Premier League: Sunday Double

The big two - at least till Man City can prove otherwise - have testing first matches to kick-off their new campaigns. Chelsea head to the Brittania Stadium to face Stoke before champions Man Utd take on Roy Hodgson’s resurgent WBA side at the Hawthornes. I expect both the underdogs to run the title contenders close but class, in the end, should tell. Back Man Utd and Chelsea to both win by one goal at combined odds of 11/1 with SkyBet.

The Blues begin life under Andre Villas-Boas, and the Portuguese will quickly learn how different the challenge is when he arrives in Stoke. Tony Pulis has assembled a side than can give anybody a game on its day but they tend to just fall ever so slightly short agains the cream of the crop. This was the case against Man City in the FA Cup final in May where they lost 1-0 to a late goal. It had been a very similar story against the other Manchester giants in the league at the Brittania Stadium where they lost 2-1. Admittedly they did manage a draw with Chelsea at home last time out, but this looks like the exception; the time before was another 2-1 defeat. A pattern has been set that I expect to see continue on Sunday.

It’s a similar story at West Bromwich Albion where the 2-1 home defeat to the Red Devils back on New Year’s Day was agonising. Ferguson’s side are even more masterful at dragging out miraculous narrow wins from seemingly impossible predicaments. They have been doing it for 15 years and they showed the same characteristic as recently as last weekend in the Community Shield. Trailing 2-0 to City at half-time, they turned it round yet again to triumph 3-2. Backing this lot to win by the odd goal away from home almost always looks like a decent value bet.