It’s the Premier League, the Rugby World Cup and American football in our weekend four-timer as we bid to follow up on last week’s 33/1 cash bonanza. (Whaddaya mean you missed out?) Here’s another 33/1 accumulator for your delectation.
By Conor Heneghan and Shane Breslin
Wigan v Tottenham (Tottenham to win @ Evens)
They may have been thumped by an aggregate score of 8-1 by the two Manchester clubs at the beginning of the season, but Spurs have recovered admirably since. They comfortably beat a Wolves side that had enjoyed an impressive start to the season and last weekend, put four unanswered goals past a Liverpool outfit that had been the subject of some premature acclaim at the start of the season.
As was evident against Liverpool, Luka Modric is back to his usual self, while Emmanuel Adebayor has settled in seamlessly and is now the darling of fans who used to sing deplorable anthems about his parents. Wigan haven’t lost at home yet this season, but don’t expect that record to stay intact for too long. Spurs to take this one.
Ireland v Russia (Ireland -46 points on handicap @ 10/11)
Betting on this one is a precarious business indeed. Should we be suddenly spurred on by the goodwill generated by the magnificent win over Australia at the weekend or should we exercise caution based on what we had see before the heroics last Saturday? Ireland will win – of that much we are certain – but our optimism in this case is based on the opposition as much as anything else.
For all intents and purposes, Russia’s World Cup is over. Their ambition coming into the tournament was to beat USA and everything else was a bonus. When that didn’t happen, their morale was further demoralised and now they face the prospect of two big defeats to the pool’s big guns before returning home.
Ireland may be slightly weakened on Sunday, but if Italy can beat Russia by 36 points, then we should manage ten extra in what will hopefully be a confidence building exercise ahead of the meeting with the Italians on Sunday week.
Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears (Packers to win by 1-6 points @ 11/4)
The staunchest rivals in the NFL, Green Bay and Chicago go head to head at Soldier Field in a game you can see live on Sky Sports 4 on Sunday night.
The Packers have started well, winning their first two games of the campaign but the Bears will be desperate to put in a performance against their old foes on the back of last week’s 30-13 defeat to the New Orleans Saints.
Take Green Bay to shade it – if you shop around you can get an attractive 11/4 about a narrow margin win for the visitors.
Manchester City v Everton (Man City to win to nil @ 11/8)
They may have slipped up against Fulham last weekend but we’re willing to bet that was a momentarily blip in a sustained title challenge from Manchester City this season. Everton’s chances in this one look over-egged by their recent form of two wins and a draw from their last three games, but those wins came against Wigan and Blackburn and this weekend is a whole different ball game.
City have won with clean sheets in their two Premier League home games to date this season and at significantly odds-against they look value to do likewise this time around.
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