Maybe the most disadvantaged team from the four, would have to be Chelsea, as they played at home against a team was is clearly inferior.But that’s way sports are great because at any time, any contender has a chance.

But weather we like ot or not, top teams do have bad and good periods. The main difference between a top team and a mediocre one is the period of those bad periods. For example let’s look at Spurs.Before the start of the season they promised a lot only after a few bad results ( entering the bad period ) they managed only to continue the bad period instead of bouncing back on track right away. Now let’s take a look at the way Manchester Untied started the 07/08 season.Only 2 pct in the first 3 matches. And one of the matches was with Man City, but after the 3 games they managed to get the win that would set them on the right track and win the championship at the end.

If we now take a closer look at the cause of these bad periods, we see some reasons for the results. The most common is the absence of crucial players (due to injury or other reasons).The second most common problem is fatigue.The players are simply to tired and cannot play at 100%.Most of the top teams have to play both in national event and in the international ones (Champions League and UEFA Cup).

I see it like this. If any of the top teams do not have any crucial players missing and the team is not affected by any sort of fatigue, they do look like a sure winner. That is why most of the times, the boxing day and the matches near the new year’s day, bring important points for the big four.

As a conclusion, i have to say that i am looking forward to the premier league matches of the end of the year in which the big four are included. Especially the one of Chelsea and Man Utd.

Young managed to score the winner with only seconds left and Villa took all 3 points.

This match reminds me of the Turkey – Croatia match from this summers at the Euro.

Here are the betfair graphics for this match. One is the draw graphic and the other the Villa graphic

Today, on Standford Bridge, we were given another perfect example why most of the times, football is an unjust sport.

Chelsea played an excellent match until Van Persie managed to score the equalizer, thanks to a referee mistake.Just minutes after, Arsenal scored their second goal, again though V. Persie.

Still, i consider that if the first goal would not have been validated, we would have no second goal to talk about.

Anyway, this means that Arsenal are still out there with a chance reducing the gap between them and Chelsea to 7 points.But their are still on 4th place, with Liverpool and Manchester United above them with 33 and 28 points respectively but both with an extra match to be played.

Arsenal, as most of the matches played at home, was the team with the main initiative and dominated the match.They did have the lead 1-0 but failed to win.Why? Because experience is very important in football.But we are getting into another story here.Maybe in another post.

But what is interesting for me here is the betfair graphic on Arsenal, just before the start of the match.

Let’s take a look an see how there are some big bets placed on Arsenal.You can clearly see at least 5 major bets that bring the price down by one tick.Two of those bets pass, or at least reach the 200 000 GBP barrier.What i would really like to know is did those punters sell for a profit after the first goal, or did they stick to their bet to end up losing like Arsenal?

Football

First off all we have plenty of football (soccer) action in all the Major European Football Leagues.

From England we have some very interesting matches, starting with the Liverpool derby between Everton and Liverpool.Manchester face Bolton at home, Chelsea play away at newly promoted Stoke and Arsenal will face Hull.On Sunday we have Portsmouth vs Tottenham and Wigam vs Manchester City.

In Spain we have yet another derby, this time in Barcelona where Espanyon will play FC Barcelona.Real Madrid will play away at Betis, while first place holders, Valencia, play at home against Dep. la Coruna.

Believe it or not, in Italy , Serie A, we have another derby, Inter vs Milan.Interesting to see if Milan will be able to extend their winning series to 3 matches, or will it be Inter who will manage to make 4 wins in a row.

Tennis

Some nice tennis matches are available this weekend.The China Open finals, for both men and women whould be interesting, while the Thailand Open and the Korean Open bring us another two finals to bet on.

American Football

And if that isn’t enough we still got some NFL matches that should bring some money into our pockets.