Arsenal v Spurs in the player of the year race?

Posted on December 07th, 2010 in Sports Betting Blog

Arsenal and Spurs have found themselves competing against one another more often than not over recent years, as the Gunners have suffered something of a decline while the White Hart Lane outfit has made the sort of steady progress that has ended up narrowing, if not entirely closing, the gap between the two North London rivals and the Spurs betting reflects this. It now appears that Samir Nasri and Gareth Bale are engaged in a personal battle to secure the PFA player of the year award this season.

Both sides have so far this season displayed an over-reliance upon their flair men as they seek to stay involved in the Premier League title race, with both Bale and Nasri stepping up to the plate to show that they are capable of handling the limelight as the star players within their respective teams. You can expect a few football bets to be placed on them being named player of the year.

Despite Samir Nasri displaying a few magic moments prior to the start of this season, the fact remains that before the current campaign started he was only considered by the Arsenal faithful to be a decent player and certainly not one who enjoyed the hero status that he is currently experiencing, with his status only receiving a boost after his goal-scoring performance against Fulham at the weekend. Compare this to Bale, who has clearly been a rising star at Spurs for some time now, and you can see which player has arguably been the real revelation this season.

When running with the ball, both Bale and Nasri have shown the sort of deft touch that normally belongs in ballet rather than on the football pitch, but the one difference between the two players has been the ability to whip the ball into the box and create havoc in doing so. Whilst Bale has been able to do this consistently, Nasri and Arsenal have been prepared primarily to pass their way into the box, something that has occasionally resulted in frustration among the Arsenal faithful.

With the Premier League as close as it is, the winner of the duel between these two players may decide which side finishes higher in the table.

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Pastoral Player Impresses at Ffos Las

Posted by Leigh on October 20, 2010 · Leave a Comment 

The Hughie Morrison trained Pastoral Player has shown that patience pays off with an impressive run to score a victory in the H M Plant Hitachi Handicap at Ffos Las.

Ashes player preview – Ian Bell

If the game was decided on technical ability alone, Ian Bell would be up there with the best, sadly there are other aspects of the game he appears to struggle with.

The Warwickshire batsmen must be used to playing under pressure. He was burdened with high expectations when he first emerged as a potential England player in 2001, so much so that Dayle Hadlee labelled him as the best 16-year-old he had ever seen.

But when it comes to the crunch Bell struggles to make the real big scores that mark out the class batsmen from the rest. He broke into the England side in 2004 but became a regular in the summer of 2005, scoring runs for fun, 297 to be exact, against Bangladesh.

However, when the Aussies arrived he found life much tougher. The ruthless tourists targeted the inexperienced Bell and he struggled to make the scores his class should dictate, hitting just 171 runs in ten innings.

He did improve during the tour of Pakistan that winter and was named ICC young cricketer of the year in 2006. But questions always linger about his ability to perform when it matters. He battle bravely in the face of more fierce Aussie sledging in the 2006/07 Ashes tour, hitting four half centuries in what was a pretty-dismal tour for England.

But his failure to convert 50s into 100s remains. Over the past four years he has been dropped and recalled on several occasions, answering his critics with defiant centuries one week, before collapsing early on the next. As Bell heads down under he must know he is set to receive another warm welcome from the Australians who openly target Bell, a player they feel is susceptible to sledging. Anyone looking at Ashes betting offers may want to steer clear of backing Bell.

His place in the starting line up isn’t guaranteed and given his track record I can understand why. Australia is a ruthless arena in which to play test cricket and I don’t think Bell has the mental strength to consistently cop with the pressure and score big runs. The Ashes best odds suggest England will struggle anyway and they should avoid gambling on Bell’s temperament.

Those doubts should serve as a challenge to the 28-year-old however and he knows if he can resist the charms of the Aussie bowlers, he has enough shots in his armoury to score runs Downunder and be a key weapon in England’s armoury.

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