English Premier League Opening Weekend Preview Part One
- By Allan Pederson on August 13, 2012 15:33 GMT
Now that the Olympics are done, we're set to get some proper sport back on television with the much-vaunted return of the English Premier League. Manchester City go into the season in the unfamiliar position of defending champions and they've been adding to their team steadily throughout the off-season.
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City play host to newly-promoted Southampton (remember them?) on Sunday and they go into the fixture as the weekend's most prohibitive favourite. Listed by Ladbrokes at an ultra-slim 1/7 price tag, they are expected to run riot over their opponents. Anybody feeling especially brave can lock in an 11/1 price on the underdogs.
The other Sunday fixture is Wigan hosting Chelsea and this has been a much more interesting match-up on the pitch than it has been on paper during the last few times these two have met. Few will forget Wigan's near-historic victory over Chelsea on opening day a few years back, only for their hopes to be dashed with virtually the last kick of the game by Hernan Crespo. Punters will find Chelsea priced at a very reasonable 8/15 against Wigan's 9/2 listing. The Champions League winners will likely be a factor on a number of accumulator tickets stretching into Sunday.
A chalky double on Sunday pays out at 1.75 with City and Chelsea both to get the result.
Manchester United face off against Everton on Monday in the late fixture and United will be opening up their campaign with an away match, though they still go off at a 4/5 listing. That's not bad odds on a side that look to have virtually every player back and in-form right now. Expect to see Kagawa or some of the new faces in this one. Many (at least those on Twitter) expect Van Persie to join United at some point this week – it would be interesting to see if he plays on Monday should the deal actually get concluded.
Everton have brought back Steven Pienaar and have been recently shorn of the services of upstart midfielder Jack Rodwell. Big-spending City have signed him up for a lucrative position as a bench-warmer and you reckon the lad is just ready to tuck into that massive pay packet after enduring some lean years on Merseyside.
Saturday plays host to a number of exciting fixtures and the pick of them looks to be the Newcastle vs Tottenham match, while it very well could wind up being a scrappy affair like QPR vs Swansea that really gets people jumping out of their seats.
