Weekend Sports Action

Premier League

One of the biggest games of the season takes place at the Emirates on Saturday lunchtime, as Man United travel down the M1 to take on Arsenal. Sporting Index has United as the 0.2-0.4 favourites and buyers of United supremacy on the spreads will be pleased that the Red Devils have won the last two meetings between the sides and that Emmanuel Adebayor is unable to take part. Spread betters going on recent form will likely side with United following the Gunners' poor result at Stoke, but sellers of United supremacy have their own reasons to be cheerful. Arsenal haven't lost at home against the Big Four in their last nine - winning four and drawing five. In fact, buyers will be alarmed that Wenger's side have only tasted defeat twice against the three big boys in their last 25 home games.

Perhaps of greater concern to United followers is the side's poor record in the capital recently. They have only won five of their last 17 visits to London since the beginning of 2006 and with only one win in their last nine, the Arsenal sellers will be sitting up and taking notice. The spread betting public always like to hear of unusual trends and they will be interested to learn that since Arsene Wenger has taken over, his side have never gone three home games without a win against the Big Four. Their last two games at home against the Big Four were draws and the last eight times they have gone into a match against the Big Four winless in their last two against them, they have gone onto win the third match.

The great thing about football spread betting, as we all know, is that you can have total involvement in a game, whether that be on corners or how early the first goal is scored. Well, it's been buyers of the time of the last match goal who have cleaned up in this fixture over the past couple of years. Sporting Index will have the spread of the last match goal at around 59-62 minutes and buyers will have made a profit in all of the last six games, three of which the final goal of the game has come in the last five minutes.

Whatever happens at the Emirates on Saturday, Chelsea will have the opportunity to cement their position at the top of the table at Blackburn on Sunday. They are clear favourites in the Sporting Index season points table and their +23 goal difference is almost worth an extra point. Total goals spread punters in Sunday's match have a difficult decision to make, as although 25 of Chelsea's 33 away games since the start of 2007 have seen two or fewer goals, they have scored three or more in three of their five away league games this season. However, games featuring the top sides at Ewood Park tend to be low scoring and since the start of the 2004/05 campaign, only three of Rovers' 18 games at home to the Big Four have finished with more than two goals.

Buyers of Chelsea supremacy and buyers of the time of the first Blackburn goal will take great heart from the fact that Rovers have only scored three goals at home this season, whilst the Blues have only conceded one on the road. Interestingly, for those going against the home side on the spreads, Paul Ince's side have failed to score twice at home this season and those games were against Arsenal and Man United. They have also only managed to score in 25% of their last 12 games at home against the Big Four, much to the delight of those buying the time of the first Rovers goal.

Man City host Spurs on Sunday, and spread betters will be fully aware that (still) bottom of the league Spurs seem to be on the up after a recent win against Premier League highfliers Liverpool. Conversely, City have lost two in a row, against Middlesbrough and Bolton. Punters may not be aware however, that since the start of last season, City's home win rate (13 from 18 games) to non-Big Four teams is worse only than Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal. Those punting on the Sporting Indexs total goals market will be especially keen to know that they have won their three such fixtures this season by an aggregate of 12-0. Another statistic which will further encourage buyers of City's win index is that Spurs have won just three times on the road since the start of last season (twice at relegated clubs), although they have lost fewer than half (W3-D10-L11) of their games in that time.

Boxing

The undefeated Joe Calzaghe appears in what he says will be his final fight, at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday night. He faces Roy Jones Jr., who has won his last three fights despite being considered a long way past his best. There will be plenty of spread punters interested in Sporting Index's supremacy market, set at 6-10 in favour of Calzaghe (10 points for a win, three points per round end remaining). This suggests the Welshman is predicted to win, but with the bout lasting close to the distance. Four of Calzaghe's five fights going back to March 2006, have gone to a points decision - the only knockout against an underperforming Peter Manfredo Jr. 18 months ago.

However, of the three fights that Jones lost in 2004 and 2005, two bouts were stopped early - even as early as round 2 in his second fight against Antonio Tarver, which will be of major interest to the Calzaghe supremacy buyers. There have been suggestions that Calzaghe's speed could tire Jones into an early stoppage, which will be of interest to the buyers. For the same reasons, boxing spread betters may also opt to have a play on the total round minutes (set at 30-32, 36 for the distance).

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