Murray must be opposed

James Wade: Worth a wager

Following Deco's signing from Barcelona to Chelsea bookmakers were quick to price up a number of specials for the Portuguese midfielder. The 8/11 with Sky Bet for Deco to score under 3.5 goals in the Barclays Premier season is one price that does stand out to me.

Deco only played 14 matches for Barcelona last season due to injury so I wouldn't rule out Deco spending some time on the injury list plus with Chelsea's abundance of midfielders, how many chances will Deco have?

His arrival at Chelsea has also cast doubt on Frank Lampard's future at Stamford Bridge. Everybody knows that he has a great relationship with José Mourinho but the 1/2 on offer for Lampard to start his season at Inter is not a price I would get involved in.

I personally think that Lampard will still be a Chelsea man at the start of the season and would rather have a small wager on the 6/4 on offer from Sky Bet for him to start his season at Chelsea instead of taking on odds of 1/2.

At Wimbledon, Britain's Andy Murray takes on world number two Rafael Nadal for a place in the last four on Wednesday afternoon. Murray produced some of his best tennis to date when coming from two sets down to beat Richard Gasquet on Monday and is 10/3 to reach the semi-finals.

I think the bookmakers have got Murray's price right, he played for just under four hours against Gasquet so fatigue has to come into the equation.

Whereas Nadal had a relatively easy fourth round match against Mikhail Youzhny winning in straight sets so the 11/10 for the Spaniard to win 3-0 looks a fair price with a saver on Nadal to win 3-1 at 5/2.

Wednesday also sees the world number one Roger Federer taking on the Croatian Mario Ancic. The five times Wimbledon champion is 1/25 to progress to the semis and the only thing I can see stopping him is an injury or a UFO landing at Wimbledon, 250/1 with Sky Bet!!

If you were looking at having a bet the 5/6 for Federer to win with a handicap start of -7.5 games looks a reasonable price.

Wednesday evening sees the start of the Las Vegas Desert Classic Darts Championship. Phil Taylor fresh from winning the Players Championship last Sunday is the 8/11 favourite and I fancy the Power to be adding to his silverware collection and would recommend taking those odds before the tournaments starts.

Raymond van Barneveld won the competition last year and is available at 8/1 to defend his title but Barney hasn't been playing his best darts this year so if you were thinking of backing him I would sit back and watch his first couple of games.

The Blue Square UK Open winner James Wade is the bookies second favourite at 9/2. Wade has been throwing really well this year, he pushed Taylor all the way in the Premier League, took the UK Open crown in fine style and if Taylor fails I fancy Wade to produce the goods and step up.