Senegal have surprisingly been knocked out of the African Nations Cup after just two group matches. This means Demba Ba will return to England a couple of weeks earlier than expected. It is anticipated that he will be back before next Wednesday, in time for Newcastle's away fixture at lowly Blackburn that evening. Wednesday is, of course, February 1st so the transfer window will have closed the previous night. In any case if Ba unexpectedly left Newcastle it would be for a top five club. A move seems unlikely at this late stage though.
Blackburn concede plenty of goals and they will not want to lose their top defender Samba. However the latter is far more likely to move than Ba and could even end up at Newcastle.
In the top goal scorer charts Ba is still in second place despite his absence for international duty. He is on 15 goals four behind Van Persie. Other players in double-figures are: Aguero 14; Rooney 13; Yakubu 12 and Dzeko 11.
When I backed Ba @ 25/1 in early November he had scored just eight Premiership goals. Looking at his TGS opposition then I made the case that Man City could continue to share the goals amongst Aguero, Dzeko and Balotelli. Their totals are now 14,11 and nine respectively. With Man City going slightly off the boil and Aguero a skinny price anyway it's worth swerving a MC player when considering the TGS winner. Of course Rooney is likely to be in the hunt and cannot be ruled out, something I can't say about Yakubu.
I think it's worth pressing our Ba bet with a further each-way wager. All the quarter odds first four has gone not surprisingly as VP is odds-on and therefore we are talking top three only. I'm still waiting for Van Persie to take some time out as it's rare for the Dutchman to play a full season!
I have had 2.5 pts ew Demba Ba TGS Prem League @ 14/1 with Paddy Power (1/5 odds 1,2,3).
Total staked five points.
No comments:
Post a Comment