Midweek games

Firstly I'll look at Tuesday's Premiership match between Sunderland and Bolton. Sunderland are on a shockingly poor run of form and haven't won in the league since November. Although when you look at their home form they've actually only lost two games at the Stadium of Light all season but are currentley on a run of five draws in six games at home.

Bolton performed really well against West Ham at the weekend to secure three vital points. They will have had to travel all the way back from London this weekend and now have to make a further journey upto the north-east for this game. They also had to hold onto a lead in that game after going down to ten-men, this is always energy sapping for any team. Sunderland's decent home record combined with the importance of this game for them and the fact Sunderland will be fresh and Bolton won't be, i'm, happy to take the home win here. Some would call me crazy backing a team that hasn't won in 14 league games, but I think they'll break that duck tommorrow night.

I must admit I'm a keen fan of Sunderland's striker partnership in Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones, on it's day one of the best strikeforces in the league. Which makes it all the more baffling that Sunderland find themself in their current predicament. I'm taking half stakes on both of them to score anytime.

Sunderland v Bolton tips:
Sunderland @ 2.16 (Betfair)
Darren Bent Anytime goalscorer @ 2.74 (Betfair)
Kenwyne Jones Anytime goalscorer @ 3.15 (Betfair)

Elsewhere there's Champions League action, going to focus on the two games I watched from the respective first legs. Firstly Arsenal v Porto, the game was a very even contest and a good footballing one at that. Two schoolboy mistakes from Arsenal gifted Porto two goals in a game they really should have at least drawn. But now in the second leg back at the Emirates they've got the away goal and you'd expect them to go in pursuit of the win and take the game to Porto. Only worring aspect is Arsenal inability to convert chances, they scored 3 against Burnley when in truth if there was more lethal finishing on display they could have had 10. All that being said even without Fabregas I tihnk Arsenal should do enough to be ahead after 90 mins.

Arsenal v FC Porto:
Arsenal @ 1.67 (Bet365)

The other Champions league match I watched was Real Madrid v Lyon. The first leg wasn't the greatest of games in all fairness, Real Madrid had a lot of possession but never really created much going forward whereas Lyon had a number of chances and really should have took more thna just a 1-0 lead into this leg. Real Madrid will go into this game after coming from nehind to win in La Liga at the weekend. Think they'll be to strong for Lyon at the Santiago Bernabeu here and I'll take Madrid to progress thorugh to the next round.

Real Madrid v Lyon:
Real Madrid to qualify @ 1.62 (Betfred)