Just focusing on one bet this weekend, and it’s the biggest match of the week:

Manchester Utd vs Liverpool

Firstly, there are people out there saying “But Liverpool are in terrific form at the moment – they’ve won their last two games 4-1 and 3-0!”. And, while they are correct, let’s not forget that they were both at Anfield, and they were against Porstmouth and Lille respectively (they couldn’t even prevent Portsmouth from scoring). Coming to Old Trafford against a Utd team who are on the best form they’ve seen in a long time, and Rooney smack in the middle of what is probably the best form of his life, is a completely different proposition all together. I can see United taking 3 points here easily, and for some reason the asian handicap market on Bet365 offers a much higher price than the straight win, despite being essentially the same bet. I also think bookies STILL, somehow, aren’t pricing Rooney short enough in the goalscorer markets. How can you still offer 4.00 on him to score first? If you took even these shortened odds every game of the season I think you’d be showing a very tidy profit by May.

Man Utd -0.5 @ 1.83 with Bet365 – 8 points (Returned 14.64)

Rooney to score first @ 4.00 with bet365 – 3 points (Returned 0)

Man Utd 3-0 @ 13.00 with Bet365 – 1 point (Returned 0)

Total Stake: 12 points

Total Return: 14.64

Total Profit: + 2.64

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