QPR V Stoke City
Stoke are unbeaten in their last four Premier
League games ( Apart from that one they lost
last week. And the other one - Ed , a run that
included that famous 1-0 win at Man City.
QPR for their part were a shower of murky
sh*te at Old Trafford last time out. A
collective blue and white embarrassment who,
in Rio Ferdinand, now surely possess a player
who along with Charlie Nicholas, David Niven,
Malcolm McLaren and Elvis Presley fits the
criteria for Sick Boy's unifying theory of life
i.e. he's old and he cannae hack it anymore.
Away win.
Betting: Stoke to win at 9/5 (Hills/Ladbrokes).
Aston Villa v Arsenal
Despite their defensive crisis and midweek
Champions League shellacking in Germany,
Arsenal remain odds on across the board for
this. Not cool. Not cool at all. The bet to make
you rich is surely backing over 2.5 goals at
evens. Villa have been flying and should
definitely breach Arsenal's beleaguered back
line while going forward the Arse always have
a goal or two in them.
Betting: Over 2.5 goals at evens (bet365)
Burnley v Sunderland
No team has scored fewer Premier League
goals than Burnley this season and with
Danny Ings again missing it promises to be
another long old afternoon at Turf Moor. The
Black Cats have made a poor start themselves
but possess a bit more collective quality than
the hosts and if anyone is going to shade this
it will be Gus Poyet's men.
Betting: Sunderland (draw no bet) at 23/20
(Bet Victor)
Newcastle v Hull
'Bilton's Banker' this weekend is Hull City. The
Tigers have won on four of their last five visits
to Tyneside and couldn't be facing Newcastle
at a better time. There's trouble brewing up
there and the hatred for the men in charge is
genuine. While 'Pards' is a strong character I
feel he's lost the dressing room with too many
players content to go through the motions.
They were a disgrace at St Mary's last time
out and if they repeat that kind of effort they'll
sink without a trace here.
Betting: Hull City to win at 14/5 (Ladbrokes)
Swansea v Southampton
Both clubs have made brilliant starts and sit
proudly in Champions League spots at the
time of writing. This is a tough match to call
but in Graziano Pelle the Saints have a red-
hot striker (four goals in his last three).
Rather like Rocky Balboa he's a greasy fast
200-pound Italian tank (save for the fact he's
not 200-pounds and Balboa wasn't really
Italian). He's better than 6/1 to score first
though and given he's been on fire lately that
is a price that excites.
Betting: Pelle to score first at 13/2 (Paddy
Power)
West Ham v Liverpool
The Reds looked poor for long spells during
their long-awaited Champions League return
and I am unsure whether they can be trusted
at 5/6 here (particularly having lost to Villa at
home before that). However we've seen how
ruthless they can be away from Anfield when
playing on the counter (33 goals from their
last 11 away games in the league) and
Raheem Sterling's pace may prove too much
altogether for a fairly pedestrian Hammers
defence.
Betting: Sterling to score first at 7/1 (bet365)
Leicester City v Manchester United
The way Van Gaal has bought this year it's
clear he's looking to overrun and out-score
teams without worrying too much if they ship
a few. And against 75% of top-flight teams,
including Leicester, they'll probably be able to
do just that. I'm still waiting for new wheel
trims after Radamel Falcao failed to start
against QPR but despite this the Colombian
has been chalked up as a warm 4/1 jolly to
score first on Sunday. A better bet in my view
is for the Red Devils to win here by two goals
or more. Leicester haven't disgraced
themselves thus far but then again they
haven't played against Angel Di Maria yet. His
display against QPR? Just wow...
Betting: Manchester United (-1) to beat
Leicester at 13/8 (Paddy Power)
Tottenham v West Brom
Firstly Spurs can eat s**t. I had £100 on them
at evens to beat Partizan Belgrade on
Thursday night and I'm convinced their poor
showing in a 0-0 draw sent me into a deep
depression that ultimately caused me to have
an argument with my partner. She went to bed
(so I thought) in a huff and in my post-Europa
League betting malaise I then somehow
thought it would be OK to pleasure myself on
the couch. At the point of climax she's only
come back down the stairs forcing me to
quickly abort my mission. Alas it was too late
and the tell tale signs of man glue on my
tracksuit bottoms left me facing some
awkward questions. As a consequence I write
this from the spare room and I lay the blame
squarely at the door of Harry Kane.
Betting: Tottenham to win 1-0 at 7/1 (bet365)
Everton v Crystal Palace
Everton were absolutely brilliant against
Wolfsburg by all accounts (I didn't see the
game, distracted obviously, given my
aforementioned sticky predicament) but I feel
they have the firepower to really run riot here
against Palace so a few quid on a high
scoring Toffees' win definitely looks the way to
go.
Betting: Everton to win 4-1 at 22/1 (Coral)
Manchester City v Chelsea
What a game to wrap up the weekend. I can't
see the winner of this season's Premier
League title not being one of these two so this
game has huge wider significance. Citeh are
favourites but can be backed at odds against,
but it's worth remembering that Don Jose
masterminded a superb smash-n-grab 1-0
win here for Chelsea last season. His side is
vastly superior this time round and in Diego
Costa they have a direct, physical front man
straight from the Alan Shearer mould. Shearer
himself recently labelled the Iberian "the real
deal" and it's easy to see why. Costa has
smashed seven goals in just four top flight
appearances so I reckon we'd be nuts not to
steam into him at a whopping 13/8 to
continue his goalscoring run at the Ethiad.
Betting: Costa to score anytime at 13/8
(Ladbrokes)