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02/03/2012 - London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester United are not accustomed to long-standing droughts at many stadiums in England, but Stamford Bridge is certainly one of the few exceptions.
The Red Devils square off against Chelsea in West London on Sunday and will be looking to banish their 10-year run at the Bridge without a Premier League win.
United last secured three points at Chelsea in April of 2002, a 3-0 win with goals coming from Paul Scholes, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Since then, the club has suffered six losses and three draws to confirm Stamford Bridge as one of United's few "bogey grounds" in recent memory.
Over the last seven seasons, the two clubs have dominated the Premier League title scene with United winning the league four times to Chelsea's three. Manchester United finds itself in yet another tight race for the championship, tied with Manchester City for first place on 54 points, while Chelsea has stumbled this season under new manager Andre Villas-Boas, falling to fourth place where it sits 12 points adrift of the leaders.
But despite some uncharacteristic performances from the Blues this season, United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is still wary of the role Chelsea can play in the title race and acknowledged that his side is in for a tough encounter Sunday.
"It's not an easy game going to Stamford Bridge, we've not beaten them since 2002," Ferguson said. "The last seven years we've fought with them for league titles so you expect it to be a hard game and it will be."
It's a stigma that has not just hovered around this United team in the week leading up to the clash, but in years past as well.
"We've got a terrible record at Stamford Bridge," said Wayne Rooney before last year's fixture at Chelsea, which ended with a 2-1 loss for United. "It's not been a good place for me, with United and Everton - I even broke my metatarsal there in 2006 and nearly missed the World Cup.
"You get these strange records in football and there's no way to explain them. I certainly don't know why we've found it so hard at Chelsea because our away record is very good overall."
A win for United on Sunday could be enough to bring the Red Devils into sole possession of first place in the league if City doesn't take care of business against its own London foe on Saturday.
The Citizens, coming off a disappointing 1-0 defeat at the hands of Everton on Tuesday, will rebound with a home tilt against Fulham, which is fresh off of a 1-1 draw with West Bromwich.
In North London on Saturday, Arsenal will welcome Blackburn to the Emirates with Rovers looking to climb out of the relegation zone. The Gunners have still not claimed a Premier League win in 2012, suffering losses to Fulham, Swansea City, and Manchester United and playing to a scoreless draw with Bolton in their most recent outing.
Rounding out Saturday's Premier League action, Norwich City hosts Bolton at Carrow Road, QPR welcomes Wolverhampton to Loftus Road, Stoke City faces Sunderland at the Britannia, West Bromwich and Swansea City meet at the Hawthorns, and Everton heads to the DW Stadium to face last-place Wigan.
Leading up to the massive clash at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, Newcastle welcomes Aston Villa to Sports Direct Arena. The Magpies are looking to build upon their 2-0 win over Blackburn in their last outing, while the Villans hope to extend their unbeaten run in Premier League play to four games.
The lone EPL fixture on Monday pits two top-six teams against one another as sixth-place Liverpool welcomes third-place Tottenham to Anfield.
<< Brewers settle with Marcum
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Milwaukee Brewers avoided arbitration
with Shaun Marcum, signing the right-hander to a one-year contract on Friday.
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Edmonton, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Red Wings announced Friday that
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Howard, who leads the NHL with 32 wins, broke the index fing
<< Every day still a struggle for Hamilton
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Texas Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton
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The 2010 American League Most Valuable Player met the media on Friday to
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Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It's not every Super Bowl where the team
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Youzhny reaches Zagreb final four >>
Zagreb, Croatia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Third-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny
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Snow threatening weekend schedule in Italy >>
Rome, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Heavy snow in Italy is threatening to wreak
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Four midweek matches were post
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Nurnberg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sebastian Kehl and Lucas Barrio scored in
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Defending champion Dortmund broke a three-way tie on poin
Report: Rays win arbitration case against Niemann >>
St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Rays have won their arbitration case
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this
NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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