| List of available free bets on the
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Arsenal
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Middlesbrough |
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Wigan
Soccer: The Premiership: Middlesbrough,
Newcastle
Middlesboro
Last year: 7th
Ground: Riverside Stadium
Capacity: 35,049
Manager: Steve McClaren
(50 months: W71, D46, L69)
We say: 6th 300-1
BACK-TO-BACK Uefa Cup campaigns - last year’s thanks to a
Carling Cup triumph, this year’s down to Robbie Fowler’s
last-minute-of-the-season penalty miss - confirm Boro as a
club that has risen above mid-table mediocrity.
Steve McClaren has shown no lack of ambition in paying
Portsmouth £7.5 million for the prolific Yakubu to partner
Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink or Mark Viduka.
But with Gaizka Mendieta and Stewart Downing prompting from
midfield, scoring goals is unlikely to be the stumbling
block to a push for a Champions League berth.
That could well be the Teesiders’ failure to record a
significant number of away wins. Despite what is, on paper,
a rock-solid defence with the abrasive George Boateng as a
shield, the Riverside club have not notched more than five
in the last four seasons.
Newcastle
Last year: 14th
Ground: St James’ Park
Capacity: 52,387
Manager: Graeme Souness
We say: 12th 250-1
TWO Intertoto reversals against Deportivo confirm the
Magpies as a side to swerve until the season is properly
underway and a pattern of play and results - positive or
negative - has emerged.
Last year Graeme Souness presided over Newcastle’s lowest
Premiership finishing position of 14th and equal-worst
points tally (44).
Although Scott Parker, Emre and Craig Moore are good summer
buys, morale at St James’ Park must be low if~15 million
rated England mid-fielder Jermaine Jenas has all but handed
in a transfer request.
With some poor sides in the section, and a strong spine of
Given, Boumsong, Dyer and Shearer, they won’t be in a
relegation battle, but no big-name striker has arrived to
replace Kluivert and Bellamy and unless Michael Owen or
someone similar touches down in the Toon, Europe will be out
of reach again.
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