Premier League Review
It was an interesting start to the Premier League last weekend and as always, a few unexpected results thrown in.
Arsenal would have been many peoples bankers of the weekend, at home to a West Ham team that had played in the Europa League three days earlier. Admittedly it was a very different team that played at the Emirates on Sunday, however, they stuck to their task excellently. They went there with the obvious plan of packing the central areas with lots of players and asking Arsenal to play around them out wide.
New signing Petr Cech had a full debut to forget, he was nowhere the cross which led to the first goal and then got his footwork all wrong on the second by trying to anticipate which corner Zarate was going to place his shot. He is a quality and experienced goal keeper though so I expect him to bounce back from this easily enough.
Reigning champions Chelsea would have expected to get off to a winning start at home to Swansea. The Welsh side played an excellent game tactically and even before the sending off of goal keeper Courtois they were right in the game. Chelsea play away to Man City next and anything but a positive result there will put them under a little bit of pressure even at this early stage of the season.
Liverpool managed to avenge the 6-1 humiliation at the end of last season by claiming a great 1-0 win away to Stoke, thanks to another screamer from Coutinho. These goals are becoming a habit for the little Brazilian now and their chances of a top four place will revolve heavily around him.
Man Utd and Spurs played out a fairly uninspiring game at Old Trafford. Eriken missed a great chance early on before Utd went ahead through a catalogue of errors finishing in Kyle Walker slotting into his own net. Utd were 1-0 up and still hadn't mustered an attempt on target. They managed to withstand so late Spurs pressure and will be happy with the three points if not the performance.
Elsewhere Palace and Leicester both began with good wins with Newcastle v Southampton and Everton v Watford both playing out entertaining 2-2 draws. Aston Villa also began the season with a win in a hard fought victory over promoted Bournemouth but just the solitary goal.
Carlisle 16:50
Avalanche Express is the short priced favourite in this six furlong maiden after losing out to a more experienced rival at Redcar last time out.
The intriguing runner for me in this race is the Richard Fahey trained Media Day. The winner is Avalanche Express's last race was also trained by Fahey so he should have a good idea of whether Media Day is capable of beating him. Media Day is out of a mare (Footstepsinthesand) that has produced winners with her first two foals to race.
She is the only unraced horse in the field so it is definitely taking a chance, however the pedigree is there and for a quality trainer I think it's a chance worth taking at 3/1.
Capital One Cup
The first round of the Capital One Cup begins tonight and although it can be notoriously difficult to predict I am going to have a go at an accumulator. Blackburn, Bolton, Bristol City, Charlton, Ipswich and Swindon all have a decent chance of winning and the acca pays a little over 23/1.
Today's Selections
Carlisle 16:50 Media Day - 1 point @ 9/2
Capital One Cup - accumulator as above - 1 point @ 24.40
