Bristol City for a confidence boost
January 6th, 2017 | Ian Carnaby's Sports News
Tottenham and Liverpool both won last week to keep our good run going and I believe they will fight things out as the Premier League enters its later stages. I realise Chelsea are still nicely clear but I thought Spurs were quite a bit too good for them the other night (as indeed they were until the stroke of half-time at Stamford Bridge) and this is the best side they have had for many, many years.
Some 12/1 (14/1 in two places) is still available and this strikes me as remarkable value. As I said before the season started, Liverpool had to be backed as well, though it remains to be seen how they will fare in January with Mane absent and Coutinho still recovering from injury. For Spurs the problem is the Europa League and they would be well advised to give any number of fringe players and youngsters a chance. It is an outright certainty that the Premier League matters much more to all concerned.
There is no point in beating around the bush and the FA Cup is not what it was. You can never be entirely sure which of the top-flight teams will be up for it, although Manchester City looked keen enough when outclassing West Ham on Friday.
Ignoring the matches where the price about the home team is too short, I came up with a solid banker in BRISTOL CITY to beat Fleetwood Town. City are in a bit of a mess and have plummeted in recent weeks after making a good start under Lee Johnson last term. But they have scored plenty of goals lately and were two-up against high-flying Reading before capitulating in the closing stages. They are a division above Saturday’s opposition and should win comfortably. Fleetwood are handily placed in League One and Uwe Rosler has done quite a good job but this looks very hard indeed and the City faithful may have something to cheer at last.
I’m keeping it down to the one match. I think there are problems at Southampton and Norwich may give them plenty to think about but 12/5 is too short. Birmingham v Newcastle looks tight and could go to the replay neither wants, while Eastleigh will give it a rare old go at Brentford but have not played a team as good as this in previous good runs.
BRISTOL CITY 30 units at 8/13 to beat Fleetwood Town
