English Premier League Round 12 (10-11/11)

Stoke City v Birmingham City
Tottenham v Sunderland
West Ham United v WBA
Wolverhampton v Arsenal
Aston Villa v Blackburn
Chelsea v Fulham
Newcastle United v Blackburn
Everton v Bolton
Manchester City v Manchester United


Wednesday, November 10

Tottenham v Sunderland

Verdict: Tottenham aim for redempton following their embarassing 4-2 defeat (and performance) at Bolton, on Saturday. Spurs did not get out of second gear until they were 3-0 down before mounting a fight back, only to be killed off by a late Petrov goal. Sunderland restored some pride following the Wearside derby defeat at Newcastle with a rather fortunate 2-0 win over Stoke City. Stoke were hard done by as Sunderland captain, Lee Cattermole, clearly handled the ball on the goal line with the match on a knife's edge at 1-0.

Apart from the 0-1 loss against Wigan Athletic, Tottenham has been impressive at White Hart Lane this season. The likely return of in-form Rafael van der Vaart will be a big boost for the home side as they look to topple a Sunderland side still recovering from their 5-1 mauling at Newcastle, nine days ago. The Black Cats will most definitely be without top scorer Darren Bent so all the responsibility will fall on fellow striker, Asamoah Gyan, to score the goals.

Pick: Tottenham -1ah @1.91 (sbobet, 10 units)
Tottenham 1 - 1 Sunderland


Thursday, November 11

Everton v Bolton

Verdict: Everton will look to extend their six game unbeaten streak when they face Bolton under the lights of Goodison Park. The pulsating 2-2 draw at Blackpool will fill like a loss for an Everton side that had the majority of possession and created double the amount of scoring opportunities than the home side. Bolton sent Tottenham crushing down to earth (following Spurs' 3-1 conquering of Inter Milan midweek) with a 4-2 win at The Reebok. The visitors looked lethargic after their midweek exploits and only looked to have come out of second gear when Bolton went 3-0 ahead.

Despite the draw at Bloomfield Rd, Everton look a confident side and will fancy their chances against a visiting team that has won only once on their travels. Everton's centre-backs, Silvain Distin and Phil Jagielka, have been in very good form all season and will be confident in negating Bolton's aerial threat. Steinsson and Robinson are arguably Bolton's weakest links which is a worry for the Trotters, as Pienaar and the emerging Seamus Coleman will get at them all day. Bolton were outplayed at Wigan two weeks ago (1-1 draw) and will need to put on a much improved display to get anything from the blue half of Merseyside.

Pick: Everton -0.75ah @1.86 (sbobet, 10 units)
Everton 1 - 1 Bolton