Showdown Sunday

The US sports world is buzzing about the biggest NFL matchup in 10 years – the New England Patriots at the Indianapolis Colts. With the Red Sox sweeping the World Series, and the Celtics welcoming their first ‘triple threat’ offence since Bird, McHale and Parish, the Patriots are looking to complete the puzzle by proving their football seniority by defeating the reigning Superbowl champions, the Colts.

Just like Arsenal v United yesterday, this one is a tough call. The Colts, as previously mentioned, are the world champions, they are undefeated and (perhaps most importantly) may hold the pschological edge by winning the last three meetings against the Pats. The Patriots, however, boast the most talked about team in recent times, with an offence that has averaged more than 40 points per game on their way to a perfect 7-0 record this season. So what’s the call?

The call is – don’t risk it! If football insiders and commentators are split as to who will win, the only possibility is that anything can happen! Even taking the spread (Colts +5.5) is troubling, because if the Patriots do get on top, they have shown no mercy in running up the score all season long.

Looking over at the NBA, there are some tasty Sunday night matchups – with the pick being Utah travelling to LA to face the Lakers. In what promises to be a tight game, Utah has been given a slight edge by Vegas (-2.5), however betting exchanges are not recognising it, actually making Utah a slight underdog (1.99 to 1.98). The Lakers comfortably beat Phoenix on Friday, however this seemed to be more due to their opponents bad play rather than their dominance, and Kobe was bailed out by his bench. This leads me to Utah, who crush Golden State last night and who I think will be too deep for LA to handle.

Pick:
Utah v La Lakers (money line) @ 1.99

Bouncebackability

Last night’s pick (and the first official pick of the 2007/08 season) turned bad when Phoenix conspired to be blown out by the Lakers’ bench. There were quite a few ‘odd’ results last night…so I’m not going to get too hung up on them. What’s more important is today’s Premiership action.One of the biggest, if not the biggest, Premiership fixture takes place today at 12.45GMT – Arsenal at home to Manchester United.

This game is cLose Weight Exercise/”>Lose Weight Exercise, and the form guide for both teams reads like a Tiger Woods scorecard – Arsenal have won 8 and drawn 2 in their last 10 games, and United have gone one better with 9 wins and one draw. It’s this parity which makes it very hard to pick a winner…however…

United have scored a club record 12 goals in the last 3 games, and just one of Arsenal’s last 10 games at home has ended with fewer than 2 goals being scored (their 1-0 win over Manchester City). It will be an upbeat match with everyone trying to make their mark, and +2.5 goals is tempting at 2.3…but instead go for +1.5 goals in the game multiplied with no sendings off in the Middlesborough and Wigan games to take you up to 1.95.

For another pic, look no further than the big disappointment of this season so far (except Spurs) – Liverpool. They seem to have been surrounded by crisis after crisis since opening day, however this hysteria hasn’t completely translated itself to their Premiership form, especially on their travels where they are yet to Lose Weight Exercise/”>Lose Weight Exercise this season (in fact they have only dropped 2 points from a possible 15). A nice price of 2.56 is available for Liverpool to extend their run of away form, and with Blackburn’s talismanic midfielder David Bentley out injured, they should be able to get back on the comeback trail this afternoon.

Picks

Multiplier – Arsenal v Manchester United +1.5goals, no red cards in Middleborough and Wigan matches @ 1.95

Blackburn v Liverpool Liverpool to win @ 2.56

NBA picks – Gameday 4

Rain Man here to give a quick note to give my pick for tonight’s action. Over the coming months I will be trying to give less ‘traditional’ bets…including multiples and some in-play tips…Tonight I’ll offer up:

3 game multiplier
1 LA Lakers @ Phoenix (Backing Phoenix Suns @ 1.21)
2 Denver @ Minnesota (Backing Denver Nuggets @ 1.22)
3 Miami @ Indiana (Backing Indiana Pacers @ 1.33)

Multiplying up this comes to an overall bet of 1.96…enjoy.

Lateness

Yeah yeah well we made it to 5am and I’m still quite awake…except I did get pins and needles i my back just now which might be a sign of my body slowly failing…anyway it’s Jyrki’s last night here so we’re playing GTA3 and Unreal 2k3 to expel all of that pent-up male sexual frustration based violence that is coursing through our bodies. Oh yeah and we’re watching porn. That helps too.

Doctor J: Actually that increases the hormonal imbalance
Oli: Sorry? I’m trying to concentrate

So anyway what what? Ate the biggest dinner ever of steak and steak with steak (and some vegetable something too)…I think I have broken a personal record re:eating today as I feel v.fat (perhaps for the first time in my life). Great. (This is not a sign of anorexia/bulimia – it is a turn of phrase).
Oh yeah we went to spy on the HKMafia playing bball but it wasn’t very interesting (except I did see Dragon Ken which is always a pleasure)…did manage to shoot around playing HORSE with J for a bit, but was v.glad to not reinjure myself which I was sure I was going to do)…

Hendry Out of UK Championships – GOD DAMN IT (well, at least O’Sullivan is out too)

Zhizhi Wang at NBA.com – Don’t Forget Me!!! I’m Chinese too!!! (But you play for the Clippers, and they suck. And you suck.)

GTA3 Gameguide at Gamespot.com – We don’t need your help! (Yes we do.)

World Wrestling Federation

Old school…so tonight me and Luta~!~!~! watched WWE Survivor Series which was pretty cool altogether (3 cans of Carling may have improved it however)…He was impressed with the Pornturkey gobbling away in the corner …oh yeah that reminds me:

BASTARD!!! I screwed up my ankle today playing bball and will miss the rest of the year…This includes (and is limited to) Thursday night’s game vs the HK Mafia team. Shiiit. The only point of comedy in the whole polemique was that I reckon one of the guys tried to pull me when I was sitting there ice-packing (I said ‘ice’) my ankle. I don’t discriminate baby….(Sorry?)…

Mental note: English actors in hardcore porn RULE BABY!!!

NEWSINBRIEF
Europe’s Super Rocket Explodes – Nice try guys…
US ‘satisfied’ by Yemeni assurances – Yemenis say the SCUD MISSILES were for defensive and domestic use only…and the world’s not worried about DOMESTIC SCUD MISSILE USAGE IN YEMEN?!?!
Miss World chooses China for next contest – So that’s what Yaotun’s mum does….

Yao Ming’s Personal Player File @ NBA.com