Back Sanchez Watt to score on his Southend debut

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League One trivia fans, it’s your lucky day. Here’s your teaser: what have Akpo Sodje, John Bostock, Kevin Lisbie, Shaun Batt and Nathan Eccleston got in common?

The answer is that all of them are attack-minded players who went on loan to League One sides this season and scored on their debut.

We think there will be a new name to add to that already lengthy list tonight – Sanchez Watt. The Arsenal youngster has joined Southend on loan and looks

Posted: February 8th, 2010 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Newcastle actually look like a safe bet for once…seriously

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It’s been happening for five months now, but we still can’t quite get our heads around Newcastle being a functional, hard-working team with a solid defence. They rarely even manage to shoot themselves in the foot nowadays.

Tonight, we’ve finally plucked up the courage to bet on the Toon Army at 21/20 on Betfair to trample over a stumbling West Brom side who they even

Posted: January 18th, 2010 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

The opening day fixtures make good reading for Arsenal, Chelsea and Wolves

Six Premier League fixture-list related trends and statistics

1. The last five newly-promoted teams to kick their season off at home all avoided defeat, which is good news for Wolves who open against West Ham.

2. However, the last four to start away from home have all lost. That doesn’t bode well for Birmingham and Burnley, who start at Man United and Stoke.

3. Chelsea have won their opening game in each of the last seven seasons and this year they kick-off their campaign at home to Hull.

Posted: June 17th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Sunderland keep up their bid to be relegated at Portsmouth

2008-09: The season where nobody can be bothered to survive

The table above shows the average number of points each Premier League club have taken from their last 11 games, with an unprecedented seven clubs all taking less than a point a game. That includes each of the bottom five, who seem to be doing everything in their power to be relegated, while Aston Villa and Wigan are plodding along with very little left to play for.

This is a far cry from the last five seasons, where no more than four teams have averaged under a point a game from matchday 27 onwards. In the last two campaigns, first West Ham and then Fulham have produced some of their best ever form to save themselves from their certain relegation:

2006-07

Posted: May 19th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Positive signs for Liverpool, Rangers poised for the SPL

Five stats about this weekend’s football

1. Victory over West Brom guarantees Liverpool their best points finish (83 possibly rising to 86) since taking 90 in 1987-88.

2. Barring a very unlikely set of results next week, it is also likely to be the first time in 19 seasons that Liverpool have finished the season with the strongest goal difference in the division.

3. Nine teams have failed to beat a Big Four side in the Premier League this season, an improvement on last season’s 11 and Sunderland still have a chance to strike themselves off that list against Chelsea next weekend.

Posted: May 19th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment