Do I love Grand Slam Sunday or what? Sure, the games don’t always live up to their hype, but you’re still pretty much guaranteed a lot of excitement, a lot of tension and above all else, a lot of drama. Speaking as a fan of one of those four teams, of course…
From a betting standpoint, though, it’s usually not very good at all. ANYTHING can happen with these two games. If I had to pick two winners, however, I’d go with Arsenal and Manchester United. I’ll tell you why…
Arsenal should welcome back the likes of Fabregas, Flamini, Hleb and Van Persie, all of which are big and massively influential players. They’ve struggled the past couple of weeks against the likes of Newcastle and Middlesborough, because the heart of their midfield, their engine, which makes everything tick, was missing. Having those four back is just absolutely wonderful for Arsenal, whereas it’s very bad news for Chelsea and the other eighteen teams in the Premier League. Arsenal rested most of their first team players on Wednesday too, while Chelsea, quite bizarrely, fielded a very strong team. That’ll work in the Gunners favour. They also have a fantastic home record and will want to make up for results over the past couple of weeks, which is why I’m giving them the nod.
On top of all that, Chelsea, simply put, aren’t the same team without Didier Drogba. He is such a big player for them. He will be sorely missed on Sunday. Not by me, because I can’t stand him, but the players and the fans of Chelsea will miss him big time. They really need him at the moment, as I think Chelsea have been struggling a lot in recent weeks. I’ve watched them a few times recently, against West Ham, Sunderland and Valencia, and they look like a completely different team. They’re finding it really hard to break teams down at the moment, I think largely because they don’t have many attacking options. You look at the likes of United and you’ve got Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez, then you’ve got Saha, Scholes, Giggs, etc. who chip in with goals. You look at Liverpool and you’ve got Gerrard, Torres, Crouch, then you’ve got Kuyt, Babel, and Veronin, etc. You look at Arsenal and you’ve got Fabregas, Adebayor and Van Persie, then you’ve got Rosicky, Hleb, etc. Really, who have Chelsea got? They’ve only got Drogba and Lampard, to be honest, with the likes of Joe Cole and Wright-Phillips chipping the odd goal in once every blue moon. They’ve struggled in their past month or so against the likes of Derby, Sunderland, West Ham and Valencia. Yes, they won three of those games, drawing the other one, but the scoreline doesn’t tell the true story, I don’t think.
If you fancy Arsenal, the best price you can get for them at the moment is 6/4, which is with Bet365 and BetDirect.
Now that the trio of Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez have had one or two games to become reacquainted with one another, I think it’s only a matter of time until they fully click once again and show the mouth watering form they were showing before Rooney’s injury. There were signs of it against Derby last Saturday, but Rooney looked a little out of sorts. He’s always fired up for this one, though. Every United player is. Every Liverpool player is too, of course.
I’m honestly not being bias here, but I think the advantage lies with United. For a start, they’ve had a very, very good record over their rivals over the past couple of seasons. Both at home and away. Second of all, Rooney aside, the rest of the United starting eleven were relaxing in midweek, whereas Liverpool’s strongest side were in France, slugging their guts out to acquire a spot in the last sixteen of the Champions League. That’s going to be absolutely key, I think. The fact that United have had a little over a week to relax, take a breather and prepare, whereas Liverpool have had to work hard. I know they’re professional football players and all the rest of it, and that they should be able to easily handle two games in five days, but they are at a disadvantage, I think.
Also, I don’t know if non-United fans are aware of this, but traditionally, United’s form in December and January is excellent. While the Christmas period is seen as daunting and unpleasant to a number of teams, United seem to revel in it for some reason. It seems to suit them down to the ground, and I fully expect United to get their Christmas campaign off in style, continuing their good form recently.
United are a best priced 2/1 with SkyBet, if you think they’ll do the business.
Personally, I’m going to take BetFair’s 8/1 on a Arsenal/United double and stick a fiver on it or something.
I know I said earlier that these games are usually not all that great to bet on, but I have a good feeling, a much better feeling than normal, on these two, given the reasons stated above.
Plus, I think it’s ok so long as you’re only betting a couple of quid. No way would I bet anything more than a fiver. With a fiver, it’s enough to have even more of an interest than I already have, especially in the Arsenal/Chelsea game (although I wouldn’t complain if it was a draw!), it’s enough to potentially receive a rather healthy return, yet you’re not going to miss it too much from your wallet if it doesn’t come up.
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