DURBAN – Hope you survived Friday the 13th, you puzzlers. Halala EPL is back!
We head into the weekend with three unbeaten teams in Liverpool, Man City and Leicester, who appear on the log in that order. Top of the table Liverpool at 1/7 are at home to the Magpies of Newcastle at 35/2.
Jurgen Klopp will be banking on all three points, and I tend to agree. Value may come in the ‘over/under’ bet or ‘both teams to score’.
There is also a London derby today (admittedly not the crème de la crème of derbies by any stretch), between Spurs and Palace and home team Tottenham are strong favourites to come right here.
Other games that may ignite some punting interest from those in the know are Man United hosting unbeaten Leicester City, Sheffield United playing Southampton, Norwich and Manchester City, and unpredictable Wolves up against Chelski.
Sangoma smells a cheeky upset or two here amongst this quad of games. City are the only sure thing! United must watch their step, newcomers Sheffield may get over the line and lastly a stalemate may be in order for Lampard and his Blues. My prediction is that Mr Frank Lampard may be getting booed at The Bridge soon, and could lose his job by Christmas.
A Liverpool flag outside the stadium. Photo: Reuters/Jason Cairnduff
In local footy we have some decent games being dished up. There is no longer a single team that is unbeaten this season, even though there have only been a handful of games; lapho its open gates baba.
Orlando Pirates have been no more than average so far, and the question is whether they can turn the tide against Chippa today. The other early afternoon game is the big KwaZulu derby, featuring Golden Arrows and Dr Sokhela’s one point men from AmaZulu.
Like Pirates, AmaZulu need to turn their fortunes around quickly. I believe both could get it done today. Pirates winning could see them cracking it into the top 8, and an AmaZulu victory could get them out the bottom spot, depending on other results. If they lose again, I predict they will struggle for the rest of the season.
Later today Kaizer Chiefs host Polokwane and after that it’s SuperSport versus Cape Town. Lana I see the home teams coming away with the ‘W'.
Usually now we move into rugby, mara it’s the calm before the storm, as we will be praating rugby for the next six weeks, post this week's column, so, kids, we will keep all the rugga banter for next week.
Moving onto some of the fringe sports: In Mixed Martial Arts, it’s UFC fight night 158 on at 2am from Vancouver in Canada. Lapho I was assured by my PH ‘Van the Man’ that the main card should be a cracker, and that the Cowboy Cerrone may catch some early bells. Vele the consensus is that in the main fight, Cowboy and Gaethje will be standing and delivering, as they both love a KO, so the fight shouldn’t go the distance of five rounds - vaai take a punt larney!
Then for the motor heads it’s the legendary race at San Marino. Marc Marquez is destined to win the championship as he is leaps ahead of the other boss riders. So for abanye (others) it's pretty much the end of the road.
At The Oval in London the last Test match of the Ashes series wraps up this weekend. England are out to save face, by pushing for an important win to draw the series at 2-2. They can’t win the urn but a draw is better than going 3-1 down.
If England lose the series and don’t draw, it may spell a little trouble for the Proteas, when they come over at the end of the year. In the meantime the Proteas are in India for a T20 series of three games before three Test matches.
Some advice: Shoot out to Soweto Golf Club in Pimville; it’s a gem and has, I reckon, the best greens in Jozi.
Go take a look, I dare you!
Sangoma out, N3 and all. Ke a leboha!