Andy's Sunday tips - Chelsea to win again
Our top tipster Andy Gray passes judgement on Chelsea's attempts to regain ground in the title race against Aston Villa and the battle of the Premier League's most erratic teams, Wigan and Newcastle...
Chelsea v Aston Villa
Chelsea's win over Bolton will have come as a huge relief to all those connected with the football club as it stopped one of the worst runs in their entire, let alone recent, history.
It's hard to pinpoint what exactly has gone wrong at Stamford Bridge in recent times but many have identified a poor bench this season as one of their weaknesses. It's true that over the last couple of weeks Carlo Ancelotti hasn't had much to turn to, but it's also true that injuries have played their part in that.
At another stage of the season, the manager may have had Salomon Kalou, Jose Bosingwa, Branislav Ivanovic, Yossi Benayoun, Yuri Zhirkov and Gael Kakuta to call upon and those are all players who can have a significant impact on a football match off the bench.
For the time being it seems as though Ancelotti is happy with what he has and the days of Roman Abramovich bankrolling several big signings during every transfer window may well be over anyway.
All that is a concern for another day and right now Chelsea will just be thinking about beating Aston Villa. Gerard Houllier's side are in awful form and with no signs of any money being made available in January, I'm not sure how they're going to go about improving things.
Chelsea should be too good and too powerful for the visitors here and with John Terry looking back to something like his best, I wouldn't be surprised if they manage to keep a clean sheet in the process.
Recommended Bets:
Back Chelsea to win at [1.27]
Back Chelsea to win 2-0 at [6.6]
Back a Chelsea clean sheet at [1.86]
Wigan v Newcastle
These are the two Jekyll and Hyde sides of this league. You never know what to expect from them and they can both be awful one day and pretty damn good the next.
I'd normally be fancying Wigan here because home advantage counts for a lot in this league and because they will have taken great confidence from drawing against Arsenal after going down to ten men.
My big concern though is that the man who was sent off in that match, Charles N'Zogbia, will be sorely missed in this match. He's by far their most creative force and their best player when it comes to making chances for his team-mates. We'll have to wait and see how they cope without him.
Newcastle weren't bad at all against Spurs a couple of days ago and Andy Carroll seems to be just about the best player on the pitch every time he plays these days. Pound for pound, there isn't a huge amount to separate these two and I think the final scoreline will reflect that.
Recommended Bets:
Back the draw at [3.4]
Back the 2-2 draw at [19.0]
Back Andy Carroll to score at [2.4] or better
Andy Gray is now on Twitter so follow him for his exclusive tips and his take on the biggest stories in football each week.
Published: 1 Jan 2011
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