Sports punters – take a deep breath and inhale the following action this week: European and Premier League football, ATP tennis from the O2, one-day cricket in South Africa, and the Hennessy Gold Cup from Newbury. Oh, let's not forget the climax of snooker's Premier League and golf's World Cup.
Football first, where Arsenal will be looking to get back on track in the Premier League on Sunday following a shock 1-0 defeat to Sunderland last Saturday – the only problem is they face Chelsea.
Robin van Persie's injury has already affected Arsenal's shape and Chelsea could take advantage as they will field a much stronger unit – one that triumphed twice at the Emirates last term. Sportingbet's offer of 8/5 for the away win should be snapped up.
Earlier on Sunday is the Merseyside derby at lunchtime from Goodison Park, which has seen its fair share of draws over the years, including 1-1 twice last season – once in the cup – and I can see a similar outcome this time around with Liverpool struggling to win at present. Sportingbet go 7/1 about the correct score of 1-1, while 0-0 is similar at 17/10.
Liverpool (2/7) have the opportunity to gain some confidence ahead of Sunday's clash, though, with an away trip at pointless Debrecen (8/1) on Tuesday. But the Reds have flopped on their travels so far. Therefore, the wise punt could be for Gergely Rudolf to score for the home side at any point during the game at 19/5. He scored in both games against Fiorentina and can take advantage of Liverpool's weak defence.
Arsenal (2/7) also feature on Tuesday at home to Standard Liege (17/2), who almost turned them over in the first meeting in Belgium when leading 2-0. However, the Gunners came out 3-2 winners that night and should get the point needed here to qualify.
Manchester United (1/3) also face what should be an easy task at home on Wednesday against Besiktas (7/1), but Chelsea (7/5) have a trickier mission away at Porto (17/10). Both teams have already qualified from the group so it will be important to check the starting line-ups before placing a bet. Chelsea just scrapped it 1-0 at home but Porto could repay the compliment here, a ground where they have a good record, and odds of 13/2 for a 1-0 home win appeal.
The capital also experiences action involving a ball and net on Tuesday night, this time from the O2 where Andy Murray takes on old foe, Roger Federer, in tennis's ATP World Tour Finals. Both men won their opening matches in the group and this should be another tight encounter between the pair, whose head-to-head record stands at 6-3 to Murray – including two wins from three in 2009.
Murray is 33/40 for this clash, Federer 7/8, but I like the look of there being 23 games or less in the match at 5/6 – the previous best-of-three matches between them resulted in 21, 22 and 21 games.
Wednesday sees Rafael Nadal (evens) take on Nikolay Davydenko (8/11), and it is no surprise to see the Spaniard priced up as the outsider as he lost on Monday before stating that his confidence was low. It could pay to watch the early stages of this match in:play to see if Nadal is still fragile before wading in on Davydenko at his available in:play odds.
Thursday means golf and the start of the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China where England are 4-1 joint-favourites with Ireland, who will be fielding man-of-the-moment, Rory McIlroy. Both nations should go well, but with Sportingbet offering a quarter the odds for a top four finish, I like Italy's chances at 16/1, represented by the solid Molinari brothers.
Cricket makes an appearance on Friday when England square up to South Africa in the third one-day international in Cape Town. Andrew Strauss's men triumphed in the second match to lead the series 1-0, with Paul Collingwood scoring a century to pip my selection, Jonathan Trott, for leading runscorer. Trott still showed his class with 87 runs, though, and can repeat the dose in his hometown. Check Sportingbet's website for the latest prices.
Saturday marries two of my favourite sports in horse racing and snooker, with the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury first up. This classy handicap was won by Denman (4/1) two years ago, who returns with top-weight this time around, while Barbers Shop has been cut – excuse the pun – into 7/1 recently following reports of a good workout on the gallops. However, the horse that splits the pair in the betting at 6/1 is What A Friend, who has the ideal profile for this event, and gets my vote. He is a second-season chaser from the right age-group, and trained by Paul Nicholls, who won it with Denman and Strong Flow.
If What A Friend scores on Saturday afternoon, then some of the winnings will be going on John Higgins to land the Premier League outright at 11/5. The semis take place on Saturday when Higgins (8/13) faces Shaun Murphy (13/10), while Ronnie O'Sullivan (2/5) takes on rookie, Judd Trump (2/1), before the final on Sunday.
O'Sullivan boasts a great record at the business end of this tournament and should turn up the heat, but Higgins has been very consistent in the last 18 months and beat the Rocket 4-2 in the group stage last week.
Week's best sportingbet: Chelsea to beat Arsenal on Sunday – 8/5.
