Manchester Utd vs Fulham

Man Utd are on fire at the moment and nothing short of a comfortable victory will be good enough for Sir Alex. Rooney is on the form of his life and he has a great chance of getting on the scoresheet on Saturday. Fulham are just back from a difficult trip to Italy where they were easily taken care of 3-1 by Juventus, so morale will be low, and there’s nothing like a trip to Old Trafford a few days later to make things worse for them. At Craven Cottage Fulham might have had a sporting chance at a point, but up in Manchester, there’s only one thing that can happen.

Man Utd -1.5 @ 1.75 with Bet365 – 10 points (Returned 17.5)
Rooney to score first @ 3.75 with Bet365 – 5 points (Returned 18.75)

Sunderland vs Manchester City

I was expecting to see Man City slightly odds on here, so was very happy to see the 2.25 available on Betfair. Yes, Sunderland had a great 4-0 victory midweek, but that was their first victory in 3 or 4 months and it was against a very poor travelling Bolton side. Man City still have a couple of games in hand and if they keep up their premiership form, they can start to pull away from Liverpool and Spurs and have a real shot at securing that much sought-after 4th Champions League place. I’m pretty confident City win this game more than 50% of the time.

Man City @ 2.25 with Betfair – 4 points (Returned 0)

Total Stake: 19 points

Total Return: 36.25

Total Profit: + 17.25

Sunderland vs Bolton

Although I think Bolton are a really nice price at 3.9 coming off the back of terrific away win to West Ham at the weekend, I can’t really see this being much else other than a draw. After a good first half of the season Sunderland have been struggling, even at home, and have drawn 4 of their last at the Stadium of Light. Bolton’s away record hasn’t been that great, but have drawn two and won two of their last 6. Sunderland also have some injury problems and will be without a few first choice midfielders, so I can see this being a low-scoring scrappy game, most likely 0-0 or 1-1.

Draw @ 3.40 with Betfair – 4 points (Returned 0)

Portsmouth vs Birmingham

Portsmouth are a weakened side tonight as they are without Yebda, Boateng and Utaka. Birmingham are now safe in the knowledge that they’ve hit their 40 point survival target and can play the rest of the season without the added pressure of being threatened with relegation. I think Birmingham will come out strongly this evening and will be looking for revenge for their FA Cup defeat at the weekend, and they’ll also want to keep pushing hard for the outside chance of winning a European place, as they now have nothing to lose. I think 3.4 is terrific value for a top 10 side against rock-bottom who are all but guaranteed to be relegated.

Birmingham @ 3.40 with Betfair – 7 points (Returned 23.8)

Total stake: 11 points

Total Return: 23.8 points

Total Profit: +12.8 points

With only a couple of games from League 1, I decided to look at the six League 2 fixtures on offer for Tuesday’s games, and I found two fixtures which interested me:

Notts County vs Macclesfield

Notts County are high on new-manager-syndrome at the moment, and are also coming off the back of a 5-0 victory at the expense of Hereford on Saturday. While this was a flattering scoreline, it would still have been a very comfortable victory without the drama of the last 2 or 3 minutes. County will be looking to take advantage of their many games in hand and Steve Cotterill will want to push really hard for automatic promotion. I see them continuing their winning ways in Tuesday’s game against Macclesfield with a victory by 2 or 3 goals, and even the 1.44 available on Bet365 looks quite generous for an in-form County team at home.

Notts County @ 1.44 with Betfair – 8 points (Returned 11.52)

Aldershot vs Bradford

Aldershot had a very decent away win this past weekend at Chesterfield, but their home form has been lacking recently, only securing 1 win from their last 5 home games. Bradford are doing well under Peter Taylor and are on a good mini-run of form, including an impressive 3-1 away win at Rochdale seven days ago. They should be oozing confidence coming into this game and I think they have a real chance of taking all 3 points at the Recreation Ground, so I’m going to have a small piece of Bradford at a decent price.

Bradford @ 3.25 with Bet365 – 3 points (Returned 0 points)

Total Stake: 11 points

Total Return: 11.52 points

Total Profit: +0.52 points