It's Monday Night again & that means we have action from the Premier League & NFL with Liverpool & San Diego travelling to take on Fulham & Jacksonville respectively. The Premier League is red hot at the top with a lot of teams in great form including obviously Man City but also Arsenal, Man United & especially Tottenham & Liverpool will be keen to keep pace. The playoffs look like they may be out of reach for the two teams competing in this game but they will still be fighting hard & the Chargers aren't out of the picture mathematically yet. As usual we've our best bets below & keep getting involved by following us on twitter @likebuyingmoney where we love to hear others' thoughts.
This week's Premier League game comes live from Craven Cottage as Fulham welcome an inform Liverpool side. Liverpool are unbeaten in 11 matches in all competitions & come into the game on the back of a 2-0 victory over Chelsea in the Carling Cup quarter finals. They have struggled to break down teams at home this season but on the road their record reads four wins & two defeats in their six league games; winning their last three in all competitions. Undoubtedly their star man is Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez who's technical & goalscoring ability has made him an instant Kop favourite (not so with opposition fans!) but they were dealt a blow this week with defensive shield Lucas Leiva picking up a season ending injury & despite a tough start in his Liverpool career for the Brazilian he has been excellent this season and Kenny Dalglish will have to pick from Jordan Henderson, Jay Spearing or the recalled Jonjo Shelvey to fill the big void left. Hosts Fulham under Martin Jol have struggled so far this season for any real consistency & sit in lowly 15th place with only two victories in their 13 league games. They have won only one of their last eight home league games (a run which started with a 2-5 hammering from Liverpool at the back end of last season) & have suffered 3-1 defeats in their last two against Spurs & Everton. We feel that in form Liverpool will be too strong for Fulham as they look to keep up with the others in the race for the Champions league places at a price of 6/5.
Monday night's are an opportunity for NFL teams to be seen nationwide but these two sides might not want to be seen as they are horrible this year with the San Diego Chargers starting off well (against bad sides) before losing their last 6 & the Jacksonville Jaguars having won just 3 games this year & sacked head coach Jack Del Rio on Tuesday. The Jaguars season has been an all round mess after having cut quarterback David Garrard at very short notice before the season started then replacement Luke McCown threw 4 interceptions in week 2 before rookie Blaine Gabbert came into the team. Gabbert was the 10th pick in the draft but has been disappointing so far with just 6 touchdown passes & 6 interceptions to match, thne Jags rank stone last in passing yards (& overall offense) & average yards per pass with a tiny 5.2 yards per completion. On the plus side Jacksonville rank 4th on defense & their star player Maurice Jones-Drew is already over 1000 yards rushing for the season with 5 TDs to boot - they really do rely on Jones-Drew & if he doesn't perform the team doesn't fire either.
The Chargers seem to have the individuals to be a very good side but their main problem has been the dreadful form of quarterback Philip Rivers, he was considered amongst the best but his accuracy & decision making has been very poor this year & has cost the team again & again. Vincent Jackson & Antonio Gates are great targets & Tolbert & Mathews are a very good running back partnership, on defense we like cornerback Quentin Jammer a lot & he can shut down many a receiver. The Jaguars are at home but don't have the noisiest support & we really can't be backing them, the Chargers aren't great against the run but are serviceable & they'll know that all they have to do is keep getting in Jones-Drew's way to totally shut them down. The Jags don't get to the opposition quarterback all that well & this might be the situation for Rivers to get his game back together & it's worth taking the risk he can & backing the Chargers with -3 points is the pick.
Selections:
Liverpool to beat Fulham at 6/5 (General)
San Diego Chargers to beat Jacksonville Jaguars with -3 points on the handicap at 10/11 (various)
(Liverpool can grind out an ugly victory even without injured Lucas)
This week's Premier League game comes live from Craven Cottage as Fulham welcome an inform Liverpool side. Liverpool are unbeaten in 11 matches in all competitions & come into the game on the back of a 2-0 victory over Chelsea in the Carling Cup quarter finals. They have struggled to break down teams at home this season but on the road their record reads four wins & two defeats in their six league games; winning their last three in all competitions. Undoubtedly their star man is Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez who's technical & goalscoring ability has made him an instant Kop favourite (not so with opposition fans!) but they were dealt a blow this week with defensive shield Lucas Leiva picking up a season ending injury & despite a tough start in his Liverpool career for the Brazilian he has been excellent this season and Kenny Dalglish will have to pick from Jordan Henderson, Jay Spearing or the recalled Jonjo Shelvey to fill the big void left. Hosts Fulham under Martin Jol have struggled so far this season for any real consistency & sit in lowly 15th place with only two victories in their 13 league games. They have won only one of their last eight home league games (a run which started with a 2-5 hammering from Liverpool at the back end of last season) & have suffered 3-1 defeats in their last two against Spurs & Everton. We feel that in form Liverpool will be too strong for Fulham as they look to keep up with the others in the race for the Champions league places at a price of 6/5.
(Is the over reliance on Jones-Drew hurting the Jaguars?)
Monday night's are an opportunity for NFL teams to be seen nationwide but these two sides might not want to be seen as they are horrible this year with the San Diego Chargers starting off well (against bad sides) before losing their last 6 & the Jacksonville Jaguars having won just 3 games this year & sacked head coach Jack Del Rio on Tuesday. The Jaguars season has been an all round mess after having cut quarterback David Garrard at very short notice before the season started then replacement Luke McCown threw 4 interceptions in week 2 before rookie Blaine Gabbert came into the team. Gabbert was the 10th pick in the draft but has been disappointing so far with just 6 touchdown passes & 6 interceptions to match, thne Jags rank stone last in passing yards (& overall offense) & average yards per pass with a tiny 5.2 yards per completion. On the plus side Jacksonville rank 4th on defense & their star player Maurice Jones-Drew is already over 1000 yards rushing for the season with 5 TDs to boot - they really do rely on Jones-Drew & if he doesn't perform the team doesn't fire either.
The Chargers seem to have the individuals to be a very good side but their main problem has been the dreadful form of quarterback Philip Rivers, he was considered amongst the best but his accuracy & decision making has been very poor this year & has cost the team again & again. Vincent Jackson & Antonio Gates are great targets & Tolbert & Mathews are a very good running back partnership, on defense we like cornerback Quentin Jammer a lot & he can shut down many a receiver. The Jaguars are at home but don't have the noisiest support & we really can't be backing them, the Chargers aren't great against the run but are serviceable & they'll know that all they have to do is keep getting in Jones-Drew's way to totally shut them down. The Jags don't get to the opposition quarterback all that well & this might be the situation for Rivers to get his game back together & it's worth taking the risk he can & backing the Chargers with -3 points is the pick.
Selections:
Liverpool to beat Fulham at 6/5 (General)
San Diego Chargers to beat Jacksonville Jaguars with -3 points on the handicap at 10/11 (various)
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