The Pacman's Midweek Multiple / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 23 January 2008 /

I read an interesting interview with Michael Essien a couple of weeks ago. At the very start, the interviewer asked Chelsea's midfield enforcer if he had a nickname. "Yes, they call me Bison", he replied. "Would you rather I called you Michael?" asked the polite man with the notepad in his hand. "Up to you, you can call me Bison if you like". Bison revealed the secret behind his never-ending energy on the pitch was down to sleeping a lot, sometimes as much as fourteen hours a day. On arriving three hours late to work the other day after a big night out I told my boss about Essien and how extra sleep would allow me to perform better at work. "Not sure about getting forty winks mate, but put a seven after your forty and the letter P before it and that's what you'll be getting if it happens again" was the reply from my sleep-hating boss.

Despite going well in all competitions at present, Chelsea aren't playing well and a midfield missing Essien and Mikel (away at the African Cup of Nations) plus Lampard and possibly Wright-Phillips will struggle tonight against one of the best midfields in the Premiership when they face Everton. Anelka's availability is a boost for the Blues but Everton don't lose many matches at home and with the draw being enough for Chelsea to progress, they won't be busting a gut for a win. I'm laying Chelsea at [2.67].

I've never really understood the expression "nice weather for ducks", commonly used when it's a despicably miserable day. I can understand it to the extent that if the rain came after a period of drought the ducks would indeed welcome it with open wings but other than that why would they want rain falling down on them any more than the next animal? One duck who has made plenty of splashes in a short period of time is Pato, the Portuguese word for...duck. The 18-year old was fantastic on debut as Milan beat Napoli 5-2 a couple of weeks ago to record their first Serie A home win of the season. The Samba-flavoured trio of him, Kaka and Ronaldo could prove to be a destructive force if they start to gel and I wouldn't rule out a successful defence of their Champions League title. More imminently, I can't see Atalanta's defence keeping them out tonight so I'm backing AC Milan to take all three points at [1.64].

Speaking of expressions that don't make sense, here's another - "buying money", often used in betting when talking about a bet that seemingly can't lose. The first point I'd make is that there are no certainties in betting. If you don't believe me, just ask the so-called 1.01 merchants who pile in thinking that something is a cert then find out its not; it happens every day on Betfair. The second thing I'd say is why would you want to buy money? And if you do - at what cost? And does it make sense to buy money at a greater price than the money you're actually buying? As if Lara retiring and Sarwan being injured wasn't bad enough for the West Indies, skipper Chris Gayle - their only genuine match-winner bar Chanderpaul - is also injured and has flown back home. There are some rather unfamiliar names amongst South Africa's team such as J Duminy and Justin Ontong but these are guys who have scored a lot of domestic runs recently. Pollock is carrying on in ODI cricket for the time being and Steyn and Nel are there too. In recent weeks South Africa have dominated the Windies in Test, Twenty20 and ODI cricket so why should tomorrow's game 2nd ODI be any different? Surely the 1.29 on Graeme Smith's side is just buying money...

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