Aston Villa v West Ham (Sky Sports 1, 1.30)
Man United v Everton (Sky Sports 1, 4.0)
ALL eyes will be on Man United today as they bid to win the title by beating Everton.
Sir Alex Ferguson's side will roar 12 points clear of Man City after the champions crashed 3-1 at Southampton yesterday.
Watch for some bookies paying out on the outrights if it's a home win because they won't let that lead slip. City won't win their final 12 games so you're asking United to lose at least five games.
United are a best 1-12 with Coral to land the prize – and it's an absolute certainty.
The one concern today is how much focus Fergie puts on Wednesday's Champions League clash with Real Madrid. He wants to lift the big one again so may rest some stars and checking teams news is vital.
And remember last season United were five points clear and leading Everton late one before being pegged back to 4-4 then seeing City reel them in.
Fergie won't want a repeat so as long as the main men are out there I'm willing to back the home at 4-5 with the likes of William Hill and bet365.
Everton, who haven't won at Old Trafford since 1992, are 5-1 with Stan James while the draw pays 3-1 at Skybet.
I'm waiting for former Goodison star Rooney to score for my anytime treble and he is a 5-4 with various firms.
Rooney and van Persie and Rooney are both 4-1 to break the deadlock with Bet365 and Betvictor respectively.
Marouane Fellaini proved a handful for United with the winner when the teams met in August and he netted two against Aston Villa last weekend. He is 15-2 at William Hill to break the deadlock and 12-5 at Skybet to net at anytime.
I'm on both teams to score here (4-6, various) and the earlier clash between Aston Villa and West Ham (4-5, BetVictor).
Villa have the perfect chance to boost their survival chances today as they entertain an inconsistent West Ham side and Paddy Power make them 6-4 to pick up a rare win.
Paul Lambert's side have been a bit of an enigma this season, great one week, terrible the next. Villa were superb in drawing 3-3 at Everton last week and that's the kind of display long-suffering home fans will want to see again.
However, we know Villa are inconsistent and unlikely to keep a clean sheet so best bet could be to back Christian Benteke at 13-8 at sportingbet to score.
The 10-goal Belgian striker, who has been pinpointed by Sam Allardyce as the dangerman, is 5-1 at Skybet to score first.
This has the feel of a 2-1 Villa win and Lambo's side are 11-8 at Skybet to score two or more.
Recommendations
Man Utd/Villa double
(4-1, bet365)
Rooney to score
(5-4, various)
Villa to score 2 or more
(11-8, Skybet)
Benteke to score
(13-8, sportingbet)
Resident football tipster at Scotland's most read newspaper, the Daily Record, for over 20 years and proud host of one the best betting communities on the web with daily betting tips.
Homes
Udinese v Torino HOME WIN….both teams are evenly situated in the league just now with just 4 points and 2 places seperating them. Udinese have won 4 from last 5 at home including 3 on the spin,on the otherhand Torino have won 1 in 5 away from home although 3 were draws. Udinese were unlucky not too leave San Siro with a point last week after the award of a soft penalty late in the game. Udineses fine home form should see them through this game
Lyon v Lille HOME WIN….we have 2nd entertaining 11th here in the south of France. Lyon have won 3 and drawn 2 of the last 5 at home,scoring 8 goals and conceding just 1 goal in that time. Lille havent won in the 5 on the road and havent won a Ligue 1 game since December. Lyon lost 3-1 last week at lowly Ajaccio but were missing some important players. This week they welcome star strikers L.Lopez and J.Briand back to the squad
Feyenoord v AZ Alkmaar HOME WIN….Feyenoords home form should see them through this home tie.They remain the only team unbeaten at home this season in the Eredivisie winning 7 and drawing 3 from 10 and unbeaten at home in 21 league games. AZ are languishing in 11th place and 17 points adrift of the home side. Should be a comfortable home win here
Utrech v NEC Nijmegen HOME WIN….Utrecht are on a run of 6 games unbeaten in the league overall with 4 wins and 2 draws.At home their record reads 5-3-2 with 3 wins out of last 4. The visitors, NEC have won their last two league games however both these came at home against Vitesse and Groningen.The visitors away form is not so good with 4 straight defeats and all of these by more than 1 goal margin, whilst away record reads 4-1-5 and not so bad, most of the away wins came earlier in the season.
aways…..
Nacional v Benfica AWAY WIN…..Unbeaten Benfica travel too Nacional today with a record of 14 wins and 3 draws from 17 games so far this season,scoring 44 goals and conceding just 12. They have the best away form in the league with 8 wins and 1 draw from 9 on the road,scoring 23 and conceding just 6. Naicional lye 11th and only 4 points clear of the relegation zone having won just 5 from 17. Not too much more explaining needed on this 1 and i predict a comfortable away victory
Cagliari v AC Milan AWAY WIN….Cagliari struggle against Milan whenever they have play, losing the last 11 meeting of these sides and the last 4 by 2 or more goals. Milan strengthened their attacking options in January with the purchase of Ballotelli who scored 2 in a home victory against Udinese last time out. Milan have won 8 of the last 10,drawing 1 and losing 1 which means they are the form team in Seria A. Should be a tight game but i can see Milans superior quality seeing them past a poor Cagliari team
Waasland-Beveren v Anderlecht AWAY WIN…..The leaders of the Jupiler league travel too Beveren on the back of 9 wins in 10,scoring 30 and conceding just 9. 5 consecutive away wins in this time scoring 19 goals and conceding 4. the teams in 2nd and 3rd place played out a 1-1 draw yesterday and this gives Anderlecht the opportunity too extend their lead at the top too 8 points in the quest for the title and CL qualification. Comfortable away win by 2 or more
Rayo Vallecano v Athletico Madrid AWAY WIN…..2nd place Madrid travel too La Ligas surprise package Rayo Vallecano looking to regain their 7 point advantage over bitter rivals Real. This is by no means an easy fixture against a team who have won 7 from 11 at home and losing only once but Athletico have the superior squad and should take all 3 points in a tough encounter. Falcao can be the difference tonight
Mr H, that’s good analysis. I’ve already picked out some of these which will be in my top tips piece.
I knew Barcelona would do me good this morning. Winning at 15 mins and 30 mins. Get in there!!
Chris, Getafe just scored. Hope it finishes 4-1 for you and anyone who backed it.
Villa have the 3rd worst home record vs Hammers with the 3rd worst away record. No serious bets for me today as i think utd are a dodgy one today.
Soccerbase have made a good point that Villa are terrible at defending set pieces. Carlton Cole or maybe even someone like Reid/Tomkins coming up from centre half could be a good shout for a goal. You can guarantee big Sam will have his team pumping free kicks and corners into the box. If Carroll and Collins had been fit i think West ham wuda been the bet but maybe two draws today in the EPL?
Knottsy, don’t need Soccerbase to tell us Villa can’t defend set-pieces. Just as Bradford fans. It’s one reason why I’ve gone both to score. You can’t ever be confident about backing Villa but the Hammers have been poor on the road.
Thanks Mr F,just trying to give a bit of reasoning to the tips rather than just names and leaving everyone too research themselves. I fancy Mainz too win at Augsburg aswell which is 2/1 in some places
Ive a running yankee on 4 players i tipped to score 2 or more…Ronaldo obliged last night and Messi has started with 1 after 13mins. The other 3 being Rooney and Sturridge
Mr H, I’m glad you have mentioned Mainz. They are my Super Single today. Tips will be up soon – had a lost day in London yesterday meeting bookies and fixing up a few things we can do in the Daily Record and on the site. Should have soom good prizes to give away too.
Ideal sir,i enjoy the site and read your posts with interest. Im new to the world of internet tipping but followed you for a while in the Record. If i ever win the super single contest i will donate any winnings from the £10 bet too a charity of your choice. Was unlucky yesterday with Dumbarton at 4/1 and even the correct score of 3-2 but i only tipped the win
Mr H, fair enough on the Dumbarton tip and I hope you had cash on 3-2.
Paul your tip for David Villa to score 2 or more looks a bit dodgy now ;)
Knottsy, any tip on Villa is dodgy to be honest but I’m inspired by a guy who yesterday won a bundle backing Dundee Utd, Northampton, Wycombe and Southampton to score three or more – and I gave him the Wycombe tip after they won me a few quid on Monday.
And i told you Northampton V Rochdale would be over 2.5 goals ;) ;)
Milesey
Milesey, it looked an overs game with Rochdale conceding a lot. How was your trip to Carlisle? The one thing I noticed about London yesterday was that it was colder than Scotland.
Got done be a ref, both times, the lino put his flag up and the ref just carried on. We were never ever getting a thing from that game, the first goal the lino put his flag on so our defence stopped and the ref carried on and allowed the goal, the second goal from a penalty, that again was offside, the lino put the flag up and the ref carried on and our goalkeeper took him out, got sent off and they scored the penalty. 10 men we were all over them but the ref gave us nothing, every freekick was there’s even when one of our players was taken out he gave it the other way.
It is cold down south, sleet and snow keeps falling today.
Milesey
I think he was referring to Aston Villa and not David Villa…or am i picking you up wrong too haha
Not a coin Paul,typical when the wild ones are predicted. I lost out with Cardiff and Port Vale but those are the joys of the gambling life
Manchester United vs Everton
United are almost a certainty to score at Old Trafford. The last time that they failed to score was in a 0-1 defeat to Aston Villa in 2009 and to find the last time that they failed to score against Everton at home was way back 2004.They have a habit of scoring but also of conceding,in 12 home league games this season they have kept just 3 clean sheets.
Evertons record reads that in 12 away league games this season they have both scored and conceded in 9 of those games keeping only 2 clean sheets and failing to score only once.I can see Man United winning this game but im also very confident of the BTTS
Academica vs Rio Ave
Academica have the 3rd highest percentage of home games where both teams have found the net this season of any team in the Europe,90% of Academica’s home games this season have seen both teams score in the league and a 0-2 defeat at the hands of Estoril is the only exception. They are yet to keep a clean sheet in 9 home games in the league and that stat will be increased today.They face Rio Ave who have both scored AND.. conceded in 5 of their 8 away games this season and are yet to fail to score away from home. A definite for the BTTS market.
Feyenoord vs AZ Alkmaar 1.30pm
Although Feyenoord’s last home game finished with a 0-0 draw against Twente,they have scored 25 goals in their other 9 league games at home this season, and although they have only conceded in 5 of their 10 home league games, today they face an AZ side who are always capable of goals at both ends.
AZ come into this fixture on the back of two successive wins away from home in the league and 5 successive wins away from home in all competitions.
In their 10 away league games this season both teams have found the net in 9 of those games and AZ’s last clean sheet on the road came back in March 2012. But these 10 away games have also seen an average of 3.6 goals.
Great chance for all 3 matches in BTTS MARKET odds BET365 MAN UTD 4/6
ACADEMICA 5/6 FEYENOORD 8/13.
Thanks Mr F- I was going to do Villa and United anyway and you have mentioned Mainz for a treble. Might try a correct score double as well Villa 2-1 and 2-2 United 2-1 and 3-1
not too sure about Mainz Augsburg have started there fight for survival in the last 4 games drawing 3 and winning 1 this is the sort of game they need to win to stay in the top flight noticed mainz lost 3 of last 5 aways games see btts dont know what way the result will go
Danny, my stats show 3 draws, 2 defeats and 1 win in six for Augsburg. It’s not the worst but I’m om Mainz because they’ve been decent away recently. If Falcao starts tonight I might be on him for first scorer.
Your stats are correct Paul I was only going with there last 4 games double checked stats and noticed Mainz have won 7 of last 10 away games pretty impressive in the bundesliga
Danny, just stood out a litle but not easy finding a well-priced Super Single today.
good looking bet later on Paul in Brazil Paulista away to santos @ 10/1
Aston Villa
Man United
Lyon £10 = £102
They look like good tips sean
What do you think about
Aston villa/west ham btts ?
Cheers
Sean Ireland, that is a carbon copy of Ian Hutchison’s write up on TVbet.co.uk
Sean, Striker and Ian are the same person. Have you ever seen them both together?
Erm… What? Did you mean the other way around – coz
I’m not Ian.
I am IAN ! ;) ;) ;)
Milesey
Yeah that was the joke mr H!! Haha thot Paul was maybe just trying to cover a couple of bases :)
well done. Chris guy. right few quid won with ur outlay on barca game. take a bow
Nice one, cheers Simon
Chris, I’m off out in the snow to walk the dog and blow away the cobwebs. If you were my mate as Milesey claims you’d be giving me a cut of that Barca win, right. I’ll be the idiot in the park at Dumbarton kicking a bal with my boy.
You off to Levengrove Park?
Chris, aye Levengrove. Just back, bloody freezing with the win blowing off the Clyde and snow showers but dug’s tired and happy and it was great to put the radio in the car and hear that all of my Villa bets were up, including 2-1 which I mentioned in the piece.
Danny what about paulista? any more info ?
Emmett Im only kidding they are the idiots who failed to beat a team at home down too 10 men after 55 minutes then 9 at the end which as good as killed off any further participation in the tipster competition for me
This is more like it,bit of good reasoning being put up on tips from Mr.H and Sean Ireland,much rather see that than people sniping at each other.
Have 2 disagree on Mainz tho,Augsburg r on the up after a change of system and r capable of creating chances,especially at home.
I’d rather take Freiburg ht/ft @ 6/4 against Dusseldorf,think their league places paint a bit of a false picture. Not that my tips for yesterday fill me with much confidence,lol
But they LOST 3 – 0 ? so whatever reasoning behind it they lost, just like AJAX are losing now, 99% of possession and still losing. I thought AJAX would win this easy and should be, never seen a game so one sided in my life.
Milesey
“Utrech v NEC Nijmegen HOME WIN….Utrecht are on a run of 6 games unbeaten in the league overall with 4 wins and 2 draws.At home their record reads 5-3-2 with 3 wins out of last 4. The visitors, NEC have won their last two league games however both these came at home against Vitesse and Groningen.The visitors away form is not so good with 4 straight defeats and all of these by more than 1 goal margin, whilst away record reads 4-1-5 and not so bad, most of the away wins came earlier in the season.”
……………and it don’t get no better, for AC MILAN just gone 1 down just before half time. It’s shocking again ! BRENTFORD AND PORT VALE should have been easy wins yesterday, based on stats, form, doesn’t work out they way on the pitch itself though.
Milesey
What u think milesay do u think Milan will still win?
I hope they do or my bet will be gone, but then i need AJAX -1 and doesn’t look like thats going to happen anyway, So just Put a massive LUMP on ENGLAND to win the rugby !
Milesey
itll end up 3-1 Ajax Milesey…hava bit of faith ma boy!
On fire mr F.
Called the Villa game perfect ,after some nice tips yesterday.
John, I got a bit lucky on the Villa game. Even as I wrote “Villa to score 2 or more” I was questioning my sanity.