Archived Premiership Football Betting Tips (17th September 2005)

Fulham looked potential candidates for the drop this time around but Coleman is proving pundits wrong by getting the most out of a small squad on a limited budget. They faced the difficult task of travelling to Newcastle where an Owen inspired crowd thought a Newcastle win would be just a formality and silenced them early on before conceding to earn a valuable point. Their opponents, West Ham, are also confounding the critics with some good battling, stylish displays most summed up with the 4-0 hammering of Aston Villa. They have a couple of experienced heads in Sheringham and Repka plus a nucleus of young talent with the likes of Ferdinand, Etherington, Reo-Coker and Harewood; if they stay injury-free real progress can be made at Upton Park. This one could go either way with these two sides proving well matched, so a share of the spoils seems likely.

Sunderland have yet to get off the mark and remain 2 points adrift at the bottom of the table but they've had some difficult games and haven't disgraced themselves in any of them. Everyone knows that playing well counts for nothing unless you get points on the board but a home game against prospective relegation rivals West Brom should fire them up. West Brom will be gutted after their injury time defeat to newly promoted Wigan especially since they were leading, but it shows that they haven't sorted out some of the problems from last season where they conceded 14 goals in the last 10 minutes of games; most of these resulted in dropped points. Sunderland have the self-belief to get results and there's no better time to start than against West Brom.

After Villa's whipping at the hands of West Ham, O'Leary has his work cut out to get his team prepared for the visit of Spurs. They didn't compete with West Ham and were second to most loose balls whilst their defence looked nervous and unable to handle the movement and power of Sheringham and Harewood. Villa are yet to lose at home but must face a Spurs side who's only defeat has been to Chelsea, and now it is a side who not only look good on paper but can possibly match these expectations on grass. Finally, they have alternating holding players in Davids and Carrick, a decent defence and a quality front line. Defoe hasn't scored for a while and might be worth backing to pop up with the winner.

This game should be the fixture of the weekend as 2 old adversaries battle it out for 3 points. Both have had Champions League fixtures midweek; Liverpool managed to rest some key players, such as Gerrard, and still won whilst United had to manage in Roy Keane's absence and Rooney's dismissal. Liverpool are yet to impress domestically although they haven't lost and United look to be finding it difficult to break down opposition defences. Bearing in mind these fixtures are usually played at 90 miles/hour chances may be at a premium and the draw promises to be the most likely outcome.

Wigan are showing some gritty determination with 2 wins on the bounce, most notably beating West Brom away in injury time; a game in which the underrated David Connolly scored, fresh from his winner over England for Northern Ireland. They face a Boro side who have been blowing hot and cold and even though they beat Arsenal 2-0 they did not play as well as the scoreline suggests, especially considering Arsenal's missing players. They will almost certainly give Wigan opportunities, and though Yakubu has started scoring he doesn't look to have rediscovered the form he had at Portsmouth. There's no way Wigan will be settling for draws; they will want to win games and avoid any potential relegation fight as soon as possible. Boro should underestimate them at their peril.