Premiership on Saturday

Birmingham V Derby

Two teams stuck in the bottom four and while survival is all but gone for Derby, Birmingham still have a very realistic chance of surviving, They has performed admirably in their previous 3 games against Arsenal, Manchester Utd and Chelsea but were quite shocking against Sunderland on Tuesday night. They went down 2 – 0 and if they are to go down at the end of the season then they will look back to Tuesday night as they day when they threw it away.
But, if ever a team needed a chance to get back on track, then they have been presented with the perfect opportunity today. Derby are just a very poor side who will battle on but still not achieve anything notable. The championship has beckoned for a long time now and with only 8 points taken from a possible 72 says it all really.
Scoring has been their major problem in recent times for Brum despite having strikers like Garry O'Connor, Cameron Jerome, Mikael Forssell and January signing James McFadden but surely they will have too much attacking power for Derby, who have conceded 30 goals in 12 games on the road.

Verdict
Birmingham will look to bounce back from recent defeats and take 3 points which is vital for them. They won’t be afraid of Derby and as long as they are not too complacent should win this one easy.

PICK
Birmingham –0.5, -1 (1.87 @ mansion) 5 points



Chelsea V Portsmouth

Pompey have a poor home record while Chelsea just keep on grinding out win after win. Since Portsmouth came to the premiership a few years back they have never beaten Chelsea. In fact they still haven’t scored against them at home and with their home record looking as poor as it has I would expect that to continue again today. They have signed Defoeand while I think he will prove to be a good signing it may take him a while to get used to the set up at Fratton Park. Benjani is on his way to Man City which I find a bit strange as he was the only person that seemed able to score goals for Pompey.
Despite the absence of John Terry the Chelsea defence has been in excellent form with only one goal conceded in the last 4 outings and they are just as good on the road with only 2 conceded in their last 8 away games
Anelka has proven to be a good signing so far and has fitted into the team quite well. With six 1 – 0 wins and six 2 – 0 wins to their name already this season I think the best option is to dutch both scorelines. If Portsmouth score then this bet is down obviously but I don’t see them getting any joy against a watertight Chelsea defence.

PICKS

Chelsea to win 1 – 0 (7 @ skybet) 1.5 points
Chelsea to win 2 – 0 (7 @ skybet)1.5 points

If either selection wins then the payout will be the same, which is 7.5 points profit


Rugby picks to follow soon