Football Food For Thought / Dan Fitch / 29 September 2009 /

Dan 'The Betting Man' Fitch has a vested interest in the performance of Darren Bent this season and doesn't want to see a repeat of the farcical scenes witnessed at Sunderland last weekend.

They say that charity begins at home and that was certainly the case at Sunderland's The Stadium of Light on Sunday.

After giving Sunderland the lead with a first half penalty, Darren Bent stepped up to take another spot kick in the second half to make it 2-0. That was until his strike partner Kenwyne Jones had a word in Bent's ear and persuaded him to stand aside.

Having presumably said something along the lines of; 'Mate, the Boss keeps dropping me for Frazier Campbell, let me score a goal', Jones stepped up and duly converted the penalty.

Sunderland may have run out 5-2 winners over Wolves, but Steve Bruce was not a happy bunny. He was not best pleased that the ultra-reliable penalty taker Bent, had handed over the spot kick duties and has forbidden such acts of charity in the future.

Steve Bruce was not the only person to be angry at the situation. I have Darren Bent in my Fantasy League team, but more importantly I also placed £10 on him during the summer to be the Premier League's top scorer at a whopping price of [80.0].

Bent already has 6 goals this season, which has seen his price drop to [17.0], but if he's going to outgun Fernando Torres this season, then there's no room for passing over goalscoring opportunities like he did on Sunday.

You wonder how hungry and focused Bent is, to allow such a situation to happen. Could you imagine a Manchester United player managing to wrestle the ball off Cristiano Ronaldo last season, when they'd won a penalty?

If you want an insight into Bent's mind, then get onto Twitter and start following his resurrected feed at DBTheTruth. Last night he went to Tiger, Tiger and reported: "Not going tiger again got pure hassle from newcastle fans asking for pics and shit. How ironic."

Earlier on in the evening Bent had proclaimed: "In town eating in japanese. Wow this food I'd good x x". That was his spelling mistake by the way, not mine.

In fact, Bent seems to be of the belief that the purpose of a Twitter feed is to inform people about what you're eating, which I suppose is a reasonable assumption to make given the moniker.

For example, not only did Bent enjoy some Japanese for dinner, but earlier in the day he went out to Nandos (AKA KFC with knives and forks) for lunch. Does this sound like the diet of a man who will be able to outscore Fernando Torres?

Torres currently has 8 goals and is the favourite to be top scorer at [2.9]. I think that's a little low. For one, he has plenty of competition from his fellow Premier League strikers and is always liable to pick up an injury.

Wayne Rooney for example in now excelling in his more central role and is great value at [7.6] having scored 6 goals. Didier Drogba also has half a dozen goals and is available at [8.8], but he will be off to the African Nations next year and will may also have his annual sulk at some point, in an effort to win a transfer to Inter Milan.

On 5 goals are the Spurs' strikers Robbie Keane and Jerman Defoe, at [42.0] and [13.5] respectively. Then there's Louis Saha at a price of [75.0], which reflects that this is a man who breaks down more often than my Dad's old Ford Cortina.

Adebayor looks good value at [22.0] despite the fact that he will be off to the African Nations like Drogba. Prior to his suspension he looked in unplayable form and will be available again at the weekend, having already notched 4 goals.

Gabriel Agbonlahor also has 4 goals, but his price of [80.0] reflects the fact that last season he scored his goals in patches and seems very much like a player reliant on confidence.

Refreshingly it looks as if this is a fight that will go right to the wire, after an era in which Cristiano Ronaldo scored goals at a rate normally more associated with Roy Race. A tight race to be the top scorer adds an extra frisson to the Premier League.

I'm standing by my bet on Bent and won't be laying it off anytime yet. So just keep taking the penalties Darren and try to limit the trips to Nando's to once a week and we should both be in profit come the end of the season.

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