AFTER seven years without a trophy Arsene Wenger is suddenly eyeing one that never bothered him too much in the past.
Arsenal tackle Bradford in the last eight of the League Cup and the French boss is playing a stronger side than usual in a bid to move closer to ending the club's silverware drought.
To be honest most sides the Gunners put out should be too good for the League Two men but Wenger is taking no chances by naming a strong squad although he is without Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott.
He will play a mix of youth and experience and the player to score first could be Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain at 9-1 with Betfred if Lukas Podolski doesn't start. Bradford deserve respect having knocked out Premier League Wigan in the previous round and they're going well in the league but the Gunners are second favourites behind Chelsea and Wenger must grab this opportunity.
Arsenal are no bigger than 2-5 with Coral and BetVictor to win but I'm attracted by bet365's 10-11 minus one goal.
The tournament has attracted more fans this season because of high-scoring games such as Reading 5, Arsenal 7 and Chelsea 5, Man Utd 4.
It probably won't be high scoring at Carrow Road but it will be high on emotion as Paul Lambert returns to Norwich for the first time since leaving for Aston Villa in the summer.
The Scot is bound to get a warm welcome from the fans and an even warmer welcome from players who have recovered from a shaky start under his successor Chris Hughton to go on an eight-game unbeaten run.
Their 4-3 victory at Swansea at the weekend was impressive and I fancy Norwich at 23-20 at Coral and William Hill to put one over their former gaffer if they put out a strong side.
There are four games in the FA Cup and best bets could be Southend who are 5-4 with William Hill at home to League One Bury. Southend are unbeaten in 10 but without on-loan Tamika Mkandawire and Britt Assombalonga.
There is one game in the Premier League between two teams struggling for goals and points. Sunderland tackle Reading and again will be without leading scorer Steven Fletcher.
That's bad news for Martin O'Neill and his side may have to settle for a point against fellow relegation candidates. The draw pays 5-2 at BetVictor.
In Scotland, Inverness and Ross County host the Highland derby with the first two meetings producing 10 goals.
It was 3-3 in Dingwall when they met in the Scottish Cup a couple of weeks ago and Stan James pay a biggest 8-11 for both teams to score while over 3.5 goals is also sure to be explored at 11-5 with sportingbet.
However, the best punt of the lot could be simply to take Inverness to win. Terry Butcher’s, riding high in second place in the SPL, booked this replay courtesy of a last-gasp goal at Dingwall and are 1-1 with the likes of William Hill while County are 14-5 at BetVictor.
Hotshot Billy McKay is 5-1 (various) to break the deadlock as he did at Victoria Park with a stunning volley.
The the other all-SPL replay sees Motherwell entertain Aberdeen and it’s difficult to see past Stuart McCall’s men. Well finally notched a home win at the weekend and are 6-4 at Stan James to see off a side who couldn’t score at Hearts. Consider Michael Higdon at 11-2 with McBookie.com to score first.
All games in the SFL are off except Alloa v QoS on the plastic – and it's not surprising because it's been baltic up here all day.
Recommendations
Arsenal -1
(10-11, bet365)
Norwich
(23-20, Coral)
Inverness
(1-1, various)
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.
TREBLE – Guingamp – NottsCounty – Lille
DOUBLE – Roma – Sunderland
BTTS TREBLE
Valenciennes-PSG
Gent-Anderlecht
Hereford-Cheltenham
Sunderland
Norwich
Notts county
Southend
Psg
Inverness
Striker, you must know it’s not 1-10. Says 1-1 in the story and fixed the typo at the end.
Some people just love to have a go at wee things ma man. Yer doing everyone a favour here by actually post yer tips. Yer not telling people to follow them so I wouldn’t bother too much about the wind up merchants
C, folk are fickle and I get that. Doesn’t bother me but not giving them the time of day anymore.
Hi mates , my top treble are
Eskisehirspor wins @ 1.80
Linfield wins @ 1.90
Nice – Rennes over 2.5 @ 2.30
Best of luck,
Fly
That’s it mate no point. They’re not as fast to praise you when you nail it! Need to roll with the punches sometimes
Afternoon Mr F. We beat Swansea 4-3 at the weekend, not Chelsea but cheers for giving us a bit of love!
Getting over evens at home considering the run we’re on is a great price. Possibly down to bookies not knowing which sides are going to be played, but even our second string should beat Villa. Not sure how they’re going to play it to be honest. When Lambert was with us he barely paid interest to the cups, and now I think the league will be his main concern.
Bring it on! Norwich win! :D
Don, of course you did. I’ll sort that. As long as you play a pretty strong team I’ll be on you but I’m sure you’ll be wanting to put one over Lambo even if he did great things for you when he was there.
Ok, thanks clearing that up. Didn’t read the main article, just scanned your recommendations.
Ma line for the night. 3 returns.53.70
Norwich
Notts county
Southend
Inverness
Roma
What u think Paul about they 5 homes
Tony, 3 of them I’ve picked, the other two I wouldn’t rule out but it’s the FA Cup so anything goes with them.
BTTS I’ve gone for :
ICT v Ross Co
Southend v Bury
Norwich v Villa
Hereford v Cheltenham
Phenomenal tips for btts at the weekend Paul, I picked up a wee 4 game btts at Betfred 9/1, very tasty !
Duncy, well done that. Bit tougher tonight with fewer games and some off that I fancied.
Cheers Mr F! A lot of fans are very quick to forget just what he did for us. There was talk of booing and such. Yes, a lot of us were peeved in the manner in which he left, but we knew it was going to happen, as he did the same thing with Colchester before us. The guy took us from the brink of administration to the Premier League so he’ll be warmly thanked from me!
But yes, I want to put one over on him now. We’ve got super Chrissy Hughton! :D
Hey, I got the free bet (thanks admin). However, immediately put it and some of my personal stash on arsenal to win -1.25. It backfired spectacularly. Nevertheless, life goes on. Arsenal either thrash teams or lose. They rarely draw these days, on another day they could have got a casual 6-1 result.
Jerry, Arsenal were a big letdown. At least some people won on that Bradford first goal then on the penalty shoot-out.