Season’s greetings

By Ronan Groome

Normal service on a Saturday has finally resumed, and just in the nick of time as well. Honestly, the last three weeks have been so bewildering and confusing; I’ve been running to all sorts of different destinations, torrid places such as Galway, Dundalk, Drogheda, and even down to Kilkenny, crying out for help. It all started on the Wednesday of Galway, standing on a creaky wooden floor in the middle of the infamous Ladbrokes tent, with half a pint of Budweiser in one hand and a €5 ticket for a virtual horse in the other. Yea, it was that bad, and there was no improvement thereafter.

But not to worry, the Premiership is back. Life has meaning again. Jeff and the boys are back on my television screen, screaming, shouting and laughing, and I am back in a happy place. Seriously, why do television awards go to waste on the likes of silly soaps such as Eastenders, Coronation Street and the like, when Gillette Soccer Special has been providing hours of entertainment every week for years now. Jeff Stelling feels like an uncle to me, he has been with me since my days as a youngster, when Newcastle were genuine contenders for the title, when the ‘crazy gang’ of Wimbledon were still around and when you could buy a top Premier league club for £80 million, never mind a player. How things have changed, Jeff has seen it all, and brought us through it, the guests may have changed, long gone are the Rodney Marsh/Frank Mclintock days, but Jeff has been there all the way.

My ante-post investments had left me quite broke for game-week 1, which was slightly disappointing, I could only manage a few trebles on the 3 pm kick-offs, after Joe Hart somehow kept Tottenham out in the early game, and all in all it was a disappointing start to the season betting-wise, although I did manage to recoup losses by backing Chelsea unquoted score in the tea-time fixture.

My ante-post bets read as follows, €195 on Arsenal to win the league at 8.0, and another €35 on at 7.8, €15 each-way on Frank Lampard as top goal scorer at 33/1 with Stan James, €12 on Cesc Fabregas top goal scorer at 110 on Betfair, €25 on Bolton (+41) to win the handicap-league at 16/1 with Paddy Power and €25 each-way on Bristol City to win the Championship and €15 each-way on Leicester to win the championship, both 16/1.

So not a bad start for them, with the exception of Bristol City, Steve Coppell deciding to pack it in after only one game. Some people actually have money on your team Steve, you deciding to pack it in is not really ideal for us, would you ever reconsider please?

Other than that, nothing major came out of the weekend’s opening fixtures. Arsenal got away from Anfield with a point, which is a good start for the Gunners. I think this is their year; I’m a huge admirer of Arsene Wenger, who has implanted the correct way to play football into his club, from grass-roots level to the senior side. They are the best side to watch, they play the best football, but they have just come short in recent years mainly because of a lack of strength in depth and have just lacked the experience when they have hit the front. I firmly believe they would have won the title last year had Robin Van Persie stayed fit; he is back this year, along with new signings Laurent Koscielny and Marouane Chamakh, who both will give the Gunners real strength in the air up front and at the back, which is exactly what the doctor ordered. Provided they get the luck they deserve regarding injuries, they are a superb bet at anything around 7/1 in my book. Spain won the World Cup playing the best football, Arsenal can finally do the same in the Premiership.

Frank Lampard would have scored more goals last year had Ancelotti ditched his diamond shape earlier, he ended up scoring 20+ goals as soon as they went back to 4-3-3, and now that he can in the usual system from the start this year he could get much closer to the top of the order. He rarely misses a game and gets to take all those cheap penalties Chelsea seem to get, he actually would have rewarded each-way punters last year had he not let Drogba – who was chasing the outright golden boot – take that second penalty on the last day, a fair achievement given it took him so long to get off the mark. Fabregas is worth taking a chance on, he is that huge price on Betfair because people still seem to think he may be leaving, no chance, he loves Arsenal and he will probably know that this is his best chance of winning something with them, why leave now? He is young and he will have plenty of time to go back and play for Barcelona.

Anyways, whatever about betting, I’m just glad to have the footy back. Season’s greetings to all.

By Ronan Groome