Portsmouth – Arsenal

Portsmouth – Arsenal
Arsenal -1 @ 1.94 (pinnacle)

Arsenal plays their last match of 2009, away, against one of worst team in Premiership, at least if we look at the current standings. portsmouth is 20th, last team in the table, with only 14 points after 19 matches. An unofficial premiership rule says that if a team want to avoid relegation, they have to make 40 points, and looking at Portsmouth, this thing looks almost impossible. Arsenal, on the other hand, plays abolutely enthusiastic in the latest period. Winning 3-0 home with Hull isn’t a big deal, but 3-0 with Aston Villa isn’t something that many teams will achieve in the next years.

Arsenal was absolutely fantastic, with Cesc Fabregas in the spotlight : the spanisgh midfielder opened the scoretable with a great free kick, than, in the last 10 minutes, he scored again after a perfect counter-attack, assisted by Theo Walcott. Abou Diaby scored the last goal, few moments before the final whistle was blown. Aston Villa came on the Emirates wanting to gain a draw, it was obvious for everyone this. Today, Arsenal takes on a team that wants to win, of course, a draw wouldn’t help them too much. the problem is that Portsmouth is no way good enough to face such a big and strong team like Arsenal, and, thinking that the Gunners have a great morale, they will come to pompey’s arena to win.

Arsenal is clearly the team of the moment in England, and a victory before the new years’s eve would perfectly matcn their latest results and evolutions.

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Aston Villa – Liverpool

Aston Villa – Liverpool
Liverpool DNB @ 1.85

Liverpool and Aston Villa are playing the last big match of 2009 in European soccer. Liverpool is desperate to regain teritorry, as the last months have been a living nightmare for them, after losing the title last year. Liverpool is far from the 1st place, from the 2nd, from the 3rd, and their only hopes are for the 4th place, currently occupied by Tottenham Hotspurs, victorious today in the match against West Ham united, 2-0. The fight for this 4th place will be between 4 teams : Aston Villa, tottenham, man City and liverpool. Each team has their own reason to hope they will achieve their goal : Aston Villa has a solid defense, and they also know each other very weel, including manager Martin O’Neil, who’s working here for 4 years. But, Villa, in my opinion is missing a real leader, after garath barry left the club for Man City. Tottenham Hotspurs has a very valuable squad, especially if we reffer to their forwards and strickers. I don’t like their defense and the fact that when they meet a strong side, they have serious problems (the best examples are the matches with Man Utd 1-3, Chelsea 0-3, and Arsenal 0-3). Man City has the best squad, probably, from the 4 teams involved in the fight, and now, since Roberto Mancini is their coach, I think they are more balanced and will defend much better. Liverpool might have the smallest number of points, but certainly they have one of the biggest chance, because their squad is good, they only need to start making longer streaks and then they will be fine.

Villa – Liverpool today. Villa has shown their limits in the match against the gunners, Arsenal winning 3-0. Villa wasn’t able to do mostly anything, Arsenal diminating the whole match, maybe except for the first 20 minutes, when the match was more balanced. Liverpool won their previous match, 2-0, against Wolves, and come to Villa Park with 1 thought in their mind : the 3 points, and ending the year as close as possible to th 4th place.

Mihaita666

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Tottenham Hotspurs – West Ham United

Tottenham Hotspurs – West Ham
over 2.75 @ 1.98 (betphoenix)

Things are getting so much interesting in Premiership, after the last round. Tottenham and Chelsea are the teams that aren’t happy after the results : they’ve both lost 2 important points, after ending 0-0 with Birmingham (Chelsea), and 0-0 with Fulham (Tottenham). As a result, Chelsea is now only 2 points ahead of Man Utd, and has other reasons to worry, as Arsenal plays better and better and looks like a serious challenger for the Blues to win the title.
Tottenham is 5th, and might lose this place as Man City is only 2 points behind, but has one match less, so in case of a victory in that match, City would go 1 point in front of Spurs. Today, Tottenham plays a local derby against a hungry for points team, Wes Ham United. Tottenham, 5th as I’ve said, has the 4th attack in the league, scoring 40 goals so far. Their defense isn’t the best one, as they’ve allowed 22 goals, more than 1 per match. West Ham has a good attack, also, thr 7th, scoring 28 goals, but their problem is clearly their defense, that allowed 35 goals, almost 2 goals per match. Tottenham average 3.26 goals/match, while their opponents average 3.31 goals/match. So, today, it’s a match between two teams that are likely to produce spectacular matches. The best example is Tottenham Hotspurs, winner a few rounds ago over Wigan Athletic with an outstanding 9-1 score.
I think that Tottenham wins today, but I’m sure that, just like in the match with Chelsea, West Ham will be strong enough to fight heavily and they have many chances to score.

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Arsenal – Aston Villa

Arsenal – Aston Villa
Arsenal ML @ 1.75

Two tough matches today in Premier League, the first one is between two of the best teams, Arsenal and Aston Villa, from the 3rd and 4th places. Last year, Aston Villa played against Arsenal on Villa Park on Boxing Day. now they play they day after, and the situation is somehow similar to the one from the last season, only that then, Villa was 4th, and Arsenal 5th.
Aston Villa’s objetctive, qualifying in Uefa Champions League, is clearly the only thing that matters for them this season. Villa has sacrificed the Europa League, being eliminated in the play-off by Rapid Wien, and focused hard on the internal competition. Villa comes to Emirates after 4 consecutive victories : 3-0 with Hull, 1-0 @ Man Utd, 2-0 @ Sunderland and 1-0 with Stoke. Impressive form for the Birmingham team, a real nightmare for top teams this year, as they won 3-1 on Anfield, 2-1 home with Chelsea, and, as mentioned before, 1-0 away, with Manchester united.

Arsenal is 3rd due to their matches against small and medium teams, as they’ve lost to Chelsea, Manchester united or Manchester City. However, Arsenal is not a sure victim in such matches, as they’ve won, for instance against liverpool, away, 2-1, and 3-0, with Tottenham at home. Aston Villa is a big name, but let’s not forget a very important part of the equation ; Arsenal has the big advantage of the home court in this match. Arsenal, at home,has an impressive line, of 7 victories, and 1 defeat (no draws), while Villa didn’t play fantastic on road : 4 victories, 3 draws and 2 defeats. I really think this advantage will be decesive for the Gunners and they will win.

__________________

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Manchester City – Stoke City

Manchester City – Stoke City
over 2.75 @ 1.96

My first prediction from today is from the match between Manchester City and Stoke City. This will be the first match of Roberto Mancini as City’s coach, after the chairmen of the team deceided to fire Mark Hughes. The italian was their best solution, after being turned down by some other managers.
Man City is currently fighting for the 4th place, the last one that allows a team to qualify for the Uefa Champions League play-off for the 2010-2011 seasson. City is now 6th, 6  points behind Aston Vill, but one match less than the Birmingham team. Their last match was a really insane one, also on City of Manchester Stadium : 4-3 against Sunderland. Despite the victory Mark Hughes gor sacked one or two days after the match, as the team was considered to not be as on graphic as planned for this time of the seasson.
Stoke, their today’s opponents should be pleased with their so far overall results. Stoke is 11th, having 21 points in 17 matches, 5 points away from the “swamp” zone, the 18th place, 1st place that doesn’t allow a team to continue for the next season in Premiership (and surviving this season is one of their objectives). Stoke isn’t in their best form, having 4 matches without victory in Premiership. Their last victory was more than one month ago, 1-0 with Portsmouth, on the 22nd of November.
I don’t see another outcome in this match than a City’s victory, but I do see Stoke scoring one time, at least, so my bet, over 2.75 should be another natural outcome for this match.

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