Premiership 22 - 23rd Aug

[slick]

Tonights games..Info from skysports.com

Watford v West Ham

Watford's first home match back in The Premiership pits The Hornets against the side they will be hoping to emulate this season - West Ham.

Aidy Boothroyd will have viewed with interest opposite number Alan Pardew's blueprint for survival, after The Hammers impressed many observers last season following their promotion via the play-offs.

Without the financial clout of his rival, the emerging Boothroyd will have to rely heavily on his tactical acumen, but the early signs are that the former West Bromwich Albion youth team coach will not be found wanting.

The Hornets were unfortunate to earn scant reward for a direct, hard-working performance at Everton, with Boothroyd lamenting a contentious 82nd minute penalty award which ushered his side to a 2-1 defeat.

Despite that setback, Watford proved in their first 90 minutes that they will be no pushovers in exalted company.

Boothroyd is expected to keep faith in the main with Saturday's squad - centre back Jay DeMerit is poised for a recall, though, after shaking off the ankle injury which saw teenager Adrian Mariappa pressed into action at the weekend.

The Hammers make the 45-mile trip north in good heart after coming from behind to defeat 10-man Charlton 3-1 at Upton Park.

Pardew is not expected to make many changes after reporting a clean bill of health from the weekend, but he will still be without waif-like winger Matthew Etherington, while Dean Ashton is on the long-term injured list.

New signing Jonathan Spector is added to the squad after recovering from the shoulder injury that ruled him out of USA's World Cup campaign.

If Watford are to get off and running, they will first have to get a monkey off their back - The Hornets have failed to defeat Tuesday's visitors in their last ten matches at Vicarage Road, with West Ham claiming eight wins in that time.

Another portent to worry home supporters has been The Hammers' prolific form away from home since their promotion to the top flight - only the Premiership's top three scored more goals away from home than The Hammers last season.

Skysports.com Prediction: 2-2
Entertaining fare as The Hammers claim a hard-fought point.

Player to watch:
Nigel Reo-Coker

Spurs v Sheff Utd

Tottenham entertain Sheffield United as they open their home campaign in The Premiership.

Spurs are still licking their wounds following their opening day defeat at Bolton and coach Martin Jol will be looking for an immediate response.

The Blades' daunting start to the new season continues, but they unlike Tottenham are in buoyant mood after claiming a 1-1 draw with Liverpool - a game they could easily have won.

Tottenham are ready to make changes - one of which could be Jermain Defoe missing out.

The England striker is struggling with a bruised foot he picked up at The Reebok Stadium and will undergo a late fitness test before Jol decides whether to stick with him or hand a recall to Robbie Keane.

Finnish midfielder Teemu Tainio is also available again and he could very well be pitched in from the start given Spurs' sluggish start at Bolton.

Captain Ledley King remains sidelined and is still a few weeks away from full fitness.

United boss Neil Warnock has no fresh injury worries for the trip to North London.

Craig Short has been ruled out of action for two weeks following his late withdrawal from Saturday's match with Liverpool.

Warnock has added four new faces to his squad, with Nick Montgomery, Rob Kozluk, Alan Quinn and Ian Bennett all now fighting for a role at White Hart Lane - although changes are likely to be minimal.

Summer signing Claude Davis has started training but is unlikely to be considered until next month.

Skysports.com Prediction: 2-0
Spurs too strong for brave Blades.

Player to watch: Dimitar Berbatov

[mullet1984]

Hi guys. My specialist subject. Betting on my my team spurs. Just about to head off to the lane. Here's what i put on sports-punter

Spurs v sheff utd

Way too bigger price. He's as short as 10/1 with other bookies. I've got it on good authority he's starting on the left tonight after davids was rubbish on sat. He's capable of scoring goals from midfield and at 20/1 he's got to be value tonight.

2 points Tainio 1st goalscorer at 20/1 with Betfred


We are excellent at home. Tend to struggle against the bottom 3 sides but as we lost on sat, 1st home game of season, defoe and berbatov on fire we should win this 2-0 i think. Will miss ledley though like sat proved so i'm taking the -1 as it is conceivable we may only win 1-0 or 2-1. May be worth a punt on bet365 special that we win from behind at 13/2.

10 points Spurs -1 asian at 1.87 with Betfair

Specualtive scorecast spurs 2-0 tainio 1st goal 66/1 1point with 365.

Watford v West Ham

AB teams attack, so do AP's teams. Bound to be goals. Confidence will be high at both clubs, 1st home game in the prem for watford in 5 years. Both teams went overs on sat so should be at least 3 goals. West Ham i think from memory went over more times than any team and by no means has either got a great defense. Goals 4 me.

10 points over 2.5 goals at 2.08 with betfair

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Cheers for that inside info Mullet. Quite fancied the asian handicap bet on Spurs tonight as the quality should come good.

Sheff Utd have ALWAYS made it difficult for EPL sides at home as its an intimidating place to go whereas away from home they get found out more often than not.

Blackburn boss Mark Hughes will be forced into changes, with defenders Lucas Neill and Andy Todd suspended.

Ryan Nelsen (hamstring) is still struggling but Zurab Khizanishvili (groin) is back in training.

One of Blackburns main strengths of last season was at the back they were relatively strong.

4 defenders, 3 who would def start are all missing so Blackburn are going to be very weak at the back.

Watched most of the Portsmouth game andthey were well and truly outplayed. Really stood out for me just how much they are going to miss Bellamy.

He was an absolute terror to defences and was full of running and would create many chances and score his fair share too.

He leaving has left a huge hole upfront. They have tried replacing him with McCarthy but he just didn't look interested on Saturday and looked very lazy, complete opposite from Bellamy.

Think this game will be rather tight but with Everton having the stronger firepower and defensive injuries for Blackburn i think Everton on the outright and asian handicaps are worthy bets.

[Mix]

Any news for Chelsea ?
Maybe Chealsea is a banker !
I now some players out, like Peter Cech, Makelele ... but there are big number of good players !

[loko_buferche]

I play for win on Bolton! They start the season very strong, and I hope they continued on the same way! Man.Utd crashed Fulam on Sunday, and I think that Fulam can't restore so quickly! This season Bolton were deserted from very much players like Jay Jay Okocha, Ditmar Hamman, Radi Jaidy, Hidetoshi Nakata, Bruno N'Goti nad Halilu Fadiga. The new players are Kuintun Forchun (from Man.Utd), Abdulaite Meite (from Marsilia), Idan Tal (Makabbi Haifa). Deserted footballers is not very big problem, because they were very elderly! The deserted footballers from Fulam are very much too. The new name's are Jimy Bullard (from Uigan), Frank Kedriu (from Middalsboro) and Gabriel Zakuani (from Leiton Orient). I think, that Bolton are very strong physical and holded very experienced team, and I hope,that they win! What do you think?

[mord]

What do you think about Portsmouth today? They look much stronger than last year and they destroyed Blackburn last round very easily. MC didin't impresed me very much. Some info?

[loko_buferche]

Originally Posted by mord

What do you think about Portsmouth today? They look much stronger than last year and they destroyed Blackburn last round very easily. MC didin't impresed me very much. Some info?

I think one win for Bolton!

[Zozo the Duke]

Middlesbrough – Chelsea

Pick: Chelsea (-1) AH
Odds: 1.84 @ Pointbet
Stake: 5/10

Chelsea played some good football against ManchesterCity and managed to beat them with 3:0.Althought not at their full capacity, Chelsea was almost as good as last season. The addition of Shevchenko in the front line to partner Drogba, will make Chelsea even stronger then last year. Now the opposition defense will not be focused only on one striker (the Mourinho past season’s style) then they will have to manage to defend two world class strikers, with pace on the wings in the names of Robben, Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole and support from the world class attacking midfielders, Ballack and Lampard, Chelsea is having one of the strongest offensive lines in the world.

Boro lost more than good manager with the lost of McLaren. They lost experience, knowledge and stability. Boro will have many troubles with Southgate who does not possess enough quality and knowledge to lead a Premiership team. His lack of experience cost Boro a three pts in previous match against newcomers Reading where Boro lost 2:0 lead and at the end got home without a single point.

Boro lost more than points in previous match, they lost confidence and morale. But, they will for sure try to bonce back on this match, but that will be very hard job. Chelsea style is waiting the right chance for scoring a goal and in the meantime they are putting solid pressure to the opponent’s defense. Boro defense is not good enough to hold the Chelsea pressure. I believe that Chelsea will destroy Boro’s wingbacks and with crosses to Drogba and Shevchenko will score few goals.

Southgate main problem is lack of experience. The managers has to have experience to lead a team in the Premier League, and in my opinion, Southgate do not posses that. Tonight playing against one of the best managers in the world, he will look lost again. Despite Chelsea playing away, I believe they will dominate and this match will be one sided. If we know that Boro is not having a great support from the fans, then Chelsea is absolute favorite for this match.

Middlesbrough will play without Arca. Chelsea captain Terry is doubtful but he shoul play tonight. Chelsea are still without Ballack and Makalele.

I would take -1.5 handicap, but I a bit worried about Chelsea 1:0 win satisfaction. In that case the stake will be refunded so, worth a try. I would take this bet earlier when the odds were better, but I just got home.

[XFX]

I had wanted to back bolton and portsmouth for the various reasons as stated in this thread, but both of them were never known to be away teams.

Should be giving them a miss...

Season 05/06

Man C 9 2 8 26 20 29
Portsmouth Away 5 1 13 20 38 16

Fulham Home 13 2 4 31 21 41
Bolton Away 4 6 9 20 28 18

[daikoku]

Originally Posted by mord

What do you think about Portsmouth today? They look much stronger than last year and they destroyed Blackburn last round very easily. MC didin't impresed me very much. Some info?

I'm thinking of taking Pinnacle's offer of Portsmouth +0.25 @ 2.20 Mord. From reading the match reports Kanu made a big difference when he came on as a sub against Man City. Kanu scored a goal to put Portsmouth 2-0 up, it was also 2 fouls on Kanu that got Todd and Neill red carded for Blackburn. Apart from Kanu some Portsmouth fans are claiming it was the best performance in years. Even Alan Hansen (BBC football pundit) described them as excellent.

Apparently Kanu has only had a few weeks pre-season training so he'll most likely feature as a sub again tonight.

We've still to see how Portsmouth will perform away from home this season but I'm thinking that 2.20 looks a great price at the moment.

[mord]

Originally Posted by daikoku

I'm thinking of taking Pinnacle's offer of Portsmouth +0.25 @ 2.20 Mord. From reading the match reports Kanu made a big difference when he came on as a sub against Man City. Kanu scored a goal to put Portsmouth 2-0 up, it was also 2 fouls on Kanu that got Todd and Neill red carded for Blackburn. Apart from Kanu some Portsmouth fans are claiming it was the best performance in years. Even Alan Hansen (BBC football pundit) described them as excellent.

Apparently Kanu has only had a few weeks pre-season training so he'll most likely feature as a sub again tonight.

We've still to see how Portsmouth will perform away from home this season but I'm thinking that 2.20 looks a great price at the moment.

thanks for help mate i was also thinking about portsmouth +0,25, so i will be on them with you @2,22 Betfair

[christianu]

Im a city fan and that 12/5 on a Portsmouth win is value no matter how you look at it.

We have no pace or creativity in our team and we're gonna struggle this season and as muse said we have zilch confidence and pompey are buzzing.

This game could go either way so the value is in Portsmouth.

[mrmuzeman]

Its the only game ive been considering tonight is backing Pompey. Just a confidence thing, 2 teams in different states of mind and form. I dont think there will be anything between these 2 in terms of league position this season tbh like the past 2 seasons. So couple that notion with the form thing and it makes Pompey a good bet at the right odds imo.

Theyve crept on betfair and Mansion today and im thinking of having a nibble. Id like a full blown 3/1 though ideally and mansion very nearly offer it. Regarding handicaps, id rather take Pompey outright, I dont think this is game likely to end in a draw and id have to be worried about that outcome to take a handicap,DNB type bet.

[mrmuzeman]

A few stats on the City/Pompey game, you can often use stats to paint the picture u want I know but it is form related

City are 1-0-10 in their last 11 league games

City kept 1 clean sheet in last 15 league games

Portsmouth have scored in their last 11 league games

So youd certainly be expecting Pompey to score anyway! Due to it being Citys 1st home game of the season I reckon very small stakes is the way to go. I think theres always a little extra onus on a teams chances on their 1st home game of a season.

Still I just got some on Pompey at 4.03 on Mansion I think its worth a small bet.

[slick]

Pompey look a reasonable bet, especially if Weaver is between the sticks as he looked out of sorts on Sunday, overweight and unfit.
I'd be happier if Hart was given the nod if Isaksson does not pass a fitness test to give us a better chance.

I'll be happier still if Reyna plays in his usual position in teh middle of the park as he's our best play maker and god knows what pearce was thinking bunging him out on the left wing on Sunday.

Still its City first home game of the season and they will be looking to impress especially after that dire perormance against Chelsea and knowing City i would not be at all surprised if they won, one of the things we have learnt about City is never to bet for or against them as they are unpredictable and that thought still holds firm tonight.