Football tip: Get on Manchester City

If you're looking for a longer term investment, Manchester City is a fantastic bet.

A great win at the weekend might mean they're finally putting early-season criticism behind them to produce the results everybody was expecting.

Yes, it does take time for a team to gel. It might just be starting to happen, and with 8.5 points start, it's a great bet.

I'm not as convinced about Everton or Tottenham.

Victor Chandler have opened up several season handicap match bets featuring some old city rivals in the Premier League. They have matched up Man United with Man City, Liverpool with Everton and Arsenal with Tottenham. VC’s spokesman Neal Wilkins thinks that the underdogs in the bets will be the most popular.

“We suspect that we’ll be laying Man City, Everton and Tottenham. City look quite menacing at the moment whereas United seem to be floundering a bit, Everton are slowly getting their act together and Tottenham look like they are only going to improve as the season goes on.”

Man City are getting a handicap of +8.5 points over United, Everton are getting +19.5 points against their city rivals, and Tottenham receive +11.5 against their arch enemies.

Premier League Season Match Bets

Man City (+8.5) 5/6
Man United (-8.5) 5/6

Everton (+19.5) 5/6
Liverpool (-19.5) 5/6

Tottenham (+11.5) 5/6
Arsenal (-11.5) 5/6

Free Friday Guest Tipster is Neal Wilkins

It was minus 5 degrees from where Neal Wilkins gave me a call earlier this week.

Neal regularly appears on Sky channels in the UK, along with Racing UK, and has a wealth of contacts in the racing industry there having been on the racecourse for more than 40 years.

For the past 10 years he has been PR manager for international bookmakers Victor Chandler which means he's well across all sports.

Given that there's no racing, his tips will be confined to the football. To make it a bit more exciting for us, he's concentrated on the televised games.

Tip 1: It's top versus bottom in Saturday's 12.45pm (UK time) kick off when Chelsea look sure to justify odds of 4/11 against struggling Hull who are on offer at 7/1 with Victor Chandler despite enjoying home advantage.

Tip 2: On Sunday I believe West Ham will build on their spirited Cup performance against Arsenal last Sunday and reward backers at 4/5 in their home match to Wolves who have only scored 8 goals on their travels this season.

Tip 3: Finally, the draw at 5/2 looks the call when Liverpool entertain a resurgent Spurs at An field. Liverpool have been far from convincing this season and look vulnerable at set pieces.

As we did last year, we'll be taking our guest tips in full faith. But given it's the first week of the year, and that we cashed out for Christmas, we'll start from scratch with a token $100 account.

We'll all up 10% on Neal's first two tips, Chelsea into West Ham. That would return about 3/2 ($2.50)

And we'll put 10% on the draw at An field.

Good luck!

* Please note, this site is designed for entertainment purposes. Check the gambling laws in your state or country before placing bets of any kind. And bet only what you can afford to lose.

Free tips from Neal Wilkins this Friday

This Friday we start up our "Friday Guest Tipster" column again. Last year, guest tipsters helped build our bankroll with a conservative strategy by 300%.

Let's hope we can do that in 2010.

Good news is that I just received a call from Neal Wilkins who represents Gibraltar-based betting agency Victor Chandler.

He'll be sending us tips for weekend UK football games.

Look out for them. They'll be published here on Friday.