English Premier
2010-02-21 - Fulham vs Birmingham City
A Sports Betting Pick by Addicted
Football : England : Premier League
Sunday 21st February 2010 - Kickoff 12:15pm
Super Sunday begins at Craven Cottage, where two excellent managers will pit their wits against each other. Fulham and Birmingham City start of the day in a mid-table matchup.
Fulham
After an awful start to the year, Fulham have picked things up and they are currently in fine form coming into this match. While keeping tight in defence, the strikers are enjoying their football, as Fulham continue to dominate teams visiting their West London home.
Fulham have won 2 of their last 3 league games, against Portsmouth 1-0 and Burnley 3-0, to move to 10th. They kept up their habit of keeping clean sheets at Craven Cottage as they thumped Notts County 4-0 in the FA Cup.
Fulham's last match was on Thursday, where they entertained reigning UEFA Europa Cup champions Shakhtar Donetsk. With a quite impressive 2-1 win there, Roy Hodgsons side in my book are favourites to take this match.
Bobby Zamora continued his habit of scoring, banging in the winner against Shakhtar, and I fancy him to add to his tally against Birmingham. He will have solid support from Danny Murphy and Damien Duff, both of whom will be in the squad. Mark Schwarzer will continue in goal and the possibility of another clean sheet at home isn't farfetched.
The only worry for Fulham, is the fact that they have just had a big game and now play with less rest than Birmingham, and so might suffer a slight letdown, either mentally or physically.
Birmingham City
Speaking of good work done by a manager, Alex McLeish is right up there, when you consider the budget he has had to work with. His side are in 8th place, 3 points ahead of Fulham and with an extra game in hand.
Until very recently, Birmingham City had been on tremendous form, going an amazing 15 games without defeat, including 12 in the league.
Since that run ended, Birmingham have won only once, while drawing and losing the other 2 games. The win was a 2-1 result against Wolves, who were unlucky not to hang on to their 1-0 lead.
The draw was a lucky 1-1 result against Spurs and the loss came to West Ham 2-0, who are considerably weaker than Fulham. To me, this shows a drop in momentum, and will surely have dented Citys confidence.
Following these results, Birmingham did get a win at Derby County in the FA Cup, but even that required a last gasp winner in a game where they trailed 1-0.
Against a team like Fulham, going 1-0 down could very well be it, as Craven Cottage is not an easy place to visit, just ask Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton.
The Betting Veridct :
Both teams have good reliable defences and are sharp going forward.
But with Fulham finding form of late, and Birmingham going backwards, I think when push comes to shove, I'd rather have my money on the West Londoners.
The Statistics :
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BEST BETTING TIP :
Take Fulham to win @ 2.18 (Bet365) if you don't fear losing money on a possible draw.Or try Bobby Zamora to score @ 2.25 (Bet365)
Gooner’s Statistical Value Bet
Take Fulham DNB @ 1.50 (Bet365)
