Some football action today and I have sent that out so it is on its way to you, No System 3 games today though.
As part of a new feature I will be writing a weekly football post. It is just for my own thoughts really but I hope it provokes debate. The great thing about football is it is all about opinions and talking points and we all look at it in a biased way depending on who we support.
Tonight Spurs host Everton at White Hart Lane and I will be off to see that. If Spurs win tonight they also have Wolves at home before Arsenal kick a ball again and winning both would see Spurs 12 points clear having played one more game than their North London rivals. It is a great position to be in but us Spurs fans never count our chickens. That said however I have yet to find anyone neutral who thinks Spurs can win the league. After 19 games we have more points at that stage than any other team achieved in the 2010/2011 season. We have amassed more points in the last 17 games than any other PL side and are playing some fine football. Whether we can stay the course is of course up for debate. My point is if it was Chelsea, Arsenal or even Liverpool in that situation no one would be categorically writing them off as they are Tottenham. I think we have a great chance and the key fixtures will come at Man City and Arsenal, fixtures which could determine the title race and the Top 4 situation.
At the weekend we saw a enthralling Manchester Derby in the FA Cup. It is amazing that the draw paired these two together and we were all anticpating a belter of a game. 12 minutes in we see a red card and this became a topic of debate on the FTS forum as well as Twitter and the web in general. For me it was never a red card. Kompany’ s legs were 3 feet apart, the right foot got the ball and yes studs were showing but it is difficult to tackle when going to ground without your foot angling upwards. The United player was clever and made the most of the situation. I can see why the red cad was given and understand those peoples point of view. However my biggest issue is if that is red card, then be consistent in every game referees and we will be watching 8 a side most weeks. I go to a lot of football and have done for 20 years with my seat being 10 yards from the pitch, I watch a lot on TV and I have made my opinions known (and it is just my opinions). I think the current standard of refereeing is very poor and Chris Foy is one of the worst I have seen in many a year. He is slow, positions himself badly and gets too many simple calls wrong, hence it is difficult to trust him to get the big ones correct. we have to remember these guys get over 70k a year in wages now, if they get things wrong their should be some comebacks. If they cannot do the job because the game is to quick, give them help.
I did laugh at Mancini criticising Rooney for holding his hand up as if to show a card, unless my eyes deceived me did we not see Mancini doing exactly that from the sidelines just last week. They should all be fined for doing it, we don’t need it in the game.
Finally on that issue players coming out on Twitter such as Rio Ferdinand stating ” it was definite red card – FACT” – that is fine if it is his opinion but I will not be slow in reminding him of it next time he protests at a Man Utd sending off.
The game itself was still a hell of a game and I give full credit and admiration for the performance of 10 Man City in the second half. They were superb and deserved to get the equaliser. What did I learn from the weekend – Man United are there for the taking at the moment (but write them off at your peril). I was once told and I agree with it that you cannot win anything without a great keeper and I think United are really struggling in this area this season with De Gea reminding me of our very own Gomes, too many moments of madness. Man Utd have Liverpool away next up in the cup, if they go on and win the FA Cup they will have earned it for sure.
From a betting point of view we had all FA Cup Ties and as usual a couple of upsets but as per the trend the better sides in general beat the worse sides. This is a good basis for a betting medium when comparing odds. The league gap between teams and the victory ratio of these should be factored in when compiling your odds. It is a simple process. If we take the team historically at the top of the premiership and note their performance against teams 3 places lower, 6 places lower, 9 places lower etc over a number of years you will see the percentage of victories grow. This can then help you form a percentage chance of victory and help compile odds. It may seem crude but can be a solid starting point to finding value particularly in cup games. There will always be upsets but I know I would always want to be on the favourites in cup matches as they are generally the better team. League positions do not lie, teams are ranked in effect 1-92 because the team in position 1 is better long term than the team in position 3 for example just as the team in position 46 is better than the team in position 53.
Monday saw Thierry Henry return and of course it was a fairytale for the gooners, on he comes and gets the winner. It of course sent all the gooners in to ecstasy as their prodigal hero returned. As i said it is difficult to look at football without certain bias so here goes. The goal can be viewed on Youtube, here is the link http://youtu.be/_bNBN9XlTK0 it is about 1 min 45s in on that clip and shows he was clearly offside. And for those of you getting too excited he was knackered at the end after just 20 minutes playing and it was against an 8th place championship side with one win in their last 5. I rest my case!
We have some great football ahead of us and many more opinions to share. As i say it is only my thoughts and I hope it provokes some light hearted football banter.
For those of you concerned usual posts will now be resuming with betting advice, scam warnings and everything FTS.
