Saturday 30 September 2006

The lunchtime kick-off sees Bolton host Liverpool. The reds are back to their brilliant best with Gerrard on form and Kuyt on fire. But Bolton have been a bogey team for Liverpool in the past with Kevin Nolan the most likely scorer. Keeping recent form in mind, it is best to stick with Liverpool to win.

Arsenal make the short trip to Charlton and this will surely be another game that follows the form book. Ian Dowie has not had much success recently and the Gunners are once again firing on all cylinders. Expect Henry to carry on his campaign for the golden boot.

Chelsea v Aston Villa. Martin O'Neill's undefeated status is going to be seriously challenged this Saturday. The brilliant Shevchenko must be good for a few goals soon and Lampard is once again scoring for fun. It will be a tight game but with Cech in goal, the champions could just clinch it.

Everton will roar back from their lacklustre draw at Newcastle with a convincing victory over struggling City. It will add misery to Stuart Pearce and could see him being replaced by big Sam or maybe even Alan Curbishley.

The late afternoon kickoff at Bramall Lane could see Sheffield United notch their first win of the season over an inconsistent Middlesbrough side. Expect plenty of goals.

Blackburn are moving along nice and slowly but Wigan have been showing resilience so expect a stalemate at Ewood Park.

Manchester United may have faltered in dropping points to Reading but you can never discount them at home and the red's defence should be a match for Newcastle's inconsistent strikeforce.

The most likely location for a no score draw this week is at Vicarage Road with Watford and Fulham yet to show their fangs.

Reading will be on a high and will be looking to take advantage over a West Ham side on a bad streak. But the east enders are strong in spirit and should be able to recover from the disrupting Argentinian invasion to get atleast a point.

Tottenham do not look like reproducing last year's performances and results and it will be a case of the returning midfielders of Davis and Mendes from down south who will be celebrating come the final whistle.

Bet of the Day

A triple of away wins in Arsenal, Liverpool and Portsmouth. ( 11-1 with Wills)

Predictions

Blackburn 2 - 2 Wigan (2-1)
Bolton 1 - 2 Liverpool (2-0)
Charlton 1 - 3 Arsenal (1-2)
Chelsea 2 - 1 Aston Villa (1-1)
Everton 3 - 0 Man City (1-1)
Man Utd 2 - 1 Newcastle (2-0)
Sheff Utd 3 - 2 Middlesbrough (2-1)
Tottenham 1 - 2 Portsmouth (2-1)
Watford 0 - 0 Fulham (3-3)
West Ham 1 - 1 Reading (0-1)

Update

A better week this time round with 3 perfect score predictions. The big surprise came from Reading's brilliant display to snatch a point from Man United which saw my quadruple come to an abrupt end.

Arsenal and Liverpool were both outstanding and they look to be the bankers for the following week despite their extra Champions League games in midweek.

With most of the teams having played 6 games each, we are having a good idea on who's who and what's what and this will surely mean more correct predictions.

Most interesting game of the week had to be Portsmouth v Bolton dubbed the clash of the 'alleged' dodgy managers.

Saturday 23 September 2006

One entry for this weekend's 10 fixtures.

Another London derby, another predicted win for Chelsea over their next door neighbours Fulham. Liverpool are on the way up and should beat Spurs who have not looked that great recently.

Man City are down in the dumps and West Ham can take advantage and grab all 3 points at the Eastlands. Yakubu will surely find the net against Rovers after missing a string of chances last week while a few miles away, Newcastle's home advantage should be enough to hold off Andrew Johnson's Everton.

Portsmouth will continue their record breaking form and notch another one nil win against Bolton to leave the fans singing 'we are going to win the league' once again.

Reading have not looked bad at all and do not seem out of place in the Premiership but Man U are in a completely different league and will bounce back from their first defeat of the season.

Watford did well to nick a point off Aston Villa and I can see them repeating that against Wigan. But it could be a different story if Wigan's front men up their game.

Arsenal were back to their brilliant best at Old Trafford and I doubt there will be an upset against the Blades. Aston Villa and Charlton are my no score draw for this week.

Bet of the Day

A quadruple: Arsenal, Portsmouth, Chelsea and Man U to win. A tenner wins £32 with William Hill. Not a great return but fair considering the teams chosen.

With Newcastle failing to score in the midweek loss to Liverpool, I will once again keep faith in the lively Duff and wager on him to score anytime against the Toffees.

Predictions (Actuals in red)

Arsenal 3 - 0 Sheffield Utd (3-0)
Aston Villa 0 - 0 Charlton (2-0)
Fulham 0 - 2 Chelsea (0-2)
Liverpool 2 - 1 Tottenham (3-0)
Man City 0 - 1 West Ham (2-0)
Middlesborough 1 - 1 Blackburn (0-1)
Newcastle 2 - 1 Everton (1-1)
Portsmouth 1 - 0 Bolton (0-1)
Reading 0 - 2 Man United (1-1)
Wigan 1 - 1 Watford (1-1)

Weekend Update!

Not a good start to the predictions. All was going well on Saturday with Pompey recording their 5th clean sheet of the season and a win that sent them top of the table. The only other correct result from that day was the Reading-Sheffield match which also managed to generate a correct score result.

Everton were really unlucky not to get all 3 points but AJ once again showed his shooting credentials.

Chelsea got their revenge over the Kop for the Community shield defeat early on and it was no surprise to see a red card being shown albeit I would have predicted it to be Gerrard or Lampard to be sent off rather than the midfield general Ballack.

Newcastle have left me eating the proverbial pie with Martins coming up trumps and opening up his account. I really thought the Hammers would be too strong at home but it looks like Newcastle are beginning their annual surge up the table earlier than ever.

A very close game at Ewood Park with own goals for both teams and Rovers are proving that they have the squad to concentrate on both domestic games and in Europe.

A correct result at White Hart Lane with no goals for either team.

Arsenal did well to win without Henry and Man U suffer their first loss of the season which sees Portsmouth stay top of the table. Hopefully this will see the gunners mount a serious challenge to keep everyone guessing on the eventual winners come May 2007.

This concludes the weeks prediction results: 4 out of 10.

A success rate of 40% is a tad low and is not much better than rolling a dice to predict win lose or draw. Lets hope the percentage will inrease come next week.

Wednesday 20 September 2006

Liverpool v Newcastle

Can Liverpool avoid 3 defeats on the bounce? Both teams have barely rested since their Sunday battles and it looks to be a low scoring game. Gone are the days when we looked forward to the breath-taking 4-3 results between these two well supported clubs.

With Duff back to his brilliant best, we should see some great attacking football from the Magpies. Expect yet more tinkering from Benitez as he avoids another defeat and attempt to live up to the pre-season hype of title challengers. A one all draw is the prediction.

Bet of the Day

Damien Duff to score the first goal. (14 to 1 with William Hill)

Predictions

Liverpool 1 - 1 Newcastle (2 - 0)

Sunday 17th September 2006

Chelsea v Liverpool

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez must have gave a big groan when he saw the fixture pile-up from hell arriving so early on in the season. He has had to contend with a Merseyside derby followed by a Champions League game against PSV and now a match with the champions. We can be sure of Gerrard starting with the lanky Crouch partnering Fowler but even the return of the 2 England internationals can not see the reds stopping Chelsea repeating last year's result and possibly more.
Schevchenko is looking better and better and a brace of goals will surely be added to his name. (3-0)

Manchester United v Arsenal

The other clash of the titans will be staged 200 miles from Stamford Bridge, where the gunners will be looking for their first league win of the season. But the 1999 Champions League winners are looking invincible at the moment and Ronaldo and Rooney will be too much for the travellers. United are without the wingmen of Giggs and Park but the ommission of Henry and van Persie will be much more telling for Wenger's team. Arsenal have not beaten United in their last 8 league encounters and surely this will stretch to 9 with Manu continuing their 100% record. (2-0)

Blackburn v Manchester City

City should make it a clean sweep for the Manchesters this Sunday and beat Rovers comprehensively. Hamann should be making his debut for the club and Blackburn's extra midweek game will prove to be a factor in them staying on 2 points come the final whistle. (0-3)

Tottenham v Fulham

A London derby and difficult to call. Fulham had a great result against Newcastle in their previous game and will do just enough to edge out a draw. (1-1)

West Ham v Newcastle

The hammers will see their midweek fortunes reversed against a weak looking Newcastle side. I still can not see where the goals will be coming from until Martins gets his shooting boots on and will not be surprised to see the two Argentinians of Tevez and Mascherano helping West Ham give the visitors a real hiding. (3-1)

Bet of the day

Go for a treble, home wins for West Ham, Chelsea and Manchester United. Odds of 21/5 with Ladbrokes. ( 10 pound bet wins 52.25 )



Predictions

Blackburn 0 - 3 Manchester City (4-2)
Chelsea 3 - 0 Liverpool (1-0)
Manchester United 2 - 0 Arsenal (0-1)
Tottenham 1- 1 Fulham (0-0)
West Ham 3 - 1 Newcastle (0-2)

Saturday 16 September 2006


The lunch-time kickoff (12:45) at the Valley sees Charlton host Pompey. The boys from the south are enjoying some good luck lately and I see last year's scoreline being reversed with Harry's blue army taking the win 2-1. One possible hiccup could be the rumours of Mr. Wheeler and Dealer's 'bung scandal', I bet the Portsmouth training sessions have been rife with whispers. But nevertheless, big Sol and ol' calamity should be strong enough to keep the goals against down to 1. (1-2)

I can see Bolton seeing off Boro with Anelka hitting the winner at the Reebok (1-0), Everton should easily get past Wigan after their uplifting derby win with good old AJ terrorising the Latics defence but I wouldn't discount Heskey coming back to haunt his old Merseyside nemesis. (3-1)

Elsewhere we have Sheff Utd versus Reading and there is nothing to suggest the outcome to be anything but a win for Steve Coppell's men. (1-2)

Finally, Aston Villa travel to Watford for the late afternoon kick-off and with the continued resurgence under miracle man O'neill, the boys in the Mcdonalds-coloured kit will still be looking for their first premiership win when they travel to Wigan next Saturday. (0-3)

Bet of the Day
My money is on Everton to win 3-1 with Andrew Johnson scoring first. (35 to 1 with William Hill)


Predictions (Actuals in red)

Bolton 1 - 0 Middlesborough (0-0)
Charlton 1 - 2 Portsmouth (0-1)
Everton 3 -1 Wigan (2-2)
Sheffield United 1 - 2 Reading (1-2)
Watford 0 -3 Aston Villa (0-0)