Jamie Casey - cuttings.me

Jamie Casey - cuttings.me

Spurs v Man Utd - back both teams to score @ 3/5 with Bwin

With Tottenham having scored more goals in the opening 15 minutes than any other side in the Premier League this season, expect them to come out of the traps at full pace when Manchester United visit White Hart Lane on Sunday. The hosts have an average of over two goals per home match, so will start this game believing they can trouble the reigning champions. The reverse fixture between these two sides – a 3-0 win for United last August – racked up the highest number of shots in a single Premier League game this season (23). Alex Ferguson’s men have the highest conversion rate (20%) in the division, with a shooting accuracy of 53%, suggesting Spurs will struggle to keep them at bay. Back both teams to score @ 3/5 here.

Wednesday’s treble tip

You’ve got to love this time of year - logs on the fire, gifts under the tree and, of course, Premier League football in abundance. The day the Football Association introduce a winter break is the day they kill Christmas for millions. However, as it stands, the show rolls on and Wednesday’s full programme is merely a teaser for what’s in store next week. We’ve not forgotten Serie A either, as this Wednesday’s treble tip intakes three of Europe’s elite clubs, culminating in a 7.5/1 treble shout.

Arsenal’s Robin van Persie to score any time verses Aston Villa @ 1/1

From the rate at which Robin van Persie is scoring goals of late, you’d have forgiven the bookmakers for suspending odds on the Dutchman finding the net at any time against Aston Villa on Wednesday. The Arsenal captain may have failed to get off the mark in defeat to Manchester City last time out, but super-motivated van Persie needs just one goal to equal a club record previously set by Gunners legend Thierry Henry.

A strike at Villa Park would take the 28-year-old to 34 goals in the calendar year of 2011, a feat achieved by the aforementioned Frenchman in 2004, and Alex McLeish’s side are not shaping up to be the side that stops van Persie from writing his name in the history books.

Contrary to van Persie, Villa are far from firing on all cylinders, failing to net in four of their last five league outings. Furthermore, their home record is beginning to deteriorate, with Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool their third defeat in four on home soil. With an average of a goal every 0.85 games this year, back RVP to do what he does best at a fair price of 1/1.

Liverpool’s Luis Suarez to score any time verses Wigan @ 4/5

For all the wrong reasons, Luis Suarez was the most prominent name on the back of this morning’s sports pages, but the Uruguayan’s imminent eight-game ban will not come into affect until Liverpool decide whether or not they will use their right to appeal his recent punishment.

With a ban likely to be upheld in any case, the Reds will not refrain from using Suarez while they still can at Wigan on Wednesday and the livewire forward will be more determined than ever to showcase his capabilities on the field of play, regardless of his tarnished reputation.

Love him or loathe him, there’s no denying the 24-year-old’s classy style of play, and his cool close control means no other player has taken as many touches inside an opponent’s penalty area. From that, Suarez has produced more shots at goal than any other player this season, although with just five league goals his conversion rate leaves a lot to be desired.

Suarez and Liverpool as a team have struck the woodwork more times than anyone in the division this term, but back the former Ajax man to see off a difficult few months with a goal at the DW Stadium with Bwin’s price of 5/4 with.

Udinese’s Antonio Di Natale to score any time verses Juventus @ 11/10

With Serie A about to hibernate for the winter after Wednesday’s Round 16, it seems only fair to flirt with odds in Italy’s top division, and what better fixture than second verses third at Stadio Friuli.

Unbeaten Juventus surrendered top spot to AC Milan on Tuesday night, so the timing of their trip to sturdy Udinese could not be worse and may prove a character-building experience for Antonio Conte’s men.

Although yet to be beaten, the Turin giants have drawn their last two away games, while drawing four of the last six trips away from home. In Udinese they face the only side in the division with a 100 per cent home record, and for that they owe a great deal to star man Antonio Di Natale.

The Italy international has notched up 10 league goals thus far – only Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Atalanta’s Germán Denis have scored more – with two of those strikes coming from the penalty spot. Juventus have a knack for conceding penalties and expert shot-stopper Gianluigi Buffon has spared their blushes on a number of occasions this season.

The two best defences in the division may cancel each other out, but if anyone can break the deadlock, Di Natale can. Back him to net any time during the game at 11/10.

Betting preview Estonia v Republic of Ireland

For once, the Republic of Ireland head into a play-off for a place in a major international tournament as favourites to qualify from the two-legged battle, but in Estonia they face a team ranked 34 places below them.

That is not to say that the Estonians are without their charm, however, as they duly showed in beating Northern Ireland home and away en-route to their second-place finish in Qualifying Group C.

Indeed, six of Estonia’s 15 group goals came against Nigel Worthington’s men, but only Montenegro have produced a weaker goal difference of the other teams to have reached the play-off stage.

Tarmo Rüütli’s side have it all to do if they’re to break down a resilient Republic defence, which has conceded just one goal in their last 861 minutes of play in what has been a sturdy 2011.

The Republic, who have not qualified for the tournament since 1988, are on a nine-game unbeaten run while their counterparts are without a draw each of their last nine encounters, registering three wins but losing six times in the process.

None of the play-off qualifiers conceded more group goals than Estonia but, normally blessed with a wealth of talent up front, Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni faces an unfamiliar striker crisis with Kevin Doyle serving a suspension and Shane Long out injured.

The Italian was hoping to call on Newcastle’s in-form forward Leon Best, only for the 25-year-old to pull out of the squad as his wife prepares for labour. That leaves inexperienced duo Jon Walters and Simon Cox to fight for the right to partner veteran Robbie Keane in Ireland’s attack.

However, captain Keane’s form in a green shirt has dipped in his twilight years and he has enjoyed little game time with either of his prospective partners, leading one to believe that goals will also be hard to come by for the visitors.

I’m expecting a 0-0 draw on the night, and Bwin offer intriguing odds of 11/2 for that outcome, but by taking up the same odds on ‘No Goals Scored’ you protect yourself from a potentially decisive own goal.

In Bed With Maradona - The Home Of World Football - JOURNAL - CONFESSIONS OF AN ARMCHAIR SUPPORTER

In Bed With Maradona - The Home Of World Football - JOURNAL - CONFESSIONS OF AN ARMCHAIR SUPPORTER

Aquilani & Meireles departures leave Liverpool looking light in midfield

Amidst the mayhem and the madness of transfer deadline day, a potentially season-defining move somewhat escaped the sensationalism that so often accompanies the countdown.

The late double arrival of Mikel Arteta and Yossi Benayoun at the Emirates took centre stage, but little was made of Raul Meireles’ £12million move from Liverpool to Stamford Bridge, with the attention largely focused on Arsenal’s much-needed last-minute activity.

Yet Reds supporters up and down the country took to the message boards and social media websites to vent their disappointment with the club for letting go of the player they helped win the PFA Fans' Player of the Year last season - and they have a case.

All eyes have been placed on high-profile incomings at Anfield this summer, with manager Kenny Dalglish and director of football Damien Comolli very much under the spotlight after forking out substantial fees on British talent. But what of the foreign outgoings?

A week prior to the Premier League kick-off, Liverpool’s strength in depth in midfield was looking particularly impressive, with last season’s stand-out performers – Lucas Leiva and Meireles – looking over their shoulders at the returning Alberto Aquilani and new-boys Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson. The competition looked healthy and promised to keep those involved on their toes.

But three games in and Aquilani, arguably the club’s best performer in pre-season, has been shipped out to AC Milan, Meireles has added to the Portuguese connection at Chelsea, while even the well-received departure of Christian Poulson leaves Liverpool’s midfield lacking that depth in the centre that they looked to have been working so hard to establish.

Meireles had been linked with a move away all summer, but Chelsea’s interest only became apparent on August 31^st. Surely, if Liverpool were always planning to cash in on the 28-year-old, they should have done so much earlier in the summer when genuine interest from Juventus would have offered better business than handing a rival one of their key performers of last season.

The sale also unearths the logic in loaning Aquilani to Milan. If the Italy international is good enough as a squad player for the Italian champions, then there must have been a place for him in the Liverpool squad.

I hope I’m wrong, but I’m predicting come January 2012 Liverpool will be regretting not keeping hold of at least one of the two.

Mourinho unworthy of Man U role

Charming, witty and successful, Jose Mourinho has been perceived as a modern day Brian Clough with a European tan. But while Old Big ‘ead’s legacy is generally met with widespread fondness, the Portuguese pretender is steering his in the opposite direction.

Mourinho didn’t leave English football without learning a thing or two from Alex Ferguson. Not many Premier League managers do, to be fair, but the Real Madrid manager has taken some of the Scot’s effective methods, and brought them to a new, if unethical, level.

Ferguson is, of course, the master of deflecting media attention away from his side and onto himself when Manchester United come under a rare bout of off-field pressure. He’s been doing it for years and everyone knows his game - yet it still works.

The Scot has always been aware of the power of the post-match interview, knowing that all it takes is a few inappropriate words and an affordable fine to deter eyes and words from an underperforming side and onto himself.

Simple and manipulative - but effective - it has served his club well down his near 25-year spell as manager of Manchester United. Mourinho, touted as a candidate to take over at the club when Ferguson retires, has shown a similarity of the Scot in his handling of the media, though perhaps takes a less elegant attitude.

“Alex was clever putting pressure on the ref at half-time," said Mourinho of Ferguson after their 2005 meeting in the Carling Cup, for which he was handed at £5000 fine. Whether his accusation was true or not, the then Chelsea boss couldn’t help but learn.

He took the approach to new heights (depths if you prefer) in Italy with Inter, where constant verbal attacks on referees, opposition and the media themselves made him public enemy number one, a tag he appears to relish.

But for all Mourinho took from the English game, he left without something he entered it with – discipline. Not so much self-discipline, which has always been problematic even before he gauged a finger in the eye of Barcelona assistant Tito Vilanova's during Wednesday night’s El Classico, but the discipline he installed in his Chelsea side during that triumphant first season in the Premier League.

In winning the 2004-05 title, the Blues became only the second team to win the Premier League without receiving a single red card, Ferguson’s United being the other in 1992-93 – the first season of the revamped top flight.

Indeed, John Terry was Chelsea’s most booked player with just seven cautions, an impressive feat for a hard-hitting centre-half. In addition, 25 clean sheets came about via sound organisation and disciplined defender adhering to Mourinho’s knowledgeable tactics.

However, somewhere down the line, Mourinho has lost that control he once commanded over his players, and Wednesday night’s touchline incident was a blatant plot to direct criticism towards his behaviour, rather than his inability to cope with the brilliance of Barcelona.

More to follow....