04.12.2010. (Saturday)
16:00 Wigan Athletic - Stoke City
The match with the biggest draw bias this week is Wigan v Stoke. Record of teams of Wigan's grade when playing at home to teams of Stoke's grade reads H12 D13 A8.
Wigan's recent home record against teams of Stokes grading is W2 D4 L1. Stoke's recent away record against teams of Wigan's grading is W5 D2 L1. Head to Head recent record at Wigan reads Wigan 2 Draw 4 Stoke 3.
Wigan have drawn two of their last five home matches. Stoke have drawn one of their last five matches.
Tip: Wigan - Stoke draw match @ 3.10
18:00 Kasimpasaspor - Galatasaray
You won't find a deeper crisis in Europe right now than at Galatasaray. The Lions already fired Frank Rijkaard in favour of Gheorghe Hagi, but their fortunes didn’t change. They've taken just one point from their last four games, lost at home in a big derby to Besiktas last week, and amazingly dropped to 10th place.
The injuries are mounting, the dressing room is in total disarray with Bosnian star Zvjezdan Misimovic demoted to reserves, and the board outrageously agreed to sell Brazilian midfielder Elano to Santos for a mere 2.9 million.
On the other hand, having hit rock bottom, wounded Galatasaray are looking to reclaim some of their prestige. They have a nice opportunity to do so against newly promoted Kasimpasa, who already lost at home 2-6 to Fenerbahce and 0-7 to Trabzonspor. If Hagi can’t win here, his job will be in jeopardy, and the idea is to produce a goal-feast.
Therefore, a big-margin win for guests is not a bad bet here, given the generous odds.
Tips: Galatasaray to win @ 1.80, Galatasaray with -1 asian handicap (3.10)
18:30 Blackpool - Manchester United
The live Saturday evening game takes us to Blackpool to see if Manchester United will recover from their hammering at West Ham midweek, but punters would be foolish to read too much into that. Manchester United made 10 changes (and will likely do so again here) and I don't think we learned too much more from the game.
Manchester United are very short to win this one so we will have to be creative in our betting. Blackpool have done remarkably well this season of that there is no doubt, but they have struggled to keep the top sides out. Against the other top-four teams they've let in six against Arsenal, four against Chelsea and three against Manchester City. So I think we could be looking at another few goals and of course a Manchester United victory.
Tips: Over 3.5 goals in the game @ 2.15
05.12.2010. (Sunday)
18:30 Kavala - Olympiakos
Olympiacos play away to Kavala in a game where anything else than a win will be considered a failure especially after a poor performance and a defeat in the derby against AEK. Olympiacos has quality with players like Kevin Mirallas, Ibagaza or Marko Pantelic and although they will be missing Albert Riera due to injury, Melberg and Torosidis are due to return to first team duty.
Kavala are having a great season so far as they stand third in the table but will be missing several of their most influential players. Minus some of their stars Kavala aren't the same team and will face a travelling support of 7,000 Olympiacos fans so this won't be the normal home/away game where the advantage is with the hosts.
I expect Olympiacos to win this game quite easily and handicapping looks the way to go.
Tip: Olympiacos (-1) @ 2.50
19:00 Villarreal - Sevilla
Villarreal welcome Sevilla to El Madrigal on Sunday in what promises to be an entertaining encounter. The Yellow Submarine have been excellent this season, very consistent particularly at home and they seen off Zaragoza 3-0 last week on the road.
Sevilla have not been in good shape lately and are leaking goals with a disjointed midfield that creates very little for their attack. They were brutally exposed by Getafe last week losing 3-1 and won' t be in good spirits. I'm expecting a few goals in this match, over 2.5 is 1.75 with Villarreal to come out on top @ 1.80.
Tip: Villarreal to win @ 1.80
