The vacation is over, the season 2010/2011 in England starts, and we are expecting another great year.
I hope all of the bettors that were with me last year, will stick around for this season as well.
Without any more hesitations let’s look into the teams, the recent changes, and of course the betting previews and verdicts.
Please be warned that the reviews are a bit lengthy since it’s the first round and the information is a bit more.
Most of the games are on Saturday and I will review them in the order they start:
August 14th, 12:45 BST Tottenham vs Manchester City
Prediction: “Both Teams To Score” Odds: 1.72 Bookmaker: Betfair.com
What a great match for a first round in the EPL. Tottenham with hell of a season, getting in the top 4 last season and now getting the opportunity to play in Champion’s League. There’s a small obstacle, the team of Young Boys that they have to surpass in order to get to the groups of Champions League.
City on the other hand also had a good season, finishing 5th only 3 points behind Tottenham, and qualifying for Europa League.
Both teams made changes to their current squads and here they are:
Tottenham bought this season only 1 player that was Sandro Ranieri from Inter, and got back Robbie Keane and Giovani dos Santos, from Celtic and Galatasaray.
The teams let go of the following players that you might not even recognize since most of them didn’t really get a lot of playing time last season: David Button, Sam Cox, Jimmy Walker.
Manchester City, similar to last year spent lots of money on transfers and got the following players: David Silva, Jaja Ture, Jérôme Boateng, Balotelli .
Meanwhile, City let go of a lot of players most of which didn’t get a lot to play last season as well.
The head to head statistic is a bit surprising since, the host Tottenham has a total domination with 9 wins against 1 win for City. The draw is not an option here if we trust the statistics.
What’s expected in the game?
Since it’s the first round, and the teams are still to get in better shape, I expect an interesting game, full of attacks, mistakes, goals and everything that will make the fans happy. Seems quite logical to be looking for the goal/goal here since out of the last 10 games, 8 have finished like that.
August 14th, 15:00 BST Wigan v Blackpool
Prediction: “Both Teams To Score” Odds: 1.94 Bookmaker: Betfair.com
The second game for Saturday, will be between the team that had trouble staying above the red zone last year, and the team that caught the last train for Premier League.
Although these two teams meet for the first time in Premier League, they do share a history in League 1 and Carling Cup. Out of the 8 games played between them 6 have finished with both teams scoring.
Despite the odds in this game, the statistics shows that Blackpool has an advantage over Wigan with more wins 4, against 3 wins for Wigan and 1 draw. If you are more of a risk taker, go ahead for that 5.00 for a Blackpool win.
August 14th 15:00 BST Aston Villa v West Ham
Prediction: “Backing West Ham to win” Odds: 4.30 Bookmaker: Betfair.com
If there’s one game that you would like to pick as a risk taker, this is the one fellow bettors. Although Aston Villa, got the 6th place and a spot in the Europa League, while West Ham was fighting for their spot above the red zone, in the past week important changes happened.
Martin Martin O’Neill left Aston Villa, after an argument with the club’s owner, in a relation to the transfer politic of the club. This will create a lot of confusion in the team and I doubt they will perform as they should.
Meanwhile West Ham, sacked Zola , right after the season ended, and appointed Avram Grant for the new manager. Grant, who had history in Chelsea, then in Portsmouth is now picking up a team that will have to do a lot better this year if they want to stay in Premier League.
I believe that he will take the advantage to hit Villa, when they are most vulnerable right now and an away win is very possible.
August 14th, 15:00 BST Blackburn v Everton
Prediction: “Backing Everton to win” Odds: 2.52 Bookmaker: Betfair.com
After a great season last year, and taking the 10th spot, Rovers will strive this year for improvement. Everton started the season bad, but due to the lots of injured players they had.
At the end of the season, they had a superb winning streak which remained until their last game against Wolfsburg loosing with 0:2. Manchester United’s manager Alex Ferguson has already said that Everton will do really well this year, can he be right?
Can Everton start the season with a victory? I believe so.
August 14th, 15:00 BST Bolton v Fulham
Prediction: “Both Teams To Score” Odds: 1.90 Bookmaker: Betfair.com
Bolton, had to accept the fact that they will place in the lower half of the table, last year. This season their ambition is for something more. This is probably why they played so many warm up games, but with teams out of their league. The only real check was probably the game against the Spanish CA Osasuna where they were able to win 2:0.
They also bought a new forward, the Bulgarian Martin Petrov, who decided to move out of Manchester City, after not getting enough play time last season. And that’s a bit normal due to the overwhelming number of forward players that City bought, I wonder if others will follow what Martin did. Bolton’s other transfers this year: Ivan Klasnic, Marcos Alonso Mendoza,and Robbie Blake.
Fulham, what can we say about them. Hell of a season, maybe not in Premier League, but in Europa League, where they played a final, and were beaten in the extra time with 2:1, after ending 1:1 in regular time.
On 29 July 2010 Mark Hughes was named the successor to Roy Hodgson, signing a two-year contract. Hughes last managed Manchester City, being fired in December 2009.
Last 5 games between these two teams ended with 2 victories for each side and a draw. Last two games have ended over 2.5 goals and only the last one has ended “Both Teams to Score”. Due to this being the first round, I think it will be risky predicting for either team so a goal/goal is my tip here.
August 14th, 15:00 BST Sunderland v Birmingham
Prediction: “Backing Sunderland to win” Odds: 2.32 Bookmaker: Betfair.com
Both teams have the typical image of mid-table teams that always finish somewhere in the middle of the table. Birmingham started the season quite well in the beginning and at one point was holding the 6th place.
However as the season continued, their performance went down and they lost the upper spots. Sunderland also finished the season without any great achievements, but that can’t be said about their forward Daren Bent. Daren Bent scored 24 goals last season and came third in the top scorers list.
Players that left Sunderland: John Mensah, the captain Lorik Cana, Daryl Murphy. In the few warm-up games that Sunderland played, with some serious opponents like Benfica and Hoffenheim, but the “black cats” lost both games.
Birmingham on their turn, got Ben Foster from Man. United, Nikola Zigic from Valencia and Enric Vallès from Nac Breda. Birmingham had few warm-up games, but with only one worth opponent Mallorca and they lost the game with 0:1.
The head to head statistics show that Sunderland won, the last 3 games at home, two for the Premiership and one for the Carling Cup. As a man who has faith in statistic I will stick here with a home win for Sunderland.
August 14th, 15:00 BST Wolverhampton v Stoke
Prediction: “Draw Game” Odds: 3.30 Bookmaker: Betfair.com
After a great turn of events Wolverhampton was able to survive in premiership last season. They were able to have a lot of warm up games before the season, most of which they won. One of the most noticeable wins was the one against Athletic Bilbao with 2:1, but then again they lost against teams from Championship like Leeds and Reading.
Wolverhampton acquired few players for this season like Steven Fletcher from Burnley, Steven Hunt and Stevens from Hull City, basically both teams that went to Championship.
Stoke City is in the Premiership for a 3rd year, and is striving for something better. The team played enough warm up games and started a bit slow, but then found the right rhythm.
Wolverhampton has met Stoke 6 times at home, both teams won once, and the other 4 games ended draw. Given that it’s the first round, and that both teams will prefer to get a point that to loose 3 I believe this is a very possible outcome of the game with great odds.
August 14th, 17:30 BST Chelsea v West Bromwich
Prediction: “Under 2.5 Goals” Odds: 2.68 Bookmaker: Betfair.com
The last season champion Chelsea, will meet the newcomer West Bromwich in their first game for the season. As you are probably aware the odds for Chelsea are incredibly low and not worth playing at all.
Chelsea has met West Bromwich 4 times at home in the Premiership. Chelsea has won all 4 games, and West Bromwich has never scored on Stamford Bridge. Three of those wins are Under 2.5 Goals and only one is Over.
Chelsea lost the last 5 games they played so the question is, in what shape are they now? West Bromwich played only 3 warm up game and won 2 of those. The team will face one of the biggest challenges this year in the first round.
If you a risk taker, you might be looking for a surprising win here, but I suggest you take my bet, based on statistics, current shape of both teams and being the first round.
August 15th, 16:00 BST Liverpool v Arsenal
Prediction: “Both Teams To Score” Odds: 1.89 Bookmaker: Betfair.com
Probably one of the most interesting games for Sunday. The game that everyone will be looking forward to, between these two great teams. Unfortunately for us bettors it’s still the first round and everything can happen.
Liverpool dismissed Rafael Benitez and now the new manager is Roy Hodgson, the man who led Fulham to the Europa League final. The players which Liverpool let go of are: Yossi Benayoun, Albert Riera, Emiliano Insua, Fabio Aurelio, and Philipp Degen who was leased to Stuttgart. The new players Liverpool got are Joe Cole from Chelsea, Danny Wilson from Rangers,Jonjo Shelvey and Milan Jovanovic.
Meanwhile Arsenal said goodbye to: Sol Campbell, William Gallas (uncertain for now), Philippe Senderos,Mikaël Silvestre. Wenger took only 3 new young players, which names I will not mention, since they won’t probably mean anything to you. As all of you know Arsenal isn’t buying starts, they get young boys and train them to become stars.
This game is quite unpredictable as a score or who is going to win it. That’s why the statistics will help us pick a right bet for such an uncertain game. In the last 12 games, both teams have been able to score in 11 of those. As a first game from the season I believe the defense for both teams will have on what to work on and we will witness enough goals.
August 16th, 20:00 BST Manchester United v Newcastle
Prediction: “Over 2.5 Goals” Odds: 1.77 Bookmaker: Betfair.com
The runner up for last year Manchester United, will meet the team that comes back from Championship, Newcastle after hell of a season there.
United has already showed a bit of their shape, by beating Chelsea for the Community Shield Cup with 1:3. This years goal for Manchester United is definitely winning the league after letting it slip last year.
Meanwhile Newcastle will want to make a good first impression after a season away in Championship. Both teams know each other quite well from previous seasons, so we can expect an interesting game.
United has met Newcastle on Old Trafford 9 times in the past 10 years and has tied only twice and won the other 7 times. Five out of those nine times the games have ended Under 2.5 Goals and 4 time over.
Since the odds for a win seem just not enough and the odds for away victory or a draw seem a bit risky, I will be looking for an Under/Over prediction here. I am leaning more into Over 2.5 Goals direction, because of the game against Chelsea, and because Newcastle is hungry for goals, now once again in Premier league.
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