London, UK -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/26/2012 -- Topping the list of shocks was Manchester United’s 1-0 defeat to Norwich with the Canaries making it six games unbeaten in the league.
In the hotly-anticipated North London derby Arsenal cruised to a morale-boosting 5-2 victory over Tottenham Hostpur in a game which had the lot – bad blood, a red card, seven different goalscorers – including all three of Arsenal’s biggest summer signings, animated bosses and a tempo that was unmatched all weekend.
Chelsea’s recent struggles continued as they were beaten by a decent West Brom outfit and the Blues are now without a league win in four games and are four points off the pace set by Manchester City.
Roberto Mancini’s men took apart Aston Villa 5-0, although they were helped along by a couple of soft penalties, to find their Sporting Index outright index spread moved up to 45-48 (level with United). They travel south on Sunday to play Chelsea in what already has the makings of a cracker.
Queens Park Rangers are the only team in the division yet to pick up a win and a visit to Old Trafford for former Red Devil Mark Hughes is unlikely to yield that elusive three points. The QPR manager is a long odds-on favourite to be the first manager sacked.
But the attention will be firmly on Stamford Bridge as two of the wealthiest clubs in Europe do battle. It is five years since Chelsea crushed City 6-0 in west London and in ten subsequent encounters no team has beaten the other by more than two goals.
They have shared the last four meetings at Stamford Bridge with two wins apiece and the last two league meetings overall both finished 2-1 to the hosts that day. The one-goal winning margin continued at the start of the season in the Community Shield – a 3-2 success for the Citizens.
Carlos Tevez has five goals in his last five appearances versus Chelsea and there have been five red cards in the last nine fixtures between the sides.
In their last ten games against Man United, QPR have managed to take just a solitary point in a 1-1 draw, with United winning four of the other nine games 2-0, including both fixtures from last season. Sir Alex Ferguson’s men also kept a clean sheet in the preceding game, a 1-0 League Cup win.
England striker Wayne Rooney scored in the two most recent games, both strikes inside 16 minutes.
Having faced both Manchester clubs in the last fortnight, Aston Villa host another top team in Arsenal on Saturday and go into the game successful just twice in their last ten meetings with the Gunners.
Arsene Wenger’s side have scored at least three goals four times in the last seven clashes but have only kept one clean sheet in the last five.
Theo Walcott has scored in his last two encounters versus the Villains but is an injury doubt after sitting out the midweek Champions League game.
Elsewhere, two in-form sides in Swansea and Liverpool meet at the Liberty Stadium and it’s the Welsh club that have the upper hand in recent times, with two wins and a draw in the three games since they went down 8-0 to the Reds in a 1990 FA Cup tie.
Spurs have another London rival to negotiate in West Ham at White Hart Lane. The key stat here is that only three times in the last ten meetings between the pair have both teams scored in the same game. Totenham have lost just one of the last ten against the Hammers.
About The Sporting Index Group
The Sporting Index Group is best known as the world’s largest sports spread betting business, offering the widest range of markets and taking some of the largest bets on sporting events around the world. Markets include rugby spread betting, cricket spread betting and football spread betting. Sporting Index is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Services Authority and the Gambling Commission.