Sebastian Vettel is fancied to again cut down Button’s lead

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chickendinner loves a British success story as much as anyone but we weren’t looking forward to the prospect of Jenson Button winning nearly every race with Schumacher style dominance. Sadly for the Brit, his worst result of the season was saved for Silverstone (sixth) and while he is still 25 points ahead of winner Sebastian Vettel, the German is a strong favourite to win on home soil this weekend. Here are five stats about the first German Grand Prix to be held at the Nurburgring (the European and, slightly more dubiously, the Luxembourg Grands Prix have been held there since though) since 1985:

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1. Four of the last seven German Grands Prix have been one by German drivers, as have five of the last eight races at the Nurburgring.

2. On the last three occasions that a British or German driver has triumphed at Silverstone - Michael Schumacher in 2002 and 2004 and Lewis Hamilton in 2008 - they have gone on to win the German Grand Prix.

3. However, over the last six years just seven drivers have recorded victories

Posted: July 9th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Five reasons why it’s not worth backing Manchester City to be the best of the rest

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chickendinner aren’t stupid enough to say that Man City have no chance of a top-five finish - after all they could have Robinho, Samuel Eto’o and Carlos Tevez up-front. They should have challenged for fifth last year though but ended up closer to West Brom than Arsenal, so the odds of 5/4 with Bet365 on them being best of the rest this season seem far too short. Here’s why we think you’d be better off backing Everton or maybe even Spurs:

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1. Manchester City are still yet to finish any higher than eighth in the Premier League, a feat they achieved under Stuart Pearce in 2004-05.

2. Since Blackburn’s title win in 1994-95, just four sides have ended the season as the best of the rest: Newcastle, Leeds, Tottenham and Everton. Spurs and Everton are the only two to have done it in the last five years.

Posted: July 9th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | 6 Comments

Gianluca Vialli emerges as the 3/1 second favourite for the Newcastle job

Chelsea legend backed to take over at St James’ Park

An e-mail from Sky Bet dropped into the chickendinner inbox this morning revealing that Gianluca Vialli has emerged from nowhere to become the 3/1 second favourite to be appointed Newcastle’s new manager.

The former Chelsea boss hasn’t coached for seven years since an unsuccessful stint at Watford but long absences didn’t stop the Magpies from appointing Kevin Keegan and Joe Kinnear.

Reports in this morning’s papers suggested the Italian was being earmarked by potential owners to work as director of football in a “dream team” with director-of-football despiser Alan Shearer - who is still the 4/11 favourite.

However, perhaps sensing that Shearer wouldn’t be too happy about having someone operating above him, punters have backed Vialli for the main job.

Posted: July 9th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

There’s more chance of Angelina Jolie becoming US President than…

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chickendinner were pretty shocked to find Paddy Power offering odds of just 20/1 that Angelina Jolie becoming US President before she dies. That means that the Irish bookies believe there is more chance of that happening than:

» Padraig Harrington retaining the USPGA Championship (28/1)

» Portsmouth finishing bottom of the Premier League (22/1)

» Bayern Munich or Juventus winning the Champions League (22/1)

» Robin van Persie or Carlos Tevez winning the PFA Player of the Year (22/1, 25/1)

» Madonna adopting her next child from England (33/1)

Posted: July 9th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Barton is 16/1 to be named Newcastle’s player of the year

Will Shearer’s good friend be the Toon Army’s hero next season?

With very little football taking place right now, chickendinner have been sniffing around the bookmakers looking for interesting specials to bet on.

Paddy Power have opened a market on who will win Newcastle’s player of the year award next season with Joey Barton a distant 16/1 outsider, an even longer price than 14/1 Xisco.

The three joint-favourites at 8/1 are Obafemi Martins, Kevin Nolan and Steven Taylor - the latter two mainly because they look likely to stay - with

Posted: July 7th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Pete Sampras and Roger Federer’s dominance, bad news for Andy Murray

Five statistics about what went down at Wimbledon

1. Between them, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer have won 13 of the last 17 men’s singles titles at Wimbledon.

2. Andy Roddick becomes the second American man to lose three finals, following in the footsteps of former coach Jimmy Connors, who lost four.

3. Bad news for Andy Murray - not since Sampras’ first triumph in 1993 has a losing semi-finalist won the following year. Surprisingly, three of the last five

Posted: July 6th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | 1 Comment