The Pre-match Preamble

While the world waits to see whether two footballers will shake hands, I’ve been busy scanning the morning papers for any last minute tidbit of information to sway my Fantasy Football thinking. Here’s a waltz through a variety of predicted lineups, plus some match facts for you to digest over your kippers…

The Guardian
The Bolton lineup is of particular interest to me, mainly because Owen Coyle has options in midfield and every incentive to mix things up given his side’s lack of goals. The Guardian go with a familiar four in the Trotters midfield however, with Lee, Gardner, Muamba and Taylor all starting. Klasnic partners Kevin Davies up front.

Juliano Belletti is in this paper’s Chelsea lineup at left-back, with Malouda pushed forward on the left flank. The Guardian go with Zabaleta in the City midfield, along with De Jong, Barry and Wright-Phillips. Tevez and Bellamy lead the attack. There’s no Fernando Torres in the Liverpool predicted lineup, with Kuyt again leading the line. Both Babel and Benayoun start either side of Gerrard in support of Kuyt. Like us, they predict a start for Martin Kelly at right-back.

Burnley skipper makes his return to anchor the midfield according to the Guardian. It’s Jack Cork that makes way. Stefano Okaka gets a start up front for Fulham at Sunderland in the absence of Bobby Zamora. The Spurs lineup keeps Bale at left-back and Modric in front of him in midfield. The Guardian predict that Crouch and Defoe will lead the attack then.

The Telegraph
This broadsheet gives another start to Stuart Holden in the Bolton midfield at home to Wolves. There’s no place for Chung-Yong Lee in their team, with Taylor keeping his starting role and Klasnic up front with Kevin Davies.

It’s Malouda at left-back for the Telegraph wth Kalou flanking Drogba in attack with Anelka on the right. They see Kompany and De Jong anchoring the City midfield, with Barry, Johnson and Bellamy forming the three just behind Tevez up front. Torres is left out of their Liverpool lineup. Both Babel and Benayoun start here with Kelly at right-back. Dunn is a starter for Blackburn in opposition.

There’s no Alexander in their Burnley lineup with Jack Cork keeping his start. Okaka starts for Fulham here too. It’s Assou-Ekotto at left-back for Spurs with Kranjcar starting ahead of Modric. Pavlyuchenko leads the attack with Gudjohnsen.

The Sun
It’s the familiar Lee, Muamba, Gardner, Taylor quartet in the Bolton midfield, so no place for Wilshere, Weiss or Holden.

The Sun go with Ferreira at left-back with Malouda pitched forward on the left-flank. Zabaleta and Ireland start in the City midfield. Again, there’s no Torres in the Liverpool lineup with Kuyt leading the line. Rodriguez is given a start, with Babel keeping his place on the opposite flank. Dunn makes their Blackburn side.

The Sun leave Alexander out of their Burnley lineup and Okaka gets the start for Fulham at Sunderland. Their Spurs lineup has Bale holding at left-back with Modric in midfield and Defoe and Pavlyuchenko up front.

Match Facts
Right then. Time to hit you with a last minute barrage of interesting stats and facts courtesy of The Guardian and The BBC. Prepare the info blast…

• Can Ridgewell and Johnson bring in some attacking points from set-plays? Wigan have conceded 12 headed goals this season – the most in the Premier League. Birmingham however, have scored the fewest – just two headed goals all season.
• I’m going to need a penalty if Alexander is to reward my Scout Picks faith. Burnley are without a clean sheet in six matches at Turf Moor. Then again, Portsmouth have failed to score in their last four away games.
• Bolton have failed to score in their last five first team matches. They have never gone six games in the Premier League without a goal.
• Man City have not scored at Stamford Bridge in their last seven trips. No side has gone eight games without scoring at the same away ground in Premier League history.
• Carlos Tevez has scored in his last three starts against Chelsea for three different sides – West Ham, United and City.
• Look away now Arsene – Arsenal last won at the Britannia stadium in 1982.
• Wenger’s side averaged 3.2 goals per league game until Robin van Persie’s injury in November. Since then their ratio has dropped to 1.7 per game.
• Ricardo Fuller has scored four goals in his last three appearances against Arsenal.
• Everton have won their last three away games at White Hart Lane but have kept just one clean sheet in their last nine away games.
• Spurs go into the game looking for their sixth consecutive home clean sheet.

Paddy Says…
Let’s finish things off by perusing our favourite bookmaker’s odds for the gameweek.

Chelsea (10/11) and Liverpool (5/6) are Paddy’s favourites for clean sheets with Birmingham (5/4) coming in next best. Paddy can’t separate Arsenal and Sunderland (7/5) as their next most likely. Not surprisingly it’s Chelsea (7/2) and Liverpool (7/2) most favoured when it comes to scoring three or more goals. It’s Arsenal (9/2) at Stoke next, with Burnley and Bolton (11/2) to follow.

When it comes to individual player odds, Drogba and Torres (8/11) are the most fancied as anytime goalscorers. Anelka and Gerrard (5/4) then follow, with Defoe (11/8), Fabregas and Bendtner (6/4) after them. Interestingly Bolton’s Ivan Klasnic (8/5) has shorter odds than Darren Bent (17/10) for a goal this weekend. Obviously Paddy see more goals for Bolton than Sunderland at home to Fulham.

If you’re over 18 and fancy a bet this morning, then I’ve put together a couple of Scout specials for you to consider. In the Clean Sheet Accumulator you can get 11/1 on Burnley, Birmingham and Liverpool all to keep clean sheets this weekend. While in the Scout Picks special you can get 18/1 if you fancy Bowyer, Drogba and Gerrard all to score at least one goal over the gameweek.

As always, if you’ve yet to open a Paddy Power account, you can do so via this site and get yourself a free £20 when you register and make a £10 bet.