Trading Talk – Football Premier League Preview Part2

The monetary fortunes of Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour, billionaire owners of Chelsea FC and Manchester City FC respectively, attract much speculation. But it is the contrasting Premier League fortunes of their managers Carlo Ancelotti and Mark Hughes which will come into focus over the next few days as spread bettors gear up for the teams’ clash at the City of Manchester stadium.

The untold wealth of the clubs’ financial backers means rewarding wages but lower job security, as Avram Grant and Phil Scolari have recently found out to their detriment, and spread buyers of Chelsea’s supremacy will hope Frank Lampard and co can help push Hughes closer to the Sheikh’s trapdoor with victory tomorrow. Win index spread buyers or sellers may or may not be expecting the 10-point outcome on either team’s index (25pts for a win, 10pts for a draw, 0 for a loss) as Chelsea have, after 14 games, still not drawn a league match this season, while Man City have tied every one of their last seven.

Chelsea’s clinical 3-0 win over title rivals Arsenal continued their excellent form in front of the net and it’s no surprise that Sporting Index’s football spread traders are primed for a glut of buys on the total goals spread. Didier Drogba’s second against Arsenal last Sunday was the Blues’ 17^th in five games, excluding a further 11 goals in fourin the European and League Cups since October. City, despite sharing the spoils in every match in the last two months, have nevertheless managed to score in all bar one of these games, and spread buyers of total goals will be further pleased of the 12 goals scored in City’s last three. Goal minutes buyers would rather a repeat of City’s Liverpool meeting two weeks ago which saw four second-half goals (make-up: 272 minutes) rather than 127 goal minutes against Hull.

Although Tottenham have also thrilled goals buyers in recent weeks, the more competitive game on Sunday, and the one that will split more buyers and sellers on the spreads, is likely to be Fulham v Sunderland. Buyers of both teams’ win index spreads previously in the season might be happily surprised at their current standings of tenth and eighth in the table, but it’s the single point that separates the clubs which will throw many of this game’s spread bettors.

Buyers of Fulham’s win index spread might be surprised that the Cottagers haven’t beaten the Black Cats in this corner of West London for nearly four years. Sunderland’s head-to-head record of W3-D2-L1 in their last six meetings will serve sellers of Fulham’s supremacy spread better, although the same spread punters should also take into account Roy Hodgson’s far superior home record of W4-D1-L2 this season compared to Steve Bruce’s W1-D1-L5 away. Sellers of the booking index spread will be pleased to see that last season’s two meetings produced only two bookings overall and that the Cottagers have averaged only 13pts on the index spread make-up at home this season.