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The extravagantly-named Plaxico Burress is just one of many men to watch on Sunday

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Team and top player guides by Betfair's American Football guru Edward Hammond-Kenny

With the game between the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium just a few days away its time to take a closer look at the performance of the two teams so far this season.

The Giants lost their first two games to the Cowboys and the Packers, results that gave the hyper-critical New York fans plenty of ammunition with which to attack the team. With the benefit of hindsight those results don't look too bad now as both Green Bay (5 wins - 1 loss) and Dallas (6-1) are currently having great seasons. Since then the Giants have gone on an amazing run of form, winning all of their last five matches including the last four by at least 10 points. This needs to be put in some context though as those four teams all have losing records so far this season.

Pre-season the Giants were expected to win at least eight games (according to the Betfair Regular Season Wins market) and they are on course to do at least that well. Post-season is a real possibility, but it may only be possible via the wild card route as they are in the tough NFC East division with Dallas and Washington (4-2).

It's hard to pick two more contrasting teams in terms of current form. As much as the Giants are flying high the Dolphins season reaches new lows almost daily. They share the dubious record with the St Louis Rams of being the only teams in the NFL without a win. Miami have conceded the most points in the league and were torn apart by the high-powered New England Patriots offence in their last game, giving up an enormous 42 points in the first half alone (don't read anything into the apparent second-half fight back, the Patriots were resting their key starters by then).

The Dolphins cause hasn't been helped by a quite staggering list of injuries to key players. Starting quarterback Trent Green is out for the season after suffering a serious concussion (the same happened to him last season) so at the age of 36 his career is under threat. Just last week came the biggest blow with star running back Ronnie Brown tearing a cruciate ligament, he is out for the season also. Brown was in the top five in the league for rushing yards and may well have gone to the Pro Bowl.

On Betfair, Miami were expected to win seven regular season games at the start of the year, not enough to reach the post season without getting very lucky. Well any hope of post-season football is out of the question now, all that's left is the challenge of salvaging some respectability and rebuilding the team for next year. That is the reason for trading star wide receiver Chris Chambers to San Diego for a 2008 draft pick two weeks ago.

Who are the players to look out for on Sunday then? Let's start with the Giants and quarterback Eli Manning. The younger of the Manning brothers has had a solid year so far and has been leading his offence with no little skill, but with a tendency to throw too many interceptions and a fairly low completion record he can't be described as one of the top guys in his position just yet.

Plaxico Burress is the Giants top wide receiver and has been on fire this year, already he has eight touchdowns (second among wide receivers), Burress will be Manning's main target. Miami have the worst run defence in the league (giving up 156 rush yards per game on average), so look for Giants running back Brandon Jacobs to have a field day - he currently trades at just over 2.0 to make over 100.5 rush yards on Betfair. If you are betting on who will score a touchdown be aware that the goal line runs are usually made by Reuben Droughns.

It's quite hard to pick out a star Miami player given the injury crisis, but in the absence of Chambers, Marty Booker has become the leading receiver on the team. He will find it tough though as Miami's lack of a threatening running game will mean the Giants can double up on him should they wish. It will be a long game for the Miami defence, but that gives Jason Taylor a good opportunity to pressure Manning. He currently leads the team in sacks with four.

Overall this looks like a very favourable match-up for the Giants. Whether playing outside the US will free up the Miami threat is the big unknown, but what's for sure is that you can expect some great action as the Dolphins throw the ball around to make up for their lack of the run and the Giants in form offence continues to roll on.


Edward's pick of Brandon Jacobs to make over 100.5 yards at just over evens came in a treat. The Giants' running back made 131 yards as his side beat Miami 13-10.

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