Neil

Yeah, the BTTS in the Arsenal game is atrocious by itself. Would rather put a couple of score predictions on (2-1, 2-2)

"Main" bet of Arsenal DNB, Chelsea DNB 2 side bets of Arsenal, Chelsea, Celtic treble // Arsenal BTTS and win, Chelsea BTTS and win double

Can get 15/1 on Arsenal, Chelsea and Celtic with Boylesports.

Off to the races at Doncaster on Saturday, any fancies let me know.

May as well get the ball rolling again. GW9: Crystal Palace 1-2 Arsenal Aston Villa 2-2 Everton Liverpool 2-0 West Brom Man Utd 3-1 Stoke City Norwich 1-0 Cardiff City Southampton 1-1 Fulham Sunderland 1-1 Newcastle Chelsea 1-1 Man City Swansea 1-0 West Ham Tottenham 2-1 Hull City I'm going to start putting a quid or 2 on these predictions. Pretty sure I've got 2 or 3 correct scores the past few weeks which would've made a tidy little profit.

Was thinking about doing Arsenal BTTS/Win, Celtic BTTS/win & Chelsea BTTS/win - 75/1 Edit: Possibly add Barca same bet too Quite like the look of Arsenal and Chelsea on those bets. Can get 15/1 on the double, well worth a tenner IMO.

Really? Depends what position we're placing them at. I personally think Lampard is easily one of the greatest midfielders this league has seen in the past 20 years. I'm well aware he has limitations and I'm not saying he's better than certain other midfielders in that time period in other countries, because he's not, but - boring or not - it's impossible to ignore his phenomenal scoring record. It's absurd. That's due to his intelligence, composure and underrated technique. Gerrard, well, I'm obviously biased. He was clearly world-class back in his day but I think his "Captain Liverpool" image masked some deficiencies.

What are people on tonight? Bet-wise, anyway.

I'd be quite interested to read it, actually.

Yup, was gonna say Negredo's started well too. It's almost like they're both quality strikers.

Same. The usual overreaction to anyone from foreign shores coming in and not scoring a hatful immediately. He's already got 3, IIRC he's assisted a couple, and has linked up well. He's doing well, and he'll score plenty more.

Yeah I had a look at Godoy's record - certainly wouldn't have thought they'd seen so few goals if you'd just watched last night's game. Quite a few chances, should've been more goals. Cheating was as clear as you like, it was almost accepted as commonplace and the referee was merely trying to weigh up which ones to take notice of so that it looked vaguely balanced.

Another market I've used this weekend is simply the "team X to score" in-play market. When a team's at 0-0 or 0-1 but you'd expect them to win/at least equalise, you can often get around evens at the 55-60 minute mark. Obviously, have a look into it, see how the match is going before putting some money on it. But it's been pretty profitable for me this weekend, which recovered a fairly dismal Friday night. Also, just team X to score another goal in the match when in-play. Evens with 30 minutes left for a good team to score another goal at any point in the rest of the match is broadly generous.

Think Iceland have a great chance against Croatia. Portugal and France will probably nick through by the odd goal.

Some of the shit that happens in SA is something else. Been watching Godoy v Boca, very entertaining game but the officials were exceptionally bad. First of all Boca aren't awarded a penalty for one of the clearest fouls you're likely to see. Then, the referee initially awards a free kick, then the linesman says its a penalty, cue mass protests from everyone, no-one has a clue what's going on, finally it's awarded as a free kick on the edge of the box. A quiet finish? Not a chance, as a Boca player gets hacked down in the area, and the ref awards a penalty in mere nanoseconds as he sprints to the penalty spot in the most over the top fashion imaginable, seemingly desperate to make amends for earlier decisions. Riquelme scores the penalty to make it 2-2 in the 94th minute. Of course, during this and at full time there's all sorts of mayhem on the sidelines. Mass brawls at full time, including Godoy manager and former Boca hero Martin Palermo understandably pissed off.

how many are out of contract in the summer and will firstly not be giving a shit, and secondly cost a fucking fortune to replace.? the Mon after effect in full flow. About 7-8 players I think. Apparently That jackareery fella is back off to Italy in jan for the same price they bought him for, so I wonder what kind of application he's going to put in till then. Where's this from? Rtg - Sunderland Journo reckons inter want him for what Sunderland paid and he wants out as he was sold a lie. Can't be doing his World Cup hopes any good, theres players playing well enough to dump him out of the squad too. What was he thinking, seriously? He may not have been getting a load of time in Serie A but how is going to Sunderland ever going to improve your chances? Was it money? They could have lied all they want. If he wasn't able to see what Sunderland are - i.e. a shite team - then that's his problem. Bold. They tripled his wages. Tough shit. Not that I blame him for still wanting out ASAP, of course. But anyone going from Juventus to Sunderland seriously needs their head checking.

The definition of 'meh' so far, IMO. Seen a few signs of him being a really handy player to have - someone to drive forward from midfield - but also seen some clumsy moments. See how he does the next couple of months, then I'll decide whether he's Bobby Charlton v2.0 or worse than Alex Nyarko. What is for sure is we'll need him to play well. Gibson's now crocked, Barry is still Barry despite being a little better than what I thought, and Osman's been miles from his best so far this season.

how many are out of contract in the summer and will firstly not be giving a shit, and secondly cost a fucking fortune to replace.? the Mon after effect in full flow. About 7-8 players I think. Apparently That jackareery fella is back off to Italy in jan for the same price they bought him for, so I wonder what kind of application he's going to put in till then. Where's this from? Rtg - Sunderland Journo reckons inter want him for what Sunderland paid and he wants out as he was sold a lie. Can't be doing his World Cup hopes any good, theres players playing well enough to dump him out of the squad too. What was he thinking, seriously? He may not have been getting a load of time in Serie A but how is going to Sunderland ever going to improve your chances? Was it money? They could have lied all they want. If he wasn't able to see what Sunderland are - i.e. a shite team - then that's his problem.

Early signs are promising. Even in the back-to-back 0-0s, I saw positive signs. We just lacked someone to convert domination into goals, but we have that someone now - at least for the short-term. We still have a way to go to fully develop into Martinez's side, and it does take time. Pleased so far though, and I've enjoyed watching us play more than any year I can remember for a long time. I definitely think when properly on song, we'll give a few teams a hiding this year. Likewise, I wouldn't be surprised to see us concede plenty more goals this year. I guess that's the price you pay, and it's a price which I think is entirely worth paying.

What a game in Turin. Torino score in the last minute to rescue a point, 3-3.

Handanovic sent off after 5 minutes for Inter. Torino missed the penalty.

A bit?

Nope. No, really, I can't. It's all over the place.

Was the best part of £100 down over the past couple of days, but £10 on a Verona/Hamburg-Stuttgart double with BTTS in each came in at 16/1. Really liking the match result/BTTS combined market, some real value IMO.

Yup. He consistently tries to edge out teams in big games rather than just going for it and seeing what happened. Not one single away win in those games. It's beyond laughable and it's all down to the way he set us up. Try to nick a goal, keep it tight and so on. What he's doing at Man Utd will not change my mind about what he did at Everton. He stabilised us and got us moving in the right direction on a tiny budget. It can't be underestimated how well he did in that respect. He also got us playing progressively better football year on year. He just doesn't have that natural winning mentality, IMO. Now, mix that with a club who are used to winning week in, week out, year in, year out and supporters who have to come to expect that - many of whom won't even know what it's like for Man Utd not to be winning all the time - and you have a recipe for disaster. I think they'll improve as the season goes on and finish 3rd. Can't see them getting that far in Europe, so I guess FA/League Cup is their best bet. I doubt that will appease the fans, rightly or wrongly.