Euro Bet

Sunderland play host to Aston Villa in a fortnight’s time in what promises to be a fascinating encounter. Steve Bruce’s men have suffered from the loss of Asamoah Gyan and Danny Wellbeck in the summer meaning that they are lacking comparable striking options to this time last season. They have had a shaky start to this year’s campaign because they have not been able to score enough goals and I would consequently expect their home advantage to be of little significance in this game. Alex McLeish has replaced the departing Ashley Young with Charles N’Zogbia and the young Frenchman has settled in well so far at Villa Park. Darren Bent has also been in fine goal-scoring and it might be a question of how many they get against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light as they have been tearing teams apart recently. Stilian Petrov’s passing has improved even further in his twilight years while the arrival of Shay Given from Manchester City to keep net for them was an inspired signing. I would expect Aston Villa to win this encounter comfortably. (more…)

Chelsea finished as runners up in last year’s Premiership, but I would be surprised if they were able to match this achievement again this season due to the fact that Manchester City have come on leaps and bounds since. Villas-Boas is clearly a supremely gifted manager but it is going to take a while before he can get his new group of players used to working together in the specific style that he demands. That said, they have such quality all over the pitch that they can still beat any team in the league on their day. At the back, John Terry is still showing the kind of form that merits inclusion in the starting eleven week in week out despite the fact that he is starting to get quite old, while Villas-Boas can choose between Alex, Ivanovic and Luiz as his partner at centre back. All three players have serious quality going forward as well as defending – Alex takes a mean free-kick, Luiz has already scored twice this season and Ivanovic is always a danger in the air from set-pieces – while Ashley Cole is still the best left-back in the world despite his pace fading over the last few seasons. (more…)