Tag: Premiership

Premiership Preview Feb 21st – 22nd

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

After last week’s FA Cup matches, the Premiership returns this weekend as Chelsea and Man City renew their chase for the title.

The Blues maintained a 7-point advantage thanks to Willian’s 89th minute winner against a stubborn Everton side last week. They are at home to struggling Burnley while City welcome Newcastle to the Etihad in the late kick-off. Chelsea will be eager to apply the pressure on Manuel Pellegrini’s side by stretching their advantage to ten points.

Chelsea fought out a 1-1 draw in Paris on Tuesday, albeit with a rather negative display. Diego Costa looked a bit rusty after his three-match ban for the stamping incident against Liverpool and will be looking to improve on his performance on Saturday. Burnley have been playing well without much reward in recent weeks. Even if they do break the Chelsea back line, the chances are that the Clarets will concede. The value may be in the goalscorer market with Juan Cuadrado impressing in his limited playing time so far. This could be the ideal platform for the Colombian to open his account for the Blues in a comfortable home win.

City should beat Newcastle, especially now that Sergio Aguero has rediscovered his shooting boots. Two goals against Stoke should have cleared away any cobwebs and he can hit the target again so ensure that City hang on to Chelsea’s coat tails.

There are two cracking games on Sunday with Tottenham facing West Ham and Southampton at home to Liverpool. The Hammers took a beating at West Brom in the Cup while Spurs spluttered to a 1-1 draw against Fiorentina in the Europa League. Sam Allardyce’s side have been suffering with injuries recently and could be on the receiving end of another hiding at White Hart Lane. Mauricio Pochettino tried to rest Harry Kane on Thursday, ironic considering he was a regular starter in Europe at the start of the season before forcing his way into the side. No prizes for imagination but Kane can score in another home win.

Liverpool have scraped a couple of nervous victories with goals from Mario Balotelli recently and it will be interesting to see whether he makes the line-up on Sunday. He did himself no favours with his insistence on jumping the queue to take the penalty. Southampton were unlucky not to get a result at Anfield at the start of the season and can make amends here.

Juan Cuadrado (Chelsea) to score at any time @9-4 Betfred

Chelsea 3 Burnley 1 @12-1 Bet365

Sergio Aguero (Man City) to score first @7-2 Betfair

Sergio Aguero to score 2 or more goals @19-5 Boylesports

Man City 4 Newcastle 2 @50-1 Betfred

Tottenham 3 West Ham 1 @14-1 Coral

Harry Kane (Spurs) to score first @7-2 Coral

Southampton to beat Liverpool at 8-5 Paddy Power

Chelsea to maintain Premiership advantage

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

Chelsea and Manchester City each face tricky opposition on Wednesday night in the Premier League. The London club moved seven points clear of the champions on Saturday courtesy of Branislav Ivanovic’s fine drive against Aston Villa. They now face Everton at Stamford Bridge as leading scorer Diego Costa sits out the final match of his suspension for the stamping incident against Liverpool last month.

Everton have not won at the Bridge in their last twenty visits and were beaten 6-3 in an extraordinary game at Goodison Park earlier in the season. Roberto Martinez’s team were hovering dangerously close to the drop zone before their victory over Crystal Palace recently. A dour 0-0 draw with Liverpool suggests that they have steadied the ship and should provide a tough test for Jose Mourinho’s side. If the Blues are to go on to be crowned champions, these are just the sort of games that they need to grind out a result. Ivanovic scored a vital goal against Liverpool prior to his strike against Villa and looks over-priced in the goals markets.

Manchester City have been poor recently and have only picked up three points in their last four league matches. Sergio Aguero is yet to hit the target since returning from his latest injury while you have to go back to September to find Edin Dzeko’s last goal. They travel to Stoke who are in great form at present. Mark Hughes had the satisfaction of inflicting a rare home defeat on Manuel Pellegrini’s side earlier in the season and his side can cause further problems on Wednesday.

How ironic to hear Sam Allardyce criticising Manchester United for their long-ball tactics at the weekend. This is Big Sam who was positively purring with delight after parking a claret and blue bus in front of goal against Chelsea last season and escaping with a point. The Hammers are a different side altogether this season and now travel to St Mary’s hoping to dent Southampton’s hopes of a top four spot. Both sides have been struggling in front of goal recently and this match could produce a stalemate.

United salvaged a point at West Ham and should have little trouble at home to seventeenth placed Burnley. Wayne Rooney started the season in great form but has not managed a shot on target in nearly seven hours of football this year. Fortunately for United, they have plenty of other attacking options with the unlikely figure of Fellaini providing them with an old-fashioned target man when the chips are down.

The other match that takes the eye on Wednesday is Crystal Palace at home to Newcastle. Alan Pardew will relish the prospect of moving within two points of his former club with a win here. The two previous fixtures between these teams produced eleven goals so it may worth taking a punt on a 3-2 win for the Eagles.

Chelsea to beat Everton by one goal @27-10 BetVictor

Branislav Ivanovic to score first @22-1 BetVictor

Branislav Ivanovic to score at any time @8-1 Betfred

Stoke v Man City DRAW @14-5 Betfair

Southampton 0 West Ham 0 @10-1 William Hill

Man United 3 Burnley 1 @12-1 Bet365

Crystal Palace 3 Newcastle 2 @40-1 Bet365

Chelsea face Man City without Diego Costa

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

Chelsea’s prospects of inflicting a defeat on champions Man City at Stamford Bridge on Saturday were dealt a hefty blow with the news that Diego Costa has received a three-match ban.

The striker was charged with violent conduct for stamping on Emre Can during Chelsea’s midweek victory over Liverpool. Claims that the incident was accidental were presumably brushed aside in view of the fact that Costa had produced a very similar challenge on Martin Skrtel later in the match, although the Liverpool player was also guilty of retaliation.

The ban will provide further for conspiracy theorists, Jose Mourinho among them, who believe that there is a campaign against the Premiership leaders. The loss of Costa is a big blow for Saturday’s late kick-off but it could be even worse if Cesc Fabregas also fails to recover from his hamstring injury. The Spaniard is on course to break all records for assists in Premiership football this season and the Blues would undoubtedly miss his creativity in midfield.

Chelsea currently hold a five-point advantage over the champions and there must be an increasing likelihood that they would view a point as a good result. The Blues have won all ten home games so far this season and were only pegged back in the 85th minute in the reverse fixture by a certain Frank Lampard. Allowing Lampard to play in a City shirt this season via New York must go down as a case of neglect by Chelsea. It has already cost them dearly with Lampard rescuing City on several occasions, not just in that 1-1 draw at the Etihad.

City are not exactly on fire at the moment having been beaten by Arsenal in Middlesbrough in their last two games. They will take the FA Cup loss on the chin but they were below par against Arsenal and still do not have Yaya Toure back from the Africa Cup of Nations. The more I look at this match, the more I fear a dour stalemate. If the name of Mikel features in the Blues line-up it seems to safe to assume that Chelsea would settle for a point. It is more a match that neither side can afford to lose than one that they have to win.

Chelsea v Man City DRAW @5-2 Bet365

Chelsea 1 Man City 1 @6-1 Bet365*

*Bet365 will refund correct score bets if the game ends in a 0-0 Bore draw

Want 16/1 on Chelsea, Man Utd and Spurs to win?

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

Who wouldn’t want 16/1 on a 3/1 treble? We have been on the look out for our readers and have come up with this fantastic offer with our friends at Winner.

Chelsea head to Swansea, a team who are playing well enough, but the sheer class of Chelsea should see them leave wales with 3 points. Man Utd head to QPR who are playing like a group of disgruntled teenagers, while Spurs entertain Sunderland at home. In King Kane we trust..

All you need to do is deposit £5 via this link, then place a treble on Chelsea, Man Utd and Spurs to win at 3/1. This will return you £20.03. Then put your £20 free bet on the same selections and you’ll get £60.12. Should all 3 of these selections win you’ll pocket £80.15 in total, which is 16/1 for your £5.

Thank us later.

Friendly reminder – Get on John Carver!

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

Well, what an interesting few days we’ve had. Remi Garde is now the long odds on favourite to become the new Newcastle manager (1/6!) after it was reported the Newcastle board had reached out to him. After doing a bit of digging around, it was reported when he left his previous job he said he wouldn’t consider work before the summer of 2015 for personal reasons.

Even if he did join before the January transfer window closes, could he actually get any business done, could he really improve the squad so they challenge for any titles or trophies this year? Doubtful. Mike Ashley doesn’t seem to want to plough money into the team willy nilly after some high profile flops.

This is all teeing it self up nicely for John Carver to remain as manager until the end of the season. Hell will freeze over before Newcastle get relegated, with sights lowered and exceptions low, Carver could waltz his way through the remainder of the season and get out unscathed, with a high profile Premiership management job under his belt.

Add to this what the great man Jose Mourniho said about Carver at the weekend:

He said to me, ‘if you keep playing like this you’ll get a five-year contract as Newcastle manager’,” Carver said. “It was nice. At the end of the game he said, ‘you deserve the job, you’re ready for it now. He said ‘I hope you get it’. We just laughed and he gave me another hug – he must have hugged me 10 times today.”

After doing some digging, BetVictor offer the same concession as Skybet, that should any caretaker manager take control of 10 or more fixtures, they’ll pay out on that person.

Bet victor are currently 12/1 on Carver, Skybet 8/1.

The way this is going and the fact no real progress has been made thus far with regards to an outside appointment, Carver is 1/3 of the way there for the concession payout.

Worth a punt.

PS. Carver is trading at under 10/1 on betfair, so the 12/1 on Bet Victor wont be around for long.

Premiership Preview 10th-11th January

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

The Premiership returns after last weekend’s FA Cup third round and battle is resumed between Chelsea and Man City.

The two teams are now locked together with the Blues ahead in alphabetical order only. The jury is still out as to whether Chelsea’s awful defensive performance at Tottenham was just a blip or exposed deep-rooted weaknesses in the side. They are certainly no longer regarded as “invincible” having already lost at Newcastle.

They now welcome the Magpies to Stamford Bridge and will be expected to resume normal service. The visitors are yet to find a replacement coach for Alan Pardew and will be without talisman Papiss Cisse, the player almost solely responsible for his side’s last two victories over the Blues. Despite finishing on the losing side at White Hart Lane, Eden Hazard was quite superb and he will relish this game after being rested for the FA Cup win over Watford.

One of the most astonishing statistics is that Cesc Fabregas has created more goals already (14) than any player managed in the entire 2013-14 season. Assuming he remains free from serious injury, he could easily double that tally by the end of the season. Tim Krul is back in goal for Newcastle but I’m expecting him to have a very busy afternoon and am taking Chelsea to win comfortably.

City have coughed and spluttered their way through several games without a recognised striker and now have the luxury of both Aguero and Dzeko for the trip to Goodison Park. Everton are in something of a slump and it is hard to see them turning things around on Saturday. Romelu Lukaku may have bought some valuable time for Roberto Martinez with his last-gasp equaliser against West Ham in the FA Cup last week but this is a much tougher test.

If Chelsea and City record comfortable victories, the match of the day may be the relegation clash between Burnley and QPR. Harry Redknapp’s side have lost their first nine away games, just one short of the all-time record for the Premier League. I have been very impressed with Burnley’s fighting spirit in recent matches, particularly when rescuing points at Man City and Newcastle. I’m going to go out on a limb here and forecast a 3-2 result, although I am not sure which way it will go.

Leicester have also found some battling qualities in recent weeks and can beat Aston Villa at home. Arsenal should be too strong for Stoke on Sunday but the game of the day is the clash between Man United and Southampton at Old Trafford. The Saints have bounced back from a run of five defeats to keep their lofty position in the table. They were deserving winners over Arsenal recently and can hold United to a draw.

Chelsea (-2.0 handicap) to beat Newcastle @6-4 Skybet

Eden Hazard to score and Chelsea win @6-5 Ladbrokes

Burnley 3 QPR 2 @33-1 Bet365

Burnley 2 QPR 3 @56-1 Betfair

Man City (-1.0 handicap) to beat Everton @2-1 Ladbrokes

Leicester to beat Aston Villa @6-5 Bet365

Arsenal (-1.0) to beat Stoke @11-8 Skybet

Man United v Southampton DRAW @14-5 Paddy Power