Villa: celebrating on Sunday?

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Sky Sports News' Ed Chamberlin brings you his weekly betting guide and offers his top tips for the weekend's sporting action.

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Bolton 0-0 West Brom - West Brom have passed the ball well without being an attacking threat but are strong enough to hold Bolton at bay. I doubt this will be the Game of the Day on Football First!

Everton 1-0 Portsmouth - neither side look as good as they were last season, though Everton remain a tough nut to crack at home.

Hull 1-2 Wigan - Wigan played well against Chelsea with no reward. This should be an entertaining encounter with the away side edging it.

Middlesbrough 2-0 Stoke - Boro impressed again in the Carling Cup on Tuesday and have the height to deal with Stoke's set pieces.

West Ham 1-1 Blackburn - Alan Curbishley needs a win to silence the doubters but Blackburn are hard to break down and can grab a point

Wolves 2-0 Nott'm Forest - Wolves had a set-back in the Carling Cup but really impressed against Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday. Home banker.

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Premier League

Arsenal play Newcastle on Saturday evening and need another win to silence the doubters.

I've been waiting to oppose Newcastle after their first team had to play 120 minutes on Tuesday and despite playing well in both Premier League matches, have Shay Given to thank after two man-of-the-match performances.

Add to that their poor record in London, James Milner's transfer request, the return of Cesc Fabregas and the confidence Arsenal will take from the 4-0 win over FC Twente. Arsenal should win but I'd be in no hurry to steam in at 4-9.

Standby for an entertaining Super Sunday, where goals look guaranteed. Part One offers us the first chance to exploit Luis Felipe Scolari's new attacking policy on Skybet Live.

Chelsea have won seven corners in both their Premier League games and Sunday's game against Tottenham should be another open affair with plenty of goals and corners. Sunday is not the day to back Chelsea's corner supremacy as Tottenham win plenty themselves (21 in two defeats so far!) but instead play on total corners.

Part Two of Super Sunday sees Aston Villa versus Liverpool. The way Villa have defended so far this season suggests there should be goals in this one too!

I still fancy them to beat Liverpool, who have won both Premier League games and made it through to the Champions League group stage without playing well. Villa look a good bet at 2-1 with Liverpool missing Steven Gerrard and coming off that emotional roller-coaster on Wednesday night.

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Tri-Nations Rugby - South Africa v Australia

While Great Britain rides a post-Olympic wave of euphoria, South African sport is lurching from crisis to crisis.

A full-on inquiry is in progress as to how a sports-mad nation of over 47 million people can return from Beijing with just one silver medal and finish 76th in the medals table behind sporting power-houses such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

However, it was last weekend's first defeat on home soil to Australia (12-27) since 2000, which really had the country mourning. As predicted, Aussie coach Robbie Deans totally out-witted his opposite number, Peter de Villiers, who has now suffered four defeats in five and the Boks are out of Tri-Nations reckoning.

De Villers' appointment sums up the problems in South African sport. When his name was confirmed as the successor to World Cup winning coach Jake White, Oregan Hoskins, the head of SA Rugby, confirmed in the public announcement that his appointment was not due to 'just rugby reasons' i.e. he was a political appointee - the first black coach of the Boks.

Therefore in an age of professional sport you tell the whole rugby world that your coach is not the best, but is a political appointment. What does that do to the level of motivation for players, for the paying rugby public and for the other professional coaches in a country? The South African coach with the best CV, Heyneke Meyer, has left the country and is now with the Leicester Tigers.

I still believe the World Champions have the best players in the Tri-Nations but that's not enough without a coach to match. Australia have a poor record at Ellis Park but with the Boks in disarray and Skybet giving them a head start, the Wallabies are a great bet again ahead of the winner-takes-all title decider against New Zealand in Brisbane on September 13.

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One-Day Cricket

South African cricket has also suffered from political interference most recently with the Andre Nel / Charl Langevelt scenario but I don't think that has been to blame for their demise in the one-day series.

After their historic Test series win, they look tired, emotionally drained and eager to get home. I still believe South Africa are a good bet to beat Australia in the forthcoming series, especially at home, and become the best Test side in the world.

More immediately they have to play Kevin Pietersen's inspired and energised England three more times in the NatWest One-day series.

Owais Shah should finally get the chance to show what he can do at the Oval on Friday and he is my bet to top score for England at 4-1 with Skybet.

One South African who is still fresh and eager to impress is Herschelle Gibbs and I expect him to cut loose on the flat Oval surface.

Gibbs clearly likes SE11 as he scored 183 is his one Test match there and 101 in the ICC Champions Trophy match against the West Indies in 2004. Gibbs' one-day average at the Oval is 55.33 and he's a great bet at 4-5 to out-score Matthew Prior (10-11).

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