Premier League Betting: Could misguided faith be responsible for current plight of Middlesbrough and Newcastle?

Premier League / Mike Norman / 20 May 2009 / Leave a Comment

Ahead of Survival Sunday, "Mystical" Mike Norman takes a light-hearted look back through the season, and reveals who has won what at his annual Crystal Ball Awards...

Despite apologies for their absence from over 400 Premier League footballers, 19 top-flight managers, and all bar one of the world's best referees, the first ever Crystal Ball Awards were a huge success - not least because of the way the entire party (that's Didier Drogba, Tom Henning Ovrebo and Arsene Wenger) got on.

First up was the Biggest Misguidance of Faith award, gratefully received (via satellite link) by joint winners Joe Kinnear and Gareth Southgate.

Back in October, Newcastle interim manager Kinnear put his faith in the freshly-released-from-prison Joey Barton, stating that his midfielder was a model professional and that he often comes in for unfair criticism. Southgate meanwhile was refusing to bring in an experienced goalkeeper at Middlesbrough, instead choosing to put his faith in last season's back-up goalies Ross Turnbull and Brad Jones.

As Survival Sunday approaches, Joey Barton is currently serving a three match ban for his latest red card and has been suspended by his club for ill-discipline, whilst at 'Boro, Turnbull & Jones The Flower Pot Clones have leaked goals all season, meaning the Teesside club will almost certainly be relegated at the weekend.

Latest Relegation Betting: Middlesbrough [1.04], Newcastle [1.65], Hull [2.84], Sunderland [9.6]

Blackburn's Morten Gamst Pedersen was the recipient of the Most Embarrassing Moment award, this for his deplorable dive against Arsenal recently. Pedersen even had the cheek to look behind and assess the situation before crumbling to the ground in Oscar-winning fashion. The Norwegian will do well to remember that we don't like that sort of behaviour over here and that in England we have many players who refuse to dive. Take Middlesbrough's Turnbull and Jones for example - they haven't dived all season!

Blackburn can be backed at [1.9] to beat relegated West Brom on Sunday - not a bad bet providing Pedersen can keep his feet.

The Game of the Season award went to the thrilling 4-4 draw between Arsenal and Tottenham at the Emirates Stadium. This award was voted for by Betfair staff, and I'm sure was only voted for in jest of my 'mystical' powers. I previewed this game, and predicted a dull low-scoring encounter. The phrase 'you win some, you spectacularly lose some' has since been created in my honour.

Tottenham travel to Liverpool on the last day of the season, and this time I'm confident of getting it right. I predict goals, so don't rule out Over 3.5 Goals being the outcome at [3.1].

The Reds boss Rafa Benitez was the proud recipient of the IQ award. Back in January he amazed the world of football by reeling off a list of derogatory 'facts' about United boss Sir Alex Ferguson. The timing of Rafa's rant, and the knowledge he demonstrated, was pure inspiration. So much so that the season will end with one final fact for Benitez to dwell on - that Liverpool did the double over Man Utd this season, yet still failed to win the Premier League title. Now that's a fact.

And finally, the most prestigious award of the evening was the Outstanding Captain award. A number of different criteria were used to determine the winner, including number of coin tosses won/lost, presentation, leadership off the field, and amount of trophies lifted.

The winner was Manchester United's Gary Neville, an outstanding captain in every sense. He lost fewer coin tosses than any other Premier League captain (because he never played), was always seen in a club suit prior to kick-off (because he wasn't playing), had plenty of time for the youngsters off the field (because he never played or trained), and lifted more trophies than anybody else despite playing about seven minutes of football all season. Now that's what I call an outstanding captain!

United may field a weakened team on Sunday, but will you ever get a better price than [2.46] for them to beat a Hull side that has won just once in 21 league outings?