Sven has a point to prove to City - FA Cup Betting News with Betfred

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Sven Göran-Eriksson welcomes his former club Manchester City to the Walkers Stadium for an FA Cup third round tie this weekend, looking to get one over on the team that sacked him.

The Swede was the last manager to lead City to the top of the Premier League during his one season in charge at Eastlands. The club cruelly axed him and that was followed by ill-fated stints at Mexico and Notts County before he arrived at Championship side Leicester City earlier this season.

The Premier League club will undoubtedly go into this FA Cup clash as favourites, and are 4/6 in the football betting to get the victory, but Eriksson has yet to taste defeat at the Walkers Stadium during his time in charge.

He has worked to bring in some experienced Premier League performers to Leicester, with striker Darius Vassell (8/1 to score the first goal) also set to line-up against his former employers on Saturday.

City's millionaires are riding high in the Premier League but there are certainly tensions bubbling under the surface at Eastlands and Roberto Mancini has to work very hard to keep tensions under wraps and the training ground a happy place.

Silverware would be welcomed with open arms at Eastlands this season and the club's hierarchy may see the FA Cup as a great chance for the club to get some glory. But it will be interesting to see what side Mancini puts out at Leicester, with the Championship side priced as 9/2 outsiders with Betfred.

The football predictions suggest the home side don't stand a chance, but City have already suffered something of an upset at the hands of West Brom in the Carling Cup this season.

That said even a City reserve side would be expected to steamroller over their Championship opposition. However Leicester are a transformed side under Eriksson, and the Swede will certainly be looking to prove a point to his former employers, who dismissed him in June 2008.

My Tip of the Weekend:

Leicester are a dangerous force at Walkers Stadium and 11/4 for the Championship side to shock their Premier League opponents and get a draw looks a real prospect.
The 6/1 on offer with Betfred that the game ends 1-1 looks appealing.
Also Foxes' top scorer Andy King is a tasty 11/1 to open the scoring on Sunday, and add to the nine goals he has already netted this season.

Sunday 9th January: Leicester City v Manchester City, kick-off 4pm, live on ESPN.

By Drew Swainston
(Guest writer from Betfred on behalf of Beer Footy and Birds!)

I Svear It's Sven!!!

A grinning 'Sven' can be seen outside Walton Prison last Thursday night, handing over a team sheet with a new formation and some final instructions to Joey 'Loony Tune' Barton, before he makes his next appearance.
Six up front and a further six across the back, in a Liverpool courtroom on the 16th January!

World Cup Exit - The Shame of it!

2nd July 2006


To whom it may concern,


Is there a Supreme Being up there?

Before I even open a newspaper this morning or before Sven’s 10.30am final & farewell press conference and after throwing all my toys out of my pram following our miserable & scandalous dismissal from the biggest sporting showpiece event in the world, I have only one word left, ‘WHY?’

Why to not one but numerous questions?
I want to be objective, but feel like I saw a conspiracy theory second to none in the Portugal versus England World Cup quarter-final game yesterday.
Even before the tournament began one can ask several questions beginning with that dreaded three lettered word.
Why did Sven pick a squad with only 4 strikers?
Why did he pick only 4 when he knew 2 were injured or recovering from injury & a third in Walcott that had never even played a senior game for his Premiership club.
Defoe & Johnson probably don’t know whether to laugh or cry!
These are all issues that the nation is acutely aware of & have been scratching their heads ever since the day the squad was announced. So moving on….

What is Sven’s obsession with David Beckham? Why does he favour Beckham so much? Why does he never drop him or god forbid substitute him?
Can someone enlighten me please?

Beckham is not a great player anymore. He is in the twilight of his career. He contributed to 50% of all our tournament goals but nothing else. His free kick versus Ecuador was magnificent but it was his first set piece goal in a competitive match for England in three years! He has such a hold on what goes on (& off the field) we don’t know if any other player can strike a decent free-kick, because we never see anyone other than Beckham get the chance.
Beckham as skipper? Beckham an automatic choice to start?
I wont even bother to delve deeper……every supporter has their own opinion on Beckham.
My overall feeling is that he is the Anna Kournikova of football.

Losing hurts but why so much?
Not because of another quarter-final defeat, or even on going out on penalties-for the sixth time in a major tournament?
Nor because we are a nation of bad losers. Losing is a habit & the England football team has turned this country’s passionate supporters into gibbering wrecks, that continually end up consoling themselves with habitual quantities of alcohol, in comfort not in celebration.
I’m sure my Blood type is ‘L’
L for lager that is!
It’s an all too familiar story!

This country is full of people suffering from total disillusionment and in football they see a temporary route to escapism where reality can take a back seat & therefore allowing themselves the ‘luxury’ of putting the mundane misery of this fractured state to bed for a couple of hours.

Why is a referee of a nationality, in this case Argentinean, chosen to be put in control of a football game involving another nation of which there is a history of political tension.
No human being on this planet is free from total impartiality.

The scourge of the Portuguese football nation is now upon us. Give up on your holidays to the Algarve, don’t buy Mateus Rose, and boycott Port and Sardines.

It is not a win at all costs competion.
Negativity, spoiling, diving, spitting, feigning injury, abusing opposing players verbally & physically & the constant pressurising of officials on a national stage is unacceptable.

If Portugal goes on to lift the trophy, the World Cup tournament itself will be de-valued and the competition should be disbanded!

As for Cristiano Ronaldo may he choke on a well-hidden sardine bone.
I am not a Man Utd fan, far from it, but that is not the issue. He has proved himself to be a disgrace. He has a cheating mentality, is a troublemaker & a man who clearly thinks well above his station.
He created problems at his club this season in the shape of Ruud van Nistelrooy. Ferguson, foolishly or not sided with Ronaldo & Ruud was put on the bench to stew.
He has according to the press, been talking up a move to Real Madrid apparently using Man Utd as a stepping stone.
Currently in terms of trophies lifted in recent times he is clearly misguided.
How can any Utd fan want him back at THEIR club? He has taken the game into the gutter.
He must never be allowed to put on a Man Utd shirt on again!
He conspired to get a fellow pro sent off, and a player who he trains & shares a dressing room with on a daily basis.
Rooney must be seething, guilty or not?
I should think Manchester police will have him under house arrest on his return or Ronaldo will feel the full weight of a ‘Raging Rooney’ dealing with him in the way he used to look after himself, growing up on the streets of Toxteth.

Finally Mum’s & Dad’s to be kindly refrain from calling any future children ‘Cristian(o)’ because that is something he will never be. It’s slanderous!


Yours faithfully,

Mark L.A Ross
Mr. Angry of Bromley.