A somewhat all right week for football predictions.
Tuesday and Wednesday went well with Champions League predictions, but Thursday was sour with Europa League 2 for 8 picks.
Today was a good day 3/4 in Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 games.
Congratulations on Schalke 04 for going to the 1st spot at least until tomorrow.
Now let’s focus on the weekend games from Premier League:
Tottenham v Blackburn 13/03/2010 12:45 GMT
Burnley v Wolverhampton 13/03/2010 15:00 GMT
Chelsea v West Ham 13/03/2010 15:00 GMT
Bolton v Wigan 13/03/2010 15:00 GMT
Birmingham v Everton 13/03/2010 15:00 GMT
Stoke v Aston Villa 13/03/2010 15:00 GMT
Hull v Arsenal 13/03/2010 17:30 GMT
Tottenham v Blackburn: With the season starting to come to an end, Tottenham is feeling very comfortable on that 4th spot. The 4th spot means Champions League next season although only the top 3 teams directly qualify. One unlucky team would have to face Tottenham if they remain on the 4th spot and battle for entering in the group stages.
Anyways Tottenham has a home record of 9 wins 2 draws and 3 losses. The team of Blackburn with an away record of 1 win 3 draws and 10 losses. Probably one of the worst away teams in the middle of the table together with Sunderland.
Tottenham hasn’t lost any of the last 4 home games, and there’s no reason to do it now, versus what is considered to be an easier opponent. My prediction would be a home victory for the Spurs, odds of 1.48 @ Betfair.com
Burnley v Wolverhampton: The battle for getting out of the red zone! One thing is sure, whoever wins this one will be 3 points away from the top team in the red zone. With 0 wins away Burnley is really counting on home games for points. A home record of 6 wins 5 draws and 3 losses is somewhat good for a team in the red zone. Did I mention the red zone enough?
The Wolves are with an away record of 2 wins 3 draws and 8 losses. They as well need the points, if they are counting on playing in Premier league next year. Both teams know each other quite well from Championship, where Burnley has won only 3 out of their 9 home games against Wolverhampton.
Two of Burnley’s 3 losses at home, came in the last 3 rounds against Chelsea, and Portsmouth. I will stick with Burnley’s well played home games and go with the home victory, odds of 2.42 @ Betfair.com
Chelsea v West Ham: An outstanding home record of 12 victories 1 draw and 1 loss for Chelsea, meets the team of their former legend Gianfranco Zola. If there’s going to be a surprise tomorrow I am pretty sure it will be here. Why?
Chelsea has a difficult task to beat Inter in a game on Tuesday. Just as a reminder, Terry and company lost 1:2 in Italy and were mostly outplayed and outsmarted by Jose Mourinho’s Inter and are in danger of being eliminated early in the Champions League stages. In the same time they need to gather points to keep the first spot in the league.
West Ham has a bad away record of 1 win 5 draws and 8 losses, but needs points to play next year in Premiership as well. While an away victory is kind of dreamy, I think a possible draw here is very possible, so I will go with it. Odds of 6.80 @ Betfair.com
I would actually put a $1 on an away victory as well odds of 18 @ Betfair.com just so I don’t miss if there’s actually a surprise here tomorrow.
Bolton v Wigan: Both teams with almost identical stats, but Wigan with a game less. Bolton has is showing progress lately, although they lost their last game away against Sunderland 0:4, they were able to steal 3 points on West Ham, 2 round ago.
Home record of 4 wins 5 draws and 5 losses pretty much means the games can go either way. Wigan’s away record is standing at 3 wins 2 draws and 9 losses and Wigan is just a point behind. Personally I find this game difficult to predict in a 1 X 2 format, so I would go with something safer.
My predictions would be Under 2.5 Goals, odds of 1.83 @ Betfair.com
Birmingham v Everton: Both teams played earlier in January for the FA cup where Birmingham won 1:2 away. Everton has been in much better shape this year, after a lot of their injured players came back. Away record of 3 wins 3 draws and 7 losses is something they would have to work on if they want a better spot placement this year.
Birmingham started the season superbly well, and at one point were on the “good” spots for qualifying in the Europa League for next year, but after a while the team started making foolish mistakes that lead to the drop of placement. However the team is on the 8th spot with 43 points, just 2 points behind the 7th Villa and 5 points behind the 6th Liverpool.
With a victory tomorrow their chances of getting into the spots for Europa League will dramatically increase. Everton is just 2 points behind Birmingham, with lower chances of what I just mentioned above, but still they can try for it.
My prediction for this game would be “Both Teams To Score” odds of 1.85 @ Betfair.com
Stoke v Aston Villa : Looking over the stats, I neglected to see that Aston Villa is the team most likely to get on the 4th spot because they are running 3 games short. If they manage to win all 3 they will gather 9 points and move up to the 4th spot with 54 points.
However before that they would have to face Stoke City. City has a home record of 6 wins 4 draws and 4 losses, while Villa’s away record is 5 wins 4 draws and 3 losses. Right before Christmas this season Villa won in Birmingham with the minimal 1:0
With Villa standing strong this year I am in favor of the away victory here, odds of 2.38 @ Betfair.com
Hull v Arsenal : Last but not least game for Saturday from Premier League. A total of 4 games between the two 3 for Premier League 1 for FA Cup. Arsenal has won 3 and lost 1. All of the games have ended Over 2.5 goals.
Arsenal’s away record is 7 victories 3 draws and 4 losses compared to Hull’s home record of 5 wins 5 draws and 3 losses is somewhat similar. Hull has only 4 points from away games so they are mainly depending on home games to gather points. They are currently in the red zone and would need a miracle to get out of it.
My prediction for this game would be Over 2.5 Goals, since the away victory has low odds and the risk in my opinion is greater at this point of the season, since teams trying to save themselves are becoming very very competitive and bring us quite many surprises. Odds for the Over 2.5 Goals of 1.71 @ Betfair.com
Thanks for visiting today and be sure to bet by the size of your wallet so you can enjoy these games without the anger of loosing money you can’t afford to loose.
