Sunday's Premier League Football Action

September 12, 2008 - Lawrence Foley Stoke City take on Everton in Sunday's feature game in a fixture that looks to be fairly evenly matched.  Both sides have taken three points in three games so far this season, with Stoke only sitting two positions above Everton by virtue of their one unit superior goal difference.  Everton looked all at sea against Portsmouth two weeks ago when being humbled 3-0 at Goodison Park, and David Moyes will be expecting a fitting response from his side.  He finally managed to bring in a few new faces on deadline day including Louis Saha and £15 million club record signing Marouane Fellaini.  Whilst Saha is still battling to return to fitness, I expect to see Fellaini make his first appearance for the Toffees, whether that be from the start or as a substitute.
Whether or not the new signings will spark Everton into life remains to be seen, but given the number of goals seen in the six games played by these two clubs there will be plenty that is lively about the match itself.  The three games Everton have played in so far this season have yielded eleven goals, while there have been twelve in the same number of Stoke matches.  Take Sportingbet's 14/5 about this match yielding more than three goals, and take a punt on Ricardo Fuller to score the game's first goal.  The Jamaican has scored twice already this season and Ladbrokes are taking a risk by laying him at 9/1.

The final game of the weekend's programme is Tottenham v Aston Villa on Monday night.  These two teams were jostling for favouritism in the w/o the big four market before Man City were taken over and the footballing world went crazy.  Neither has set the world alight so far this season, but Tottenham's point at Stamford Bridge a fortnight ago is a step in the right direction after two successive defeats beforehand.  Villa on the other hand made the perfect start by beating Man City 4-2, but followed this up with a disappointing defeat to Stoke and a drab 0-0 draw at home to Liverpool.
I fancy that Juande Ramos will go with two up front against Villa, with Darren Bent partnering new signing Roman Pavlyuchenko.  Of the two I would imagine that Bent is the more likely to play the full 90 minutes and at 9/4 with William Hill I will be backing him to score at anytime.  Having said this, I think that Tottenham are short enough for the match so take a chance on Villa taking all three points with a 2-1 victory.
 
Recommendations:
Stoke v Everton Over 3.5 goals – 14/5 (Sportingbet)
Ricardo Fuller first goalscorer – 9/1 (Ladbrokes)
Darren Bent to score at anytime – 9/4 (William Hill)
Aston Villa beat Tottenham 2-1 – 13/1 (Canbet)

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