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11/02/2007 - London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top two teams in the Premiership will tangle at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday when old rivals Arsenal and Manchester United renew acquaintances.
The Gunners have been one of the big stories of the season as they have come flying out of the gate with an unbeaten record that includes eight wins in 10 games. The departure of captain and star striker Thierry Henry was expected to slow this team of young stars, but they have cruised through the first 10 games in great form and are coming off of a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Anfield against Liverpool.
United did not get off to such a great start, going winless in its first three games. However, the club has rebounded to win its last eight matches in league play and looks like the hottest team in England at the moment.
"We couldn't be going into the game in any better shape or form," United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said at a pre-match press conference. "But I'm sure Arsene Wenger will say the same thing."
Much of the reason for United's success has to go to the strike tandem of Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez. After another foot injury set Rooney back at the start of the season, United struggled to score goals and had to rely on its defense to win games.
Since Rooney's return, however, he has teamed with Tevez to form one of the most dangerous duos in the league. The two have combined to score eight goals, and with Cristiano Ronaldo chipping in three tallies of his own, the Arsenal defense will have plenty to do to keep this trio off the scoreboard.
United has received good news throughout the week concerning injuries as well. Defender Patrice Evra is once again ready to play after shaking off a calf injury, while Owen Hargreaves, Louis Saha and Michael Carrick should also be ready to go.
Hargreaves in particular will be key since he will be charged with slowing down Arsenal's playmaker in the midfield, Francesc Fabregas.
The Spanish midfielder is the catalyst for the Arsenal attack, with five goals on the season and plenty more helpers. Everything runs through Fabregas, so shutting him down will be United's top priority.
Arsenal's other big gun is striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who leads the team with six goals. He will be the main target for Arsenal in the absence of Robin Van Persie, who is out with a knee injury.
Adebayor is a big, physical target, but United will have the services of both Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic to combat the Togo international.
The game shapes up as a very even contest, with both teams bringing plenty of firepower to the occasion. While Arsenal has been good defensively this season, it is United's stingy back line that could make the difference.
With just four goals conceded in 11 matches, the Red Devils have the best defensive record by far in the league, and according to Vidic, that is something that the team takes great pride in.
"At the back, we will take just as much pride from a clean sheet as our strikers will from scoring a goal," Vidic told the club's website. "Arsenal will be a big test but I believe we can stop them and have another clean sheet to our names."
In other action in England on Saturday, Liverpool tries to remain unbeaten when the Reds visit Blackburn, Chelsea attempts to maintain its place among the top four with a win at Wigan, Portsmouth and Newcastle are both top-half sides and get together at St James' Park, while Tottenham tries for just its second win of the season at Middlesbrough. Fulham has earned three draws in its last four games and entertains Reading, Everton hosts a Birmingham side that has lost three of its last four and last-place Derby visits Aston Villa.
On Sunday, disappointing Bolton travels to West Ham, and Manchester City tries to rebound from its 6-0 drubbing at the hands of Chelsea last Saturday when the team hosts Sunderland on Monday.
<< Spurs try to make it three straight wins against Kings
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The defending world champion San Antonio Spurs try to open
the new season with three straight wins, as they host the Sacramento Kings
tonight at the AT&T Center.
The last time the Spurs won the first three games of a new
<< Lakers, Suns meet in playoff rematch
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Lakers will try and ignore the Kobe Bryant
soap opera that is taking place, as they visit the Phoenix Suns tonight at US
Airways Center.
Phoenix has knocked the Lakers out in the first round of the playoff
<< Clippers play first game of campaign against Golden State
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Clippers open their 2007-08 season when
they welcome Pacific Division-rival Golden State tonight to the Staples
Center.
It could be a long season for the Clippers, who have already suffered a
devastating i
<< New-look Celtics start season at home against Wizards
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The new-look Boston Celtics open the 2007-08 campaign at
home, as they welcome the Washington Wizards tonight to TD Banknorth Garden.
Boston's executive director of basketball operations Danny Ainge was very busy
during th
Va. Tech tight end out for season >>
Blacksburg, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Virginia Tech starting tight end Sam Wheeler
will miss the remainder of the 2007 season after suffering a torn anterior
cruciate ligament in his left knee.
The injury occurred in the first quarter of
Better than the Super Bowl? >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Has any game in the last few years
received more publicity than this Sunday's Patriots-Colts contest? Sure, these
two teams have played many memorable games over the last five years, but none
of them can com
Jets, Skins, Both Trying to Find Win Column >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - You can almost hear Eric Mangini's pre-game speech.
"Well guys, I know it's been bad out there so far. But at least we didn't
lose, 52-7!"
Other than finding happiness in the misfortune of teams unlucky enough to have
f
Struggling Falcons, Niners, Take Stage at Georgia Dome >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco 49ers are not where they want to be right
now in regard to their season. But like most teams this year, the club may
enjoy a trip to Atlanta, where it will try to halt its five-game losing streak
in a battle
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
The San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.
Thursday, August 21
NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37
NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road
In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.
Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):
* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games
Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.
Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.
Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.
That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.
Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.
CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)
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