Champions League betting tips

Being a Spurs fan, what do I know about the Champions League?! Well, I do know that the English sides are strong in Europe so my accumulator for this week's Champions League fixtures has 3 English teams to win:


Barcelona to beat Basil
Liverpool to beat Athletico Madrid
Manchester United to beat Celtic
Arsenal to beat Fenerbahce


Lets hope these games come in now..!

Torres set to play against Athletico Madrid

After the first three matches Liverpool and Athletico Madrid are both on 7 points in Group D going into tomorrow evening's Champions League match at Anfield.

Fernando Torres has recovered from a hamstring injury and should partner Robbie Keane upfront against his old club. He will have a late fitness test and has a "70% chance of featuring in the game" according to Rafa Benitez.

Sergio Aguero scored twice against Real Mallorca in their 2-0 victory on the weekend and will play against the Reds.

Premiership review - football results 2nd November 2008

After a fascinating weekend of football, the Premiership title race is entering a new phase where the big teams know that one loss can mean that they are off of the pace for the whole of the season. Manchester United are well experienced with this type of pressure with players such as Ryan Gigg and Paul Scholes that have been playing in the Premiership for over 10 seasons. Chelsea are setting that pace currently and on paper probably have the strongest squad but you cannot predict what the next few months can bring in terms of form and in particular injuries to key players.

Liverpool and Arsenal must be the teams most aware of this 'must win' pressure. Both sides are desperate to win the Premiership and have really struggled in recent years to lead the pack with confidence for a prolonged period of the football season. Liverpool have been showing the right type of behaviours - consistency in their first eleven, winning away at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge and (by far the most important) winning by narrow margins when not playing very well. However the Reds wobbled yesterday with a 2-1 loss at White Hart Lane against Tottenham Hotspur. Despite the Harry Redknapp factor, Liverpool dominated hitting the post twice and the bar once. Spurs 'keeper Gomes looked weak to say the least but Spurs managed to keep the game at 1-1 until the last minute where Pavlichenko snatched a massive win for Tottenham. Liverpool were unfortunate but cannot afford too many more defeats in the Premiership if they are mounting a serious bid to win the title.

Arsenal play the most attractive football in the Premiership in many people's eyes but in the last two games have only got one point. It started with a curnch North London Derby against Spurs where they conceded four - Gallas and Silvestre didn't convince as a robust central defensive partnership and then away at Stoke where the misery worsened when they lost 4-3. The two goals that Arsenal conceded were from Rory Delap throw-ins which have caused many Premiership teams problems were tough to defend but the Premiership winners will be able to deal with that type of set piece pressure. Wenger is now in a tricky position, where their issues at the back and deep midfield are really limiting their success. This may well be something that he has tried to confront with Mikael Silvestre who was signed in August 2008 on a 2 year deal from Manchester United. However the back four of he Arsenal team do have great talent it is apparent that not only are they missing a 'Tony Adams' style centre half but the type of cover that Partick Viera supplied for the Arsenal defenders is now missing. Denilson is a great player but is not neccessarily the best defensive midfielder.

"We tried hard to win but Stoke, at the moment, are very sharp physically," he said. "We looked a bit jaded because we have played a lot of games recently.

"At the moment we are suffering. I don't believe it is confidence; we put a lot in on Wednesday night and we play again in midweek in Europe.

"We have very bad injuries. We have Adebayor, Walcott and Sagna as well as one or two others who have knocks, but that's the kind of game we played here. When you are not as sharp, you are less agile and you can't get as quickly out of tackles."

He added: "We had lots of possession against a team who defended very well and was very well organised, but we were not sharp enough to to create chances with the possession we had."

Maradona set to be named as Argentina's new coach

48 year old Diego Maradona may be confirmed as Argentina's new coach next Tuesday by the Argentina Football Association. If Maradona gets the post, then he will be travelling to the UK when Argentina play Scotland in a friendly. Argentina are struggling in their World Cup qualifying group and are currently third. Undoubtedly Maradona is a player that the Argentinian squad have idolised but the drugs ban that he had does not make him best placed to be a role model for youngsters interested in football.

2 out of 2 - not a great start

It was a 452-1 bet for the Arsenal v Spurs match to finish 4-4, apparently a lucky punter put £10 on it! Stoke beat Sunderland 1-0 with a spirited performance but Chelsea and Vila did win but tips wise I need to go back to the drawing board - ah well we shall see what the weekend may bring...

Head of the Olympics Jacques Rogge has stated that London's new 2012 stadium doesn't need to have an athletics track and therefore could be used in the future for other forms of recreation. The IOC boss said: "If the best solution is to transform the track into something else then we would be in favour of that."

Tottenham's Daniel Levy said that he did consider this as a potential option for Spurs and West Ham United have been rumoured to be interested in the proposition.

Hull 0 Chelsea 3

Hull City's outstanding winning streak was brought to an end last night by an outstanding Chelsea team. The first goal you have to check out - Frank Lampard has been displaying world beating midfield skills recently and this delicate chip was another example of why he is one of the easiest choices for Capello to make in the England set up. Anelka added a second which made Hull crumble against the Premiership high flyers and Malouda scored to truly finish off the Premiership new boys. On reflection Phil Brown will take this as education for his team that have so far over delivered - 7-8 more wins and they will have secured premiership safety which is amazing with the resources this club have.

North London derby game of the season

Arsenal 4 Tottenham H 4

An 8 goal thriller at the Emirates stadium was the game of the night of the midweek fixtures. A potential goal of the season from David Bentley opened up the game and forced even more pressure on the Spurs defence as a result. From a football spectator's point of view this was a classic but defensive/goalkeeping coaches would have been cringing. Both Almunia and Gomes made terrible errors as well as Clichy and Hutton - but this contributed hugely to the entertainment factor. On this evidence, Arsenal have the same beautiful game that we know of but are defensively too naive to win the Premiership as things stand. Tottenham Hotspur need strengthening but Harry Redknapp has galvanised his squad giving the players more spirit and confidence. All four goalscorers for Spurs were English (Bentley, Huddlestone, Bent and Lennon) which is also an encouraging positive point for the international scene.

Paolo Maldini looking forward to teaming up with Beckham

AC Milan veteran Paolo Maldini backs Beckham's imminent loan move to the Italian club as not just a means of keeping fit but that he is still hungry for success at the very highest level. Despite the deal being not completely signed and sealed it looks on the cards that he will be joining Kaka, Ronaldinho and other big footballing stars.

"Beckham is coming here to train, to remain in good form and to still be an important part of his national team," Maldini said.

"Milan has no reservations signing veteran players and has always taken into account the image and communication factors.

"As long as you have image and technical values together, all is well."

NEW Football Betting Tips

I would hate anyone to lump on seriously with any Football Tip I give. Why? Because I have the kiss of death when it come to gambling on anything. However I want to try out a theory which is if I give football tips but don't gamble on them, does my record improve? It may become obvious therfore that I am superstitious when it comes to this stuff but anyway here goes.

On Wednesday there is a full premiership programme (shown below) and I would go for Arsenal to beat Spurs at the Emirates, Aston Villa to beat Blackburn at Villa Park, Chelsea to beat Hull and Sunderland to beat Stoke. Lets see now how good my predictions are....

Wednesday 29th October 2008
Arsenal	vs.	Tottenham	20:00
Aston Villa	vs.	Blackburn	19:45
Bolton	vs.	Everton	20:00
Fulham	vs.	Wigan	19:45
Hull	vs.	Chelsea	19:45
Liverpool	vs.	Portsmouth	20:00
Man Utd	vs.	West Ham	20:00
Middlesbrough	vs.	Man City	20:00
Stoke	vs.	Sunderland	19:45