After we survived the end of the world on Saturday, ‘Survival Sunday’ now brings the curtain down on the Premier League campaign. But, before you panic, there is plenty of football action to satisfy your betting needs over the summer – if you look hard enough.
Of course, with no World Cup or senior European Championships to entertain us over what is apparently going to be a sizzling few months weather-wise in the UK, on the one hand it appears it will be a quiet June and July in the football world.
However, delve a little deeper and there is plenty to keep us interested aside from scurrilous transfer speculation and pointless pre-season tournaments.
The domestic campaign may well be pretty much done and dusted now but we still have the small matter of the Champions League final next weekend between Manchester United and Barcelona at Wembley to come before Reading and Swansea go head-to-head in the Championship play-off final.
Those two games are always among the biggest of the year and totesport will have plenty of markets available ahead of the Wembley showdowns.
Many expect Barca to claim another European Cup (4/9 favourites – Outright) but United are sure to have a game-plan to try and combat Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering side and are good value at 13/8 to cause an upset next weekend.
The play-off final two days later looks a difficult one to call with both Reading and Swansea looking in fine fettle in their wins over Nottingham Forest and Cardiff respectively in the semi-finals but we feel the Royals may just edge out the Swans in this one and book a return to the top flight.
While those two games are sure to round off the 2010-11 domestic and European campaigns in style, the focus over the summer then switches to the Under-21 European Championship – in which England are well fancied in – before the Copa America gets underway at the start of July.
The U-21s gather in Denmark between June 11-25 in what is likely to be an entertaining competition featuring plenty of up-and-coming talent from across the continent.
Stuart Pearce is likely to take a host of Premier League players to the tournament, with Andy Carroll and Jack Wilshere just two top stars named in his initial squad.
The duo are among six players with senior caps in Pearce’s 40-man selection and, while some will inevitably be pulled out by their clubs when the squad is whittled down to 23, there is still enough talent heading to Scandinavia to mean England have a real chance of lifting the trophy.
Other sides to watch out for in Denmark include all the usual international heavyweights. Spain are the current 7/2 favourites but Germany, who are tipped to shine, represent excellent value at 9/2 while lively outsiders include Portugal at 16/1 and the hosts, who are a huge 66/1 to lift the trophy.
The Copa America, billed as “the most important football event in Latin America” by its official website, features all the top teams from that region.
Argentina, predictably, are the short-priced favourites (6/5) and as hosts will be difficult to beat. Brazil, as ever, will give it a go, though, and at 13/8 look appealing.
Others to consider include a highly-rated Chile outfit (10/1 outright) and World Cup semi-finalists Uruguay who, at 12/1, are the value here – especially if they can repeat their heroics of 12 months ago in South Africa.
So forget about the domestic scene for a few months, enjoy the weather (hopefully) and get stuck into some seriously competitive international action.
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With the Euro 2012 qualifiers taking centre-stage this weekend there are no Premier League or Championship games to look forward to, but fear not – there is a full League One and League Two programme with six fixtures from the two respective leagues taking place on Friday night.
Tempted to say ‘not very much’ due to the lack of action but, delving into the games that did beat what the tabloids call the ‘big-freeze’ this weekend, there were some interesting pointers to take away from the chilling action.
Should we really be surprised by what happens in football? Here are some more reminders from the weekend about why we turn up most weeks.
We’ve looked ahead to this weekend’s fixtures and reckon there are at least four potential shocks to consider for your coupon.
Chelsea will be glad to get Michael Essien back from suspension and John Terry back after injury ahead of their clash with Everton, but don’t expect a glut of goals at Stamford Bridge (Everton 7/1 to beat Chelsea).
There have been some big-price winners in the Premier League in recent times and, with another weekend of football upon us, it is time to look for some more value, starting at Villa Park (draw 23/10).
Chelsea face group F whipping boys MSK Zilina on Tuesday in the Champions League and will surely bounce back to winning ways with a clean sheet at Stamford Bridge (Chelsea 4/7 to win to nil).
Tottenham can justify favouritism against travel-sick Sunderland at White Hart Lane in the Premier League on Tuesday. The north Londoners have only lost one at home, while Sunderland are awful on their travels (4/7 Tottenham 14/5 draw 5/1 Sunderland – match betting).
Nottingham Forest against Coventry at the City Ground is a midlands derby of sorts and, despite the Sky Blues going well in fifth, a victory for the home side is a decent bet here (4/5 – match betting). Forest are the Championship’s draw specialists, having been held eight times already this season, and must put an end to that run soon as they look to preserve a proud home league record – they have not lost at the City Ground in the league since September 2009.
1) Lorient are laughing all the way to the bank after selling Laurent Koscielny to Arsenal for £9.7m as he is not any kind of answer to their defensive problems – Gunners fans can breathe a sigh of relief though as the red card against Newcastle means he is banned for two games (Arsenal 4/7 to beat Wolves on Wednesday).