What The Bookies Think

Bookmakers always provide an valuable insight into professional football research, since they above anyone else have shedloads of their own money on the line. That makes their offers not only interesting but relevant to the Fantasy Football manager. Lets look at a few, starting with goal scoring options.

Who will be first to score 5 goals? The bookies have Man Utd is slight favorite ahead of Liverpool, both between £2.75 - £3.50. Chelsea and Man City are offering odds in the £4.50 - £5 range. Arsenal rounds out the likely outcomes here at £7.50. This is no surprise given the tough fixtures Arsenal face relative to the other candidates.

In the Most Goals Scored This Season option at Coral, Man Utd are again favorites at £2.50, followed by Liverpool (£2.75), Chelsea (£3.33), Arsenal (£3.5) and Man City (£7).

First player To Score A Hattrick odds from Paddy Power are Torres (£7), Drogba (£11), Rooney (£12), Anelka (£14), Owen (£16), Adebayor (£18) and Van Persie (£20).

In FF terms, this reinforces the belief that picking a main striker from either Man Utd, 'Pool or Chelsea is a good idea. With Liverpool its Torres. At Man Utd, after Rooney its a tough call between Owen and Berbatov as to who will get the most goals. The odds offered by the bookies has Owen ahead of Berbatov for the golden boot. At Chelsea there is little information at this stage to seperate Drogba and Anelka.

Defensively, the odds offered by SkyBet for Most Clean Sheets suggest value may be found in Fulham and Tottenham defenders. They are both seventh-equal favorite, and players from both teams Defender rosters cost £5.5m or less. However, Paddy Power sees things a little differently in the Least Goals Conceded market. Tottenham is again seventh favorite, but Fulham are a decidedly mid-table 11th favorite. Given the raft of injuries across the Tottenham backline, Corluka isnt a bad pick at £5.5m, nor is Assou-Ekooto at £5.0m. Plus he has a funny haircut. From Fulham, Hangeland is already selected by a huge amount of managers - although this can count for very little - and is rumoured to be moving to Arsenal. If that happens he would be well worth the £5.5m pricetag currently on his head.

Like all other betting options there is little to seperate Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool at the top of the table, so a defender or two from these teams is clearly a good option.

Potential discipline problems are highlighted with the odds for the first player to get 5 bookings. Players to avoid from this category w(ith prices in brackets) include Fellaini (Everton, £11), Palacios (Tottenham, £12), Cattermole (Wigan, £14), Samba (Blackburn, £20).