Man Utd v Chelsea
On Sunday spread punters will see Manchester United and Chelsea go head-to-head for the first piece of silverware of the 2010/11 season. Spread bettors will view the afternoon as more of a chance to see how summer training has progressed since South Africa 2010. Surprisingly, both clubs have not been overly active in the transfer window with United having welcomed only Chris Smalling and Javier Hernandez. Sir Alex Ferguson is happy with his squad and fans can buy the side's outright Championship index spread (winner 60pts, runner-up 40pts, third 30pts, fourth 20pts etc) at 40. Spread punters buying Chelsea's outright index at 43 might be concerned that the Blues have so far only added Yossi Benayoun to their squad while spread buyers at 46 will be eagerly awaiting news of Brazilian midfielder Ramires' medical to see if he will join the ranks.
Carlo Ancelotti's biggest departure this year was the free transfer of Joe Cole to Liverpool and buyers of Chelsea's win index this Sunday, at 13, will be intrigued to see how Benayoun adapts to the opposite switch. Spread sellers will have taken note of the Blues' triumph last August against the same opponents on penalties after the match finished 2-2. It was almost settled in 90 minutes before Wayne Rooney equalised in the dying seconds - much to the disappointment of those that has bought the Blues' win index, but not to those who had bought Rooney's goal minutes spread.
These two league giants met twice more last year and it was Chelsea's spread supporters that will have been the happier with their two league wins. Punters debating whether to buy United's win index at 12 will have noted that the side had won the previous two Shields before 2009, beating Portsmouth and Chelsea. Supremacy spread bettors should be aware that both these matches needed penalties to separate the teams. The last time United won the Community Shield within 90 minutes was in 1996 - since then they have won it four times, on each occasion after penalties.
Those that like a spread bet on Sporting Index's total goals market should be aware that last year's match was the first time in three seasons that three or more goals were scored. Since 2000 the highest total of goals scored is four, also in 2004. Sellers of the spread will be interested to see that in the same period five of the matches have seen fewer than three goals scored. The average number of goals in this time is 2.4.
The 'first match goal' market has proved a tricky one to call over the past few seasons with spread buyers and sellers having found support for either position. Last year Nani scored in the 10th minute to the delight of sellers that afternoon but it was buyers celebrating the season before as the game ended 0-0 between United and Portsmouth.
Sporting Index traders have included a few specials for spread bettors to get involved in, one being the 'Man Utd /Chelsea leading minutes' market. United led for a total of 42 minutes last year, whereas Chelsea held the lead for just 19 minutes.
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