Tuesday Betting Tips

FOOTBALL

Tottenham v Arsenal (Carling Cup)

An intriguing North London derby in the Carling Cup. Both sides are set to field weakened teams, with Wenger not deviating from his policy of playing the youth in this competition.

Tottenham have the Champions League to concern themselves with this season, meaning they may focus less on the domestic cup competition. However, the likes of Wilson Palacios, Roman Pavyluchenko, David Bentley, Giovanni Dos Santos, Sandro and Nico Kranjcar are expected to start, so there is plenty of quality and experience in the Spurs outfit.

Arsenal look set to keep faith with the youth players, with the likes of Kyle Eastmond, Henri Lansbury, Kieron Gibbs, Carlos Vela and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas likely to start. The youngsters have impressed in recent years, but this will be a big challenge for them. Fabianski in goal has hardly inspired confidence in recent times, whilst an expected central defence of Johan Djorou and Sebastien Squallaci will be busy against a dangerous Spurs attack.

In a north London derby, anything can happen, but the Arsenal team is very inexperienced, and up against a strong looking Spurs reserve side, they may struggle.

Bet: Tottenham -1AH @ 3.55

Portsmouth v Leicester (Carling Cup)

After a poor start in the league, Portsmouth find themselves in a familiar position – bottom of the table. However, they were much improved against Sheffield United last time out, and the addition of Liam Lawrence and Dave Kitson looks like a smart move. They are unchanged from the weekend, so field a full-strength team.

Leicester have started the season poorly after a good first season in this division last season. A win against Cardiff recently looked to have turned the corner, but defeat against leaders QPR followed. Paulo Sousa may make a few changes to try and improve their fortunes.

Portsmouth look better last time out and are against a team similarly low in confidence at the moment.

Bet: Portsmouth to win @ 2.8

Sunderland v West Ham (Carling Cup)

Sunderland played a strong side in the last round, and are expected to give £13m signing, Asamoah Gyan, his first start tonight in place of the rested Darren Bent. Bolo Zenden and Andy Reid are likely to be given rare starts as well. However, the likes of Kieron Richardson, Ahmed El-Mohammady and Anton Ferdinand should beef up the side.

West Ham have had a fairly disastrous start to the season in the league, and needed a last minute winner to beat Oxford in the last round. However, they were much improved against Stoke and are likely to field a full-strength side in a bid to boost confidence ahead of the match with Spurs this weekend.

Sunderland have a relatively strong side out, and Asamoah Gyan will be looking to prove a point. West Ham will be looking for a confidence boost, but will have more than one eye on the more important league game at the weekend.

Bet: Sunderland to win @ 1.8

Brentford v Everton (Carling Cup)

Brentford have been relatively strong at the back so far in League 1 this season, conceding only 8 goals in 7 games, with four consecutive clean sheets. At home, they will look to contain Everton, and try and hit them on the break. However, they have only scored 3 goals this season, suggesting they have been struggling up front.

As usual, Everton are proving themselves to be slow starters. Somewhat unexpectedly, they find themselves in 19th place and struggling. Goals have been a problem with a host of injuries up front, although Yakubu is expected to return tonight. If you exclude the Manchester United game, they have only scored once this season.

Both teams are strong in defence, but are struggling up front. Brentford will set up defensively and look to frustrate Everton, and goals look likely to be at a premium.

Bet: Under 2.5 goals @ 2.04

CRICKET

Lions v Royal Challengers Bangalore (ICC Twenty20 Champions League)

Whichever team wins this match will join South Australia in the semi-finals, so the pressure is on.

After stunning the Mumbai Indians in the opening game, they were beaten by South Australia before hammering Guyana in their last game. However, in neither of their first two games were they big six hitters. Only four against Mumbai, and five against South Australia meant they were outsixed in both those games. However, against Guyana, Richard Cameron hit an extraordinary six sixes in a scintillating innings, but the Bangalore bowling attack is far superior to that of Guyana.

Bangalore started well by hammering Guyana with 46 balls to spare. However, a poor batting performances against South Australia and Mumbai, with the odd exceptions has hampered their bid for the semi-finals. However, their bowling attack of Dale Steyn, Anil Kumble, Jaques Kallis and Praveen Kumar is full of experience, and they will hope to keep things tight.

Neither side are particularly big six hitters, but I would expect the likes of Taylor, Kohli, White and Utappa for Bangalore to find the big shots more often than the likes of McKenzie, De Bruyn and Van Jaarsveld.

Bet: Bangalore most sixes @ 2.1