Villa Thrilla?
Football spread bettors don’t have long to wait on Saturday for the first piece of top quality action with the top of the table clash between Aston Villa and Chelsea. Guus Hiddink will be looking for a dream start to his reign as Chelsea boss, but buyers of the Blues’ supremacy on the spreads will have to ignore the fact that their side haven’t won at Villa Park for a decade. The Sporting Index traders saw almost complete support from spread punters for Chelsea on their travels earlier in the season, but their recent form (two points from their last four away games) has made them easier to oppose. However, although Martin O’Neill is viewed as the Messiah in the claret and blue half of Birmingham, his record against the Big Four at Villa Park isn’t great. In 11 games, his side have only won once (although that was against Chelsea last season), going W1-D5-L5. That isn’t to say that supporters of Chelsea on the spreads should be over confident though as they have only won two of their last 13 on the road at top six opposition (W2-D4-L7).
A crucial requirement of football betting is to look at previous meetings between the sides and recent encounters between these two create quite a blurry picture. There are likely to be plenty of spread bettors who want to go under the goals spread, as seven of the last nine top flight contests have produced two goals or fewer. This fact is further boosted by 10 of the Blues’ 13 games at top six sides in the past three seasons finishing with fewer than three, as well as six of Villa’s last 10 at home to the Big Four being under this figure. However, those of us who like to spread bet know that games like this don’t always follow the patterns and last season these two clubs served up an incredible 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge.
The return of Eduardo to the Arsenal forward line paid massive dividends against Cardiff on Monday night with a comfortable 4-0 win. It was a massive confidence boost for the Gunners and spread bettors will be hoping for more of the same when Sunderland come to the Emirates on Saturday. Players on the Sunderland goal markets – sellers of the time of the first goal or buyers of goal minutes with Sporting Index – will be encouraged that the Black Cats have scored on their last three trips to North London. The only problem is that they have conceded three goals each time. Their last league win here was in 1983 which doesn’t augur well for the most optimistic of Arsenal spread supremacy sellers. The Gunners also have a fantastic record against bottom-half sides since the start of last season (W12-D3-L0) and eight of those wins have come without conceding. Sunderland’s recent form at the Big Four isn’t anything to write home about either, taking one solitary point from their last 10 games and failing to net in eight of those games, which will interest the spread punters who like to play the time of the first goal markets.
Bill Esdaile of Square in the Air Communications, a former sports trader, spread betting specialist and self confessed stats addict, casts his eye over this weekend's sport and shares his views on some of the trades available. Please note these are his views and are not the views of Sporting Index.
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