Saturday’s british betting picks

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Arsenal vs Manchester United

12.45 Saturday 8^th November

One of the biggest fixtures in the English calendar takes places this weekend at the Emirates Stadium. The home side are coming off the back of several poor results including a defeat to newly promoted Stoke last weekend. The defeat was made even worse with strikers Robin Van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor being sent off and injured respectively meaning both are absent this weekend. They also may be missing captain William Gallas and winger Theo Walcott, both of whom are rated 50/50.

United had the luxury of leaving £100m worth of talent on their bench in their Champions League match away to Scottish Champions Celtic on Wednesday night with this match in mind. That alone signals Manager, Alex Ferguson’s intentions which could spell bad news for the home side. Man U have been in excellent form of late having won 6 of their last 7 EPL matches scoring aplenty.

Having already lost to Liverpool and drawn at Chelsea, United have to stamp their authority on this title race and make a mark against another of the top 4. To do this, they must win at the Emirates for the first time. A last minute equalizer from Gallas prevented them taking all 3 points in this fixture last season but that was when Arsenal were going exceptionally well.

The loss of midfield anchor Flamini cannot be under-estimated. Cesc Fabregas does not look the same player he was last year and their defence and goalkeeper looks extremely vulnerable, especially against a physical approach. United’s strikers, Rooney and Berbatov can mix it up with the best of them and when you add Vidic, Ferdinand and Ronaldo to the mix, set pieces could pose a major problem for them tomorrow.

My selection: Manchester United to beat Arsenal

The best price available for a United win is 7/5 which is 7/5 with willhill.com

Sheffield Wednesday vs Doncaster Rovers

15.00 Saturday 8^th November

Both sides come into this match looking for the win for very different reasons. The away side are rock bottom of the Championship having only won 2 matches all season and are desperate for victory in order to halt a run of 11 games without a win, whilst Wednesday have stuttered of late having beaten arch rivals United at home. Since then they have drew 1 and lost 3.

Saturday gives the home side a chance to add to their impressive home record. They have lost only one of their seven home games this term which see’s them 5 points out the play-off places. Manager Brian Laws can call upon a near full strength squad with only two absentees compared to 9 players missing only a couple of weeks ago.

Doncaster, by all accounts, have playing good football since their promotion but just lack the cutting edge at this level which is why they are where they are.  Good football is all well and good but you can only win matches by scoring goals and with only 7 scored in the league all season, it’s clear to see Doncaster do not have the required quality for the Championship. Their strikers will not get it any easier this weekend with Sheffield Wednesday having the joint second best home defensive record in the league.

Wednesday also have the edge in the head to head, in two previous matches they have won both with Donny failing to even register a solitary goal.

My selection: Sheffield Wednesday to beat Doncaster Rovers

The best price available for Sheffield Wednesday to win is 5/6 which you can get at StanJames and betdirect

Hamilton vs Falkirk

15.00 Saturday 8^th November

Hamilton started the season with two wins out of two, since then they have only registered a single success which see’s them propping up the SPL after the first round of games. Falkirk on the other hand started really slowly, failing to win in the league until the 5^th time of asking. Since then they have collect another 8 points from a possible 18. It’s not excellent form by any stretch of the imagination but in that time they have only lost twice and both could easily have ended up in a Falkirk victory.

The two sides have already met this season, Falkirk ran out easy 4-1 winners at the Falkirk Stadium. That match was less than two months ago and since then, it’s not got much better for Hamilton, they have lost their following 5 fixtures scoring only twice and conceding 13.

Falkirk have proven quality at this level in the shape of Steve Lovell, Neil McCann, Burton O’Brien and Jackie McNamara added with excellent young players with the likes of Patrick Cregg, Darren Barr and Scott Arfield all impressing this season. Hamilton could welcome back captain Mark McLaughlin this weekend which should help bolster a porous defence, whether it will be enough to help them pick up anything is a different matter.

Falkirk manager, John Hughes has been quoted this week as saying he is pleased with his players and they way they have been both training and playing in recent weeks. This is a guide in itself as Hughes is famous for coming out and lambasting his players when he thinks they are not putting the effort in.

The away side were being tipped to challenge for a top 6 place this season and they can certainly still achieve that. However, if they wish to do so they have to start picking up more points away from home and they will not get a better opportunity than this match. In 5 previous away meetings at Hamilton, Falkirk have won 3 and drew 1.

My Selection:  Falkirk to beat Hamilton

The best price available for a Falkirk win is 8/5 with several bookmakers, including Ladbrokes.