Pay as you lay / Andrew Atherley / 22 January 2010 / Leave a comment " class="free-bet-btn" rel="external" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/G4/inline-freebet');" target="_blank">Free Bet View Market

Every week Andrew Atherley will be selecting three odds-on shots worth laying. But there's a catch: he only gets paid by betting.betfair.com if at least two prove to be winning bets. This week's selections are made up of one English and two German matches...

"Last season this would have been a shoo-in, but backers will be paying a big premium to find out if Wolfsburg can reproduce their old form."

Lay Sheffield Wednesday at [1.92] v Peterborough

This is a vital relegation battle in the Championship and, while Wednesday go into the match with a seven-point gap back to bottom-placed Peterborough, the margin between the sides might not be as big as the odds indicate. Wednesday gained more than half of their points in the opening 10 games of the season, but their decent start soon disintegrated, and since the end of September they have been no better than Peterborough despite winning their last two games. That form might prove just as hard to maintain and they could find it difficult to land the odds against a Peterborough side that is showing some fight under Mark Cooper and held Wednesday at home even when the Owls were in that early-season good run.

Lay Hertha Berlin at [1.99] v Borussia Monchengladbach

Hertha came back from the winter break with a 3-0 win at Hannover that appeared to be several notches above anything they produced in the first half of the season, while Monchengladbach suffered a home reverse against fellow strugglers Bochum. But maybe not too much should be read into those form lines, because Hertha's overall form has been poor and Monchengladbach's recent away performances have been promising. Their last five away games have brought wins at Frankfurt and Hamburg and, although they lost the other three, they were against top-half teams, they scored in every match and lost by only one goal each time. Hertha have won just one of their eight home games and might not be able to make quick improvement on that record.

Lay Wolfsburg at [1.61] v Cologne

Last season Wolfsburg were an outstanding home team and dropped just two points out of a possible 51, which paved the way for their surprise Bundesliga title triumph. This season they have been a long way below that standard, winning only three out of nine at home, and the market has not fully readjusted to the change in form. Keeping a clean sheet has been a major problem for Wolfsburg (only two in 18 games, the lowest in the Bundesliga) and that makes them less than trustworthy at short odds. Last season this would have been a shoo-in, but backers will be paying a big premium to find out if Wolfsburg can reproduce their old form.

Tags: Alan Irvine, English football tips, German football bets, Grafite footballer, Wolfsburg