Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Pools tips for this weekend May 14-15


Treble chance (home teams): Birmingham, Sunderland, West Brom, Sporting Gijon, Real Zaragoza, Catania, Napoli, Nancy, St Etienne, Braga.

Best draws: Birmingham, Sunderland, West Brom, Napoli, Nancy.

Aways: Osasuna, Real Madrid, Lecce, Lyon, Marseille.

Homes: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Wigan, Athletic Bilbao, Seville, Lazio, Monaco, Ajax.


Pick of the draws: A point will probably be enough to keep Birmingham in the Premier League and they should get it at St Andrew's against Fulham, who suffered a surprisingly heavy home defeat by Liverpool on Monday. Wolves enhanced their survival hopes with a 3-1 victory over fierce rivals West Bromwich Albion last weekend and, despite their terrible away record, I expect them to carry on the good work at Sunderland, who are severely weakened by injuries. West Brom and Everton have excelled in the second half of the season. They meet at the Hawthorns on Saturday, with deadlock the likeliest result. Napoli can seal third spot in the Italian League by sharing the spoils with second-placed Inter Milan, while in the French League, Nancy (18th) look good for a point against visitors Nice (17th).

Away days: Osasuna, who beat Real Zaragoza 3-1 away in the Spanish League last weekend, are fancied to dish out similar treatment to Getafe. Real Madrid put their Champions League disappointment  behind them by thumping Seville 6-2 away and they can gain maximum points again by defeating Villarreal. Lecce, who beat the highly rated Napoli in their last match, are a good bet to prevail at rock-bottom Bari. In the French League, high-riding Lyon and Marseille should be backed to win at Brest and Lorient respectively.

Homes sweet homes: Arsenal's season has fallen embarrassingly flat, so they will be anxious to end their home programme on a positive note against Aston Villa, who have also disappointed. Liverpool, boosted by the Kenny Dalglish factor, are in terrific form and will be confident of seeing off a fast-fading Tottenham at Anfield. In the struggle to avoid relegation from the Premier League, Wigan look more likely to survive than their visitors West Ham, who have a doomed air about them. In the Spanish League, I believe Seville will recover from their Real Madrid trouncing by defeating Real Sociedad, while in the Dutch League go for second-placed Ajax to topple the leaders, FC Twente.

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