Brighton v Newcastle

I can really see an odds upset here. Brighton have had longer to prepare for this and are off the back of a 3-0 win at Ipswich, whereas Newcastle may have hard time against Everton on Wednesday and have had a lot of injuries. A brave shout to open with I know, but: 2-0 Brighton.

Aldershot v Rotherham

An all League 2 clash. With promotion far from in the bag for the Millers (that’s Rotherham by the way), they’ll have their league form at the forefront of their minds, whereas Aldershot are at home and are far enough from relegation to afford a run in the cup. 1-0 the Shots.

If you had to offer me a prediction now, as to who will win the title this season, I would be more than inclined to say Manchester United. They’ve got a seven point lead, they’ve beaten City on their own turf and are notoriously good at doing the business in the back-end of the season. 

Having said that, I don’t think they’ll win the title with total ease. Man City will still have a big gain in terms of not playing matches in Europe in midweek, they’ve got a more solid defence and the spending power to invest in January. Here are some reasons why United may struggle to finish the job in the second half of the season.

Mancini and Balotelli had to be pulled apart in training. Apparently, Mancini got furious after a ferocious tackle by Balotelli on Scott Sinclair. Surely he’s out of Man City now?

I’m not a fan of the phrase professional gambler as it has the feel of an oxymoron. For anyone to earn a consistent profit from betting requires a tremendous amount of discipline, research and self-restraint (something that applies particularly strong in football). I am not attempting to come off here as some betting guru as I know I’m not but I have been able to make decent money doing this over the past three years, enough in fact that I feel I will share some of the tips I use to whoever is reading this.

One of the more interesting relationships in football is the dynamic between a manager and the fans of a club. Some managers become almost universally popular with the fanbase, which is usually due to winning on a consistent basis. Some are made to feel unwelcome from the beginning, such as Roy Hodgson at Liverpool, Steve Kean at Blackburn and Rafa Benitez at Chelsea; which makes the job of winning the fans around extremely difficult. Most managers exist somewhere in between these two states, generally enjoying that the affections of the fans, but at the same time knowing those affections are a bit like the Sword of Damocles, hanging by a single thread that could snap at any second.