Hammer bookmakers with beautiful Swans

Established English Premier League side Swansea is much too big at odds against to beat top-flight newcomer West Ham at the Liberty Stadium as the football competition rolls on.

While very few people foresaw Swansea`s 5-0 away defeat of Queens Park Rangers on the opening day of the new English Premier League season and the Swans were flattered by the margin of their win - they scored with five of their six shots on target - there was a lot to like about the manner in which they played under new manager Michael Laudrup.

The great Dane has, it would appear, made several shrewd signings since taking over from Liverpool-bound Brendan Rogers, making the most of his European knowledge to get some very talented footballers to Swansea, players whose football philosophy is akin to that of their teammates.

Tipped to be among the English Premier League relegation candidates this term, Swansea could end up being one of the season`s surprise packages under Laudrup, whose record as a coach contains more hits than misses and whose approach is similar to Rogers, which is why the Swans headhunted him.

Bookmakers are offering around 11-10 about Swansea beating West Ham on its home pitch. Those odds are too generous if one believes that the Swans are a stronger side than the Hammers and, since Laudrup`s team is not the one playing this term in a higher division than the one in which it played last season, that is a reasonable assumption.

West Ham may be difficult against which to play - all Sam Allardyce-managed sides are - but Swansea deserves to be around 10-11 or even 4-5 to maintain its 100 per cent record. Odds of 11-10 are a fair bit over the top.

While Swansea looks like the best value of the eight English Premier League home teams in action on Saturday, there are a couple of away sides who are interesting at the prices. They are Everton, who travels to Birmingham to play Aston Villa, and Queens Park Rangers, who is heading east to Norwich.

Everton outplayed Manchester United at Goodison Park to pick up where it left off last term. The Toffees were one of the form teams in the second half of the 2011-2012 English Premier League season and the draw has been kind to them this campaign, serving up first the Red Devils and now the Villains at, quite possibly, the best times to meet them.

Aston Villa is, understandably, a work in progress as Paul Lambert gets to grips with the squad that he has inherited from Alex McLeish. Lambert will get it right eventually but it will take time. Everton is attractive at around 6-4.

The club that Lambert quit, Norwich, may not get it right all season long. The Canaries did not have anything about which to sing last weekend, losing their English Premier League opener 0-5 away to Fulham. They were terrible.

Norwich welcomes Queens Park Rangers to Carrow Road and, incredibly, the visiting side is coming off the back of a 0-5 loss as well. Even worse, the Super Hoops crashed at home. At least not many Canaries fans saw their disaster.

Having invested heavily during the summer, Queens Park Rangers is much more likely to come good than Norwich and, therefore, win odds of around 11-5 are hard to pass over.

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25/08/2012     © Frixo 2024