Home in on the Swans and the Hammers

Manchester City and Queens Park Rangers meet in Saturday`s English Premier League game that will attract the most attention given how last season`s final day unfolded but the most interesting match bets are away from Etihad Stadium.

For the record, the Citizens are around 2-9 to defeat the Super Hoops, 7-1 to come from behind to win and 28-1 to be victorious by the odd goal in five. No-one who witnessed the Etihad Stadium game between the clubs at the end of the 2011-2012 English Premier League campaign will forget it.

Having addressed the Manchester City-Queens Park Rangers match, which had to be done, it is time to focus on the English Premier League games at the Liberty Stadium and Upton Park in which the home teams are worth supporting.

Swansea has taken brilliantly to life under Michael Laudrup, romping to a 5-0 away victory over the Super Hoops on the opening day and following up that with a 3-0 home win over West Ham last weekend. Although the Swans capitalised on a couple of horrendous Hammers errors to score their first two goals, they were good value for their comfortable triumph.

Bookmakers have yet to buy in to the Swansea success story continuing in the post-Brendan Rogers and are offering odds of around 5-4 that Laudrup`s side beats Sunderland at the Liberty Stadium. For the second consecutive English Premier League, the Swans have been priced up, accounting for home advantage, that they are not as good as their opponents.

The Black Cats will always be difficult to beat so long as Martin O`Neill is their manager but they are one of the English Premier League`s least remarkable teams and their away record in all competitions is, frankly, abysmal.

Sunderland has not won any of its last nine competitive road matches and, since beating Stoke 1-0 in the Potteries in February, it has picked up only four away English Premier League points out of a possible 24. Talk about travel sick.

West Ham may have lost at Swansea but Sam Allardyce`s side leaps off the English Premier League coupon for its Upton Park derby versus a Fulham team that is in real danger of imploding. The Hammers are interesting at around 13-8.

Five home victories in a row, albeit only one of them in the English Premier League, is a record worthy of respect and should have resulted in bookmakers rating West Ham at around 5-4 for the visit of its crisis-hit rival from across town.

Fulham was second best throughout its 1-0 English Capital One Cup loss at third-tier Sheffield Wednesday and players seem to be leaving Craven Cottage quicker than carrier bags leave the Harrods store of Cottagers owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

It speaks volumes about the quality of Fulham`s performance against the lower-league Owls that its star player, by some considerable distance, was Mark Schwarzer, its Australia international goalkeeper who rarely has a bad game.

The wheels are in real danger of falling off the Cottagers and, when morale is at such low levels, Upton Park is the one of the last places that a struggling side wants to go, especially one with away numbers as bad as those of Fulham.

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30/08/2012     © Frixo 2024