Weekend Premiership Betting Preview for 21st to 23rd November 2009

After England stumbled to a 1-0 defeat against a near full strength Brazil side we are now back to Premiership action with the race for squad places for next years World Cup hotting up. Chelsea are now five points clear with the opportunity to strengthen their squad in the January transfer window after granted an appeal to their transfer ban. Focusing on this weekends football betting odds from bwin.com, here are my tips for the action.

Liverpool 1.95 Draw 3.25 Manchester City 3.80

Rafa Benitez is currently under great pressure at Liverpool. Gerrard went public and said they are missing Alonso who was sold in the summer and Aquilani, their £20 million summer signing has yet to make an impact. Gerrard will play against City, but forward Torres misses out. Apart from the win against Manchester Utd Liverpool have done nothing to suggest they can beat Manchester City here. City need to break a run of five straight draws which have derailed their title ambitions. The draw is my tip here at 3.25, but if you want to go for a win I think Manchester City are far better value at 3.80 (I will bet on the away win simply for the value of it). They may not have won in five games, but they have only lost to Man Utd this season and that was 4-3. They are very tough to beat.

Burnley 3.15 Draw 3.35 Aston Villa 2.15

I always pick an away win and this looks like a good bet here. Burnley managed to score three past Man City in their last game but only drew. They are settling well into the Premiership with Tyrone Mears doing well at right back and they are currently sitting in 10th position in the table. Villa have done well and sit at 5th, they hope to welcome back Heskey and Collins from injury and should be able to defeat Burnley despite being away. I would suggest that 2.15 is a value bet and betting on Villa will form part of my value treble bet.

Sunderland 6.20 Draw 3.60 Arsenal 1.55

Aaron Ramsey looks to have cemented his place in the first team now and looks like an amazing player. There is, however, quite a dependency on Fabregas now and Van Persie is out injured for around six weeks. Firepower could be an issue for Arsenal. Sunderland however, has the free scoring Darren Bent who made an England appearance against Brazil. I think 6.20 is a high price for the team currently 8th in the table even though they are playing the second placed side. Sunderland has Lorik Cana back from injury and he has looked really good so far this season. A bet on either the draw or Sunderland seems a decent bet, but I could not fault anyone going for Arsenal either. It is a tough match to call. I tip a drawn game at 3.60 but fans of Sunderland will like odds of 6.20 after performing well against the top teams and coming so close to beating Manchester United.

The rest of the games are really tough to call this week and the bookmakers are not giving a lot away. Possibly Stoke at 2.10 at home to Portsmouth on Sunday is a good bet to have, along with backing Tottenham at home to Wigan at 1.45. Please note the odds are subject to change but correct at the time of writing.

My treble bet for this week is going to be Aston Villa at 2.15, Manchester City at 3.80 and the draw on Sunderland’s match at 3.60 against Arsenal. This is on the speculative side of punting, with me focusing more on value rather than assured winners. For this reason I will only be having a stake of £5 on it. The return including my stake would be £147.06. Good luck with all of your football betting picks this weekend.

By Malcolm Clarke