Manchester City Vs Manchester United
Sunday 9th December - 1:30pm
Without a doubt the big game of the weekend pitches the blue and red of Manchester against one another for the first time this season. Manchester City remain the unbeaten defending Champions and “welcome” Manchester United to the Etihad for a 1:30pm kick off on Sunday. This game will set the momentum for both teams as we get nearer to the crucial Christmas period. Many pundits would agree that both teams have failed to hit top gear so far this season, but at the time of writing Manchester United are 10 points clear of 3rd place Chelsea with City just 3 points back. It appears even at this stage, that the battle for the 2012/13 Premiership crown is a two horse race.
Manchester United old boy, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stoked the flames this week by describing Manchester City as the “little brother” to Manchester United. Mancini’s men will be well aware that they have the recent form in this fixture having beaten Alex Ferguson’s side twice in the league last season, clocking up an impressive aggregate 7-1 score line to boot. Manchester City came out victorious in what proved to be a virtual title decider at the Etihad in April and that will have crushed Ferguson inside.
So far this season both sides appear to have inability to grind out games in what you might call a depressing Benitez style. Manchester United were horribly exposed defensively against a poor Reading side last Saturday where a better team might have scored 6 or 7, they continue to miss Vidic at the heart of their defence. Manchester City have also had their defensive issues of late with Kompany struggling for his best form, and have all too often relied on super human performances from Joe Hart. Considering the wealth of attacking talent on display, we cannot see past an absolute goals fest. Four goals or more is 17/10 with Sportingbet, while 5 goals or more is 9/2 with William Hill. It may pay to back 4 or more, and then place a fraction of the possible winnings on 5 or more.
We firmly believe City, with their unbelievable options from the bench, will have enough to win the game. Odds of 13/10 with Coral on the home win is hard to resist. If you are even more confident in City and want some extra value consider going for them to be winning at half time and full time which is priced at 14/5 with Bet Victor.
As far as first goalscorer markets we fancy Carlos Tevez at 6/1 with Blue Square. Odds of 50/1 from Ladbrokes on Vincent Kompany also looks unbelievably generous considering the Belgians threat from set pieces.
As a derby game the bookings and cards markets will be of interest to many. Paddy Power are offering 18/1 on both teams to have a player sent off which is our long shot of the week. To get value (at outside evens( on bookings you would need to go above 7 or more, available at 5/4 with Bet Victor. For this market a red card is considered two and a half bookings.
Everton Vs Tottenham
Sunday 9th December - 3:00pm
In yet another key game in the battle for 4th place Tottenham make the trip to Merseyside to take on Everton. Tottenham sit 3 points above Everton at the start of play and will look to pull away from the latest challengers for one of the four much sought after Champions League places.
Everton started the season very impressively however remarkably have had 7 score draws in their last 9 Premier League games. These vary from a fantastic 1-1 draw away to Man City last time out to the disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Norwich two games before.
Tottenham’s recent form is far more impressive going into this one. Since their unfortunate defeat to North London rivals (and challengers for top 4 of course) Arsenal, Tottenham have won three on the spin beating West Ham, Liverpool and most recently Fulham.
The bookies make Everton favourites, with Paddy Power offering 11/10 on the home side. These games are effectively 6 pointers in the battle for a top 4 place and a draw is something AVB’s men may well settle for. We really fancy them to take a point back to North London and this is best priced 5/2 at Bet365. As Tottenham and Everton having only failed to score in one of their 15 Premier League games each this season, we can't see a 0-0, so fancy 1-1 which is a generous 13/2 with Ladbrokes.
Tottenham have become reliant on Jermaine Defoe in recent games, the striker clocking up 5 goals in his past 4 appearances. We fancy Defoe to score again (partly because of his refusal to ever pass the ball), to score anytime he is 9/4 with Stanjames while to score first he is 7/1 with Coral.
This should be a decent and pacey game with plenty of exciting attacking players on display. Spurs are likely to spring counter attacks with Bale and Lennon keen to hit the by-line at every opportunity, while Everton will put plenty of balls into the box with Fellaini and Jelavic as targets. For this reason we fancy a lot of corners, and over 12 corners in the match is a top tip for us at odds of 9/5 with William Hill.
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Click to ClaimJon is one of Howtobet4free’s co-founders and as well as producing content for the site also helps run the @howtobet4free_ Twitter account and Cheltenham Festival Facebook page. Jon works in Marketing and Communications in professional sport.
