Weekend Betting, Saturday 30th January

Aye, aye, chappies and chappettes who be following this here blog (get Facebook in Pirate Language, side-splittingly funny). Here's some musings on the weekend's matches:

• West Ham look very tempting at a general 11/10 to beat Blackburn Rovers. Rovers have been utterly honking away from Ewood Park all season, and the Hammers are showing signs that, with their new owners promising oodles of cash for Gianfranco Zola to strenghten his side, they can power themselves clear of the drop zone...
• ...And land someone else in it. Wolves are available to be relegated at 11/8 with Stan James, which looks big for a side largely full of Championship players. And given their recent terrible form, an injury to Darren Bent would see Sunderland plummet from their current 13th position (only 3 points above the drop zone) and current price of 14/1 with Paddy Power
• Some say he played over 140 games for Nottingham Forest. And that to help him sleep at night, instead of counting sheep, he counts pigeons. All we know is, he's called Brian Laws, and if he's going to keep Burnley in the Premier League, then it will be their home form that is key. And what better way to get your first home win as Burnley manager than at home to an-understrength Chelsea? Expect the Bob Lord Stand faithful to be chanting "Does Wayne Bridge's missus know you're here?". Bet365 go 12/1 on the home win, which seems a bit long considering the Hotpot-Munchers' home record
• Hibernian to beat St Mirren looks good value at a best price of 4/6 with Skybet. The Hibees will be bouncing after beating Celtic away from home in midweek, while St Mirren, who are nowt special away from home anyway, are bound to have one eye on their midweek Co-Op Cup Semi Final

Graeme is surprisingly well organised

Here's Graeme's Silly Bet for the weekend:

Hi all,

Aberdeen are due a pumping. Cue Rangers

Penalty awarded and scored, 3/1 @ William Hill
Boyd to score more than 2 goals, 11/2 @ William Hill

In other action this coming week another hilariously inept punt could come in the form of Man City going off the boil big time in their Monday night clash against West Ham

As Shifty hinted last week, West Ham's improved strike force (Alessandro Diamanti was rumoured to be at the Chelsea training ground today, showing John Terry how to take a penalty- Ed) are capable of causing an upset against the (slightly) bigger guys. City are not a happy ship at the moment. Problems such as a lack of discipline, an extremely loose defence (I would love to include the Rhona Jappy-based line and Youtube link Graeme sent me in his original draft, but for legal reasons I must not- Ed) and the potential abscence of Tevez (who?Ed), David Bellamy, Santa Claus, Robinho and Adebayor could cause Mark Hughes to suffer an almighty case of mental fucknuggetry on the touchline, and hopefully follow his team's example and actually smack a ballboy.

In other words, West Ham might just fancy their chances

Away win for West Ham, 7/1 @ William Hill

(game being shown in Number 2 Baker Street, so see y'all there guys)

West Ham v Liverpool. Saturday 19th September

My Thoughts

West Ham head into this game off the back of a somewhat disappointing 1-0 loss away at WIgan last weekend, while Liverpool also had a somewhat underwhelming 1-0 scoreline in their most recent game, although they managed to emerge victorious from Wednesday's Champions (someone's going to need to remind me what exactly Liverpool are currently champions of) League encounter with Debrecen.

West Ham have added numbers in attack in recent weeks to complement Carlton Cole, with Alessandro Diamanti and Guillermo Franco both joining, although of the two new boys, only Diamanti is likely to be involved against Liverpool, who themselves are not exactly blessed with great strength in depth in attack. One quote following their midweek result which caught the eye went along the lines of "Torres looked tired last night. Benitez should rest him for the next game and play....Oh".

The Verdict
Historically, Upton Park has been a reasonably happy hunting ground for Liverpool, with 4 of the last 5 games at Upton Park resulting in away wins. A fatigued Torres will still probably pose West Ham's back line all kinds of problems, and with Kuyt and Benayoun also featuring on the scoresheet in recent games, expect an away win.

The Bet
Liverpool are available at a general 4/7. Also, given their recent goalscoring form, as long as Benitez doesn't rotate either of them for the generally inferior Ryan Babel or Albert Riera, Kuyt and Benayoun should be considered on the anytime scorers market- Kuyt is available at 21/10 with extrabet, and Benayoun at 13/5 with bet365

Shifty's Season Preview Part 9 of I'd better get a move on...

West Ham

Gianfranco Zola's side were something of a revelation last season, combining all the playing qualities of their manager and his assistant, Steve Clarke: solid at the back, creative up front. They have been quiet in the summer, making Radoslav Kovac's loan move permanent, and bringing in Inter forward Luis Jimenez in on loan. Zola clearly has a lot of faith in youngsters such as Mark Noble, James Tomkins and Junior Stanislas, and those 3 can all expect to feature throughout the season. Retaining England hopefuls Matthew Upson and Rob Green will be crucial, and Carlton Cole will be expected to score more often if he too is to push for an England place.

Verdict: Expect them to be around the area of last season's 9th place finish