Some General Musings

Been a while since I posted own on here, so time to address that with some general musings. Some of the usual betting tips will appear again soon enough

Manchester United and referees
Now, regular (and irregular) readers will know of my leanings, but bear with me. Fulham should have had a penalty at Old Trafford last night, no-one's going to argue that one. But likewise, think back to the penalty Newcastle got at Old Trafford earlier this season. It sounds cliched, but these things generally do even themselves out over a season
Some stats have also emerged regarding the number of penalties (most in the league) and yellow cards (fewest in the league) awarded to Man Utd in recent weeks. There is a perfectly logical explanation for both of these, and it's nothing to do with referees favouring Man Utd (indeed, if you want to talk about a Premier League referee favouring a particular team, look at Chelsea's results in games refereed by Martin Atkinson). Quite simply, United typically spend more of the game in possession and attacking their opponents. In order to be awarded a penalty, you obviously need to be in possession of the ball in your opponents' penalty area- the more often you're in the opposition box, the more opportunities you're likely to get for them to foul you.

Similarly, in order for you to pick up a yellow card, generally you need for your opponent to be in possession of the ball. The less time your opponent has the ball, the fewer chances you're likely to have to foul them

Andre Villas-Boas to Inter? Really?
I must admit that, after his totally undeserved and unjustified sacking from Chelsea, I was baffled to hear media reports linking Andre Villas-Boas with perennial basket case Internazionale. Some forensic analysis reveals that the two sides have remarkably similar problems, so much so it's actually hilarious (well, to me anyway) to go through both sides:
Goalkeeper who was outstanding but now a complete liability: Check (Julio Cesar and Cech)
Brazilian centre-back prone to wandering: Check (Lucio and David Luiz)
Veteran warhorse of a cantankerous old bastard alongside: Check (Samuel and Terry)
Young, highly replacements for them who are actually useless: Check (Ranocchia and Cahill)
Portuguese-speaking adventurous full-back affected by loss of form and injury: Check (Maicon and Bosingwa/Ferreira)
Uber-talented but misfiring, ill-fitting, blond, Spanish-speaking centre-forward: Check (Forlan and Torres)
Ageing midfield with not-totally-convincing replacements: Check
A squad that had shown its resistance and unsuitability to a high-intensity style and high defensive line: Check
Megalomaniacal owner with a tendency to hire and fire: Check (Moratti and Abramovich)
After being unable to solve this set of problems at 1 club, why did people expect AVB to be able/willing to do it again somewhere else?

Mon the Staggies