Prediction Panel 2008/9: Chelsea vs Tottenham Hotspur - preview and prediction

Chelsea are off to a flyer and surely the bookies will soon wake up and make them favourites for the title; Manchester United have too many commitments and Arsenal and Liverpool are simply not up to the same squad quality as the west London side.  But today Chelsea resume hostilities with Spurs - and how the Chelsea fans will relish the opportunity to taunt their rock-bottom opponents.  Chelsea have won their opening fixtures 1-0 and 4-0  and are demonstrating the flair that a side with a strong Portugese accent (laced with some Brazilian) should do.

Not sure whether Tottenham can really start the season before the Berbatov situation is resolved; but after two 2-1 defeats Spurs really need to put the Berbatov nonsense behind them.  With Spurs signing Roman Pavlyuchenko and Manchester United offloading Louis Saha it seems odds on that Berbatov will take his bag of troubles (and talent) north - and who's to say Tottenham won't be better off.  Spurs had some great pre-season results and will need to re-find the form they showed against Italian sides to get anything at all today. 

Prediction Panel
Paul Grech: Home banker
Colin Illingworth: Home
Antony Melvin: Home
Stephen Orford: Home

Spread betting
Chelsea are playing well and scoring goals and Spurs have also scored in both their fixtures and this suggests that even if Chelsea do eventually prevail both sides could well score.  A buy on total goals a 2.9 means that three or more goals will make a buy profitable - which looks a reasonable punt.

Example: 20pts buy Total Goals at 2.9
No goals: You lose 58pts
1 goal: You lose 38pts
2 goals: You lose 18pts
3 goals: You win 2pts
4 goals: You win 22pts
5 goals: You win 42pts
6 goals: You win 62pts
and so on