The All-Ireland hurling semi-final, horse-racing at Newmarket and of course the Premier League all get a mention in the latest edition of the weekend fancies.
Weekend Patent
Gentlemen of the world rejoice! We’ve got our Saturday afternoons back. Yes, that’s right; the Premier League returns to our screens this weekend and after what was a mediocre World Cup at best, we need a good start to the season to restore our faith in the beautiful game.
The opening game between City and Spurs at White Hart Lane could be a cracker and Roberto Mancini’s expensively assembled squad will be looking for revenge against the side that dumped them out of the race for the Champions League last year.
Although City aren’t likely to win the league, we expect them to move up a couple of places and they can deliver a statement of intent with an away win against one of their main rivals on the opening day. Take Manchester City to win at 2/1.
At Newmarket on Saturday, we’re going for a Roger Charlton trained colt in the 2.15 Burghley Horse Trials Handicap. James D Wolfensohn’s YABTREE won in Newmarket back in June and is good value to repeat the trick this weekend. YABTREE to win is available at 7/2.
This weekend’s All-Ireland hurling semi-final may simply be an audition to see who plays second fiddle to Kilkenny on the first Sunday of September, but you can be damn sure that Tipperary or Waterford won’t see it like that.
In what we think will be a close encounter at headquarters, goals could be crucial and as they showed against both Wexford and Galway already this year, when Tipp are in the mood, they can hit the net for fun. Lar Corbett was the match-winner with a point at the death against Galway in the quarter-final and already has two goals to his name so far in the championship. We think he’s a good bet to get the first goal on Sunday and he can be backed to do so at 6/1.
See what Ollie Canning, Tommy Dunne and Fergal Hartley had to say ahead of the game here, while you can read our exclusive interview with Corbett’s team-mate, Eoin Kelly here.
A €3 patent (total outlay €21) will return €525.
Break the Bookie
The tie of the weekend in the Premier League is undoubtedly the meeting of Liverpool and Arsenal at Anfield. Woy Hodgson will be hoping to get his Liverpool career off to a flyer, but he’s coming up against a team with a decent record at Anfield and one player in particular who absolutely loves it on Merseyside.
Our friends at Opta have informed us that Andrei Arshavin has recorded six shots on target at Anfield in two games for Arsenal and amazingly, only one of them did not result in a goal. Arshavin to net another this weekend at any stage in the game can be backed at 11/4, but if you fancy going for broke, back him to be the game’s first goalscorer at 15/2.
Although we went for a narrow Tipperary victory in our preview of the All-Ireland semi-final, the price for the draw, 12/1, also caught our eye. There was only two points between the sides in their meeting at the same stage two years ago and both sides have already edged extremely tight encounters this year; Waterford against Cork, which they won after a replay, and Tipperary against Galway in an epic quarter-final.
We expect this one to be an extremely close call and it could take more than 70 minutes to decide it. A Tipperary-Waterford draw can be backed at 12/1.
With little else bar the US PGA happening this weekend, we’ll turn to the Premier League for our last and most ambitious punt of the weekend. Chelsea have struggled in pre-season, losing their last four games with plenty of their squad seemingly suffering hangovers from the World Cup.
They couldn’t have asked for nicer opening day opponents than West Bromwich Albion, but the Baggies will be keen to add to Chelsea’s pre-season blues and will be looking to frustrate their more illustrious opponents. It’s a long shot but a 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge is available at 17/1.
A tenner on those three could return €19,890 and give you a good excuse to ring in sick on Monday morning.
