vaart had the day off having suffered from a hamstring injury recently. I expect the Dutchman to get his usual 70 minutes this weekend.
Tottenham only have 1 clean sheet in their last 9 league games, and facing Ivan Klasnic doesn’t bode too well for them. However, scoring goals has been their strength this season. Three of their last four domestic games have been 3-1 victories. Bolton have also shipped the most goals this season; 31 in 13 games. Tottenham match up well against a defence that includes Paul Robinson (facing the pacey Aaron Lennon), Zat Knight (dealing with Emmanuel Adebayor) and Gretar Steinsson (facing the in-form Gareth Bale).
I’m not a fan of either Fabrice Muamba or Nigel Reo-Coker trying to protect their back four. I would expect both van der Vaart and Modric in the centre of midfield to have success and space against them.
Tottenham have won 5 of their 7 games by at least 2 goals against teams currently outside the top 7, including a 2-0 wins over both Wolves and Aston Villa. Manchester City and Arsenal are the only teams to prevent Spurs winning by at least 2 at White Hart Lane, where they have beat Liverpool 4-0.
Arsenal to beat Wigan 4/7
Arsenal prevented Premiership Tips another 100% strike rate last weekend with a disappointing performance and 1-1 result at home to Fulham.
Thomas Vermaelen did he best impression of Frank Sinclair to open the scoring for the opposition before heading in an equaliser late on. I expect Arsenal to show an improved performance this week and nothing lackadaisical about it.
Arsenal have only won in 1 of their last 4 visits to Wigan. The last two seasons have seen them throw away leads late on, most famously losing 3-2 two seasons ago. Arsene Wenger’s side won’t be coming up against Charlies N’Zogbia this season and that makes a huge difference.
Wigan have few creative players in their side. Hugo Rodallega is one, but his role is generally as a wasteful striker. However, Wojciech Szczesny should be cautious of the Colombian’s long range shooting skills with the Arsenal goalkeeper showing vulnerability with shots from outside the area this season.
Ben Watson delivers a decent set piece but other than that it is hard to pick out any creative midfielders in the Wigan side. They have scored a league low 12 goals in their opening 13 league games this season to back that point up.
Arsenal have had few problems scoring goals of late. They simply look to their leading Dutchman Robin van Persie who leads the league with 13 so far this season. After a disappointing day against Fulham, a rest during the week with no action will only be good for RvP who many had reported him being fatigued recently.
Either side of van Persie are Theo Walcott and Gervinho. Walcott has looked good down the right wing for over a month now, creating chances for both Robin van Persie and himself with his devastating pace. Gervinho, has good tight dribbling skills and looks both a threat and frustrating figure when he runs into the penalty area.
Wales captain Aaron Ramsey will be playing his first game since the death of Gary Speed last weekend.
Arsenal are a very attractive price and I fully expect them to bounce back from last weekend’s disappointment to secure 3 points this weekend against one of the worst defences and teams in the Premier League currently.
Arsenal -1 can be found at evens.
Manchester United to beat Aston Villa 8/11
A disappointing home draw with Newcastle last weekend was followed up by elimination in the Carling Cup at the hands of Crystal Palace. It’s 3 games in all competitions without a win for Manchester United – can Aston Villa extend that?
When these situations have occurred in the past, Sir Alex Ferguson has got a performance from his team and that’s what I expect to see out Manchester United on TV from 5.30 on Saturday.
Incredibly, Manchester United have only scored more than 1 goal in 1 of their last 8 Premier League games, and that came in a 2-0 home victory against Norwich City. This run has included 1-1 draws at both Stoke and Liverpool, whilst they did beat both Everton and Swansea City 1-0.
Wayne Rooney has gone 7 games in a row without a Premier League goal. Last season’s Dimitar Berbatov hasn’t scored this season in the limited minutes he has been given. Danny Welbeck is still injured. There is still Javier Hernandez to call upon. The Mexican has scored 75% of Manchester United’s Premier League goals in their last 4 games. It will be interesting to see if Federico Macheda makes the bench following his penalty won and converted midweek.
What Manchester United have really lacked during this dry spell is creativity in midfield. Whilst Paul Scholes has been the only creative playmaker in the middle during the most of Sir Alex’s career, the wide men and forward haven’t produced the chances that we’ve seen game after game, season after season from United players in the past.
Here are some Manchester United player stats since beating Chelsea 3-1 on September 18 (total in brackets):
Number of goals
Wayne Rooney – 0 (9)
Nani – 1 (3)
Ashley Young – 0 (2)
Number of assists
Wayne Rooney – 2 (4)
Nani – 1 (3)
Ashley Young – 0 (6)
*Ashley Young has only featured in 4 of Manchester United’s last 8 games.
Whilst it all sounds negative, I am expecting to see an improved performance from these three and the rest of the Manchester United team starting this weekend.
Aston Villa have yet to impress me under Alex McLeish. That despite being 8th in the league. Albeit 7 points behind the team above them and only 2 points ahead of West Brom in 14th.
Gabriel Agbonlahor has been impressive and Darren Bent continues to score goals and Shay Given is keeping the ball out of the net the best he can. McLeish has failed to get anything out of their big summer signing Charles N’Zogbia so far.
Patrice Evra is quick but cannot afford to bomb forward too often to leave his side exposed against Agbonlahor down the right wing who already has a couple of goals against Manchester United in his career. The experience of both Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand combined will have to deal with Darren Bent who finds himself in space time and time again inside the penalty area.
Going forward for Manchester United, Nani down the right wing faces Stephen Warnock whilst Ashley Young will match up against Alan Hutton. Look for Javier Hernandez to create space in the penalty area against Richard Dunne and James Collins.
Their odds aren’t great. The game is live on TV if you want to hold back and
bet in-play, but I remain confident Manchester United take home 3 points from Villa Park this weekend.
Liverpool to beat Fulham 5/4
6th placed Liverpool travel to 15th placed Fulham on Monday night with Kenny Dalglish’s side looking to make it 7 away wins in all competitions.
Whilst 3 of those 6 road victories have been in the Carling Cup, Liverpool have won at both Goodison Park and Stamford Bridge in the Premier League during that time and are playing well of late.
Still behind Chelsea and Newcastle as Kenny Dalglish goes in search of a Champions League place. Liverpool fans will fancy their chances throughout December with a favourable fixture list.
The loss of Lucas through a season-ending injury is a big blow in the centre of midfield with the Brazilian putting in man of the match performances in his last two games alone. With Steven Gerrard also out injured, Dalglish has a decision to make as to who he will play to protect his back four. Young Jay Spearing comes into contention whilst Jonjo Shelvey has been recalled from his loan spell at Blackpool.
Going forward, Liverpool haven’t scored a large number of goals. Their 17 goals is the lowest in the top 7. Luis Suarez leads the team with just 4 goals and hasn’t scored in his last 6 Premier League outings. Andy Carroll has just 2 goals to his name this season.
Despite a match up between a low-scoring offence and a defence that has kept 5 clean sheets so far this season (only Swansea City have more), I think Liverpool have enough talent and form to pick up 3 points from Craven Cottage.
Fulham are coming back from a poor and disappointing performance in the Netherlands, losing 1-0 late on to FC Twente. Liverpool are coming off an impressive 2-0 victory over Chelsea in their Carling Cup quarter final match.
Liverpool won this fixture 5-2 at Craven Cottage, also on a Monday night last season.
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