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Liverpool are looking to finish in the top six and the hopes of doing so will be boosted heavily by a win against Chelsea in the midweek action.

This is the penultimate game of the campaign for the Reds, who have just qualified for the Europa League final. Winning this game will give them access to the Champions League group stages next season, but the club want to make sure of a European qualification place even before the game. A run of seven victories in the last 11 matches has seen the club move closer towards the top six.

Even though Southampton and West Ham are in a much promising position going towards the end of the campaign, Liverpool will be hoping that there is the turn of events in the final two games. The Reds are backed at 2.08 for a home victory, while Chelsea are backed at 3.90. The club suffered only one defeat in the league since the arrival of Guus Hiddink. The return to form for Belgian winger Eden Hazard will also be a crucial aspect. Even then, Liverpool are seen as the favourites to open the scoring at Anfield. They are backed at a quite strong 1.74 for getting the first goal.

This seems as quite good odds for a team that has been the first scorers in 10 out of the last 11 games. Chelsea, however, come on the back of a very good run of form away from home. They have collected the most number of points from away matches in 2016, but the good form was not there to be seen in the previous away match against relegation threatened Sunderland. A 3-2 loss means that Chelsea will not be able to overtake Liverpool irrespective of the results in the next two matches.

Football is a sport that is considered to be one of the most lucrative in the world with players earning huge salaries. Lionel Messi earns £336,000 every week and all the top performers in the world have similar earning.

However, taking into consideration that Messi is widely considered to be the best player in the world, it’s only appropriate that he has a salary at that same level. Shane Long is a lesser known figure who performs with Southampton and his salary is in the range of £50,000 which is significantly less in comparison to Messi and other renowned figures but his salary is still good enough for him to live an incredibly luxurious lifestyle.

Not all football players in the world have the privilege of earning a substantially large amount of cash from playing and an example of this are players from Zimbabwe who are performing in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer and have had to get into the world of betting in order to earn enough money to support their families.

The vice-captain of Dynamos, Thomas Magorimbo is one of the players that is reportedly believed to have been involved in betting. David Kutyauripo and Guthrie Zhokinyu are a few of the others players from the PSL that have been identified and linked with betting events.

Clubs in the Premiership league of Zimbabwe pay salaries of around $400 but there are many clubs that are even paying less than this amount while some players haven’t even gotten paid at all. This leaves the players without any option but to start betting and try to get money outside from actual playing in order to get cash that is enough to live on.

Betting on football is something that football organizations and authorities are continuously trying to stop from happening but when players don’t have enough money to even support their own families, they have to do things besides playing in order to earn that needed cash and betting is starting to turn to an option for these players.

Soccer betting can be a great way to make some money as well as having some fun. But how do you choose the best ones?

Here are three tips to help you choose the best ones
Always go for a reputed site. If the soccer betting site is a new one, you will be better off avoiding it. Opt for sites that have been in business for a couple of years. This will ensure that you are dealing with a site that has a history of paying his customers. The worst feeling is making a bet, winning it and not getting paid for it.

It is always a good idea to check what other people are saying about the betting site online. Just a quick search on Google will reveal what other people are saying on blogs as well as forums. You might want to search Facebook as well as Twitter for posts related to the soccer betting site. This will give you a better perspective on the betting site.

The appearance of the soccer site can also inform you about the trustworthiness of the site. Always go for a site that is professionally designed and not for one that appear to have been designed by a 12-year-old kid. Remember that you will be uploading money to the site before actually making your bet and you would not want to be scammed.

You might want to ask your friends and relatives for recommendations. This will allow you to find real sites that pay real money since your friends will have already tested them for you. Alternatively, you can find various review sites online that will provide in-depth review about the different betting sites. This will place you in the best position to decide for yourself.

Rafa Benitez will be in charge of Newcastle United for the first time at St James’s Park and he has a huge march straight away. The club will be taking on archrivals Sunderland in the Tyne Wear derby.

More importantly, this clash will also see Benitez coming up against his former nemesis Sam Allardyce. The duo have frequently flashed with each other when they were in charge of Liverpool and Bolton respectively. However, Allardyce has been much more mellowed in his pre-match press conference views about Benitez. After losing his first match against Leicester, Benitez will be hoping to inspire his players to a much needed victory.

The Spaniard was brought to the club in the hope of avoiding relegation for the second time this century. Newcastle have already experienced the relegation back in 2009 and the club are desperate to avoid a repeat of the same. However, they find themselves slipping deep inside the relegation zone owing to poor form since the turn of February. The club are without a victory since the narrow-zero success over West Brom at the start of February. Sunderland, though, have the better record in the Tyne Wear derby of late. They have won the last six matches and are back at 13/5 for a seventh win against Newcastle.

These matches are usually a tight contest and the presence of Rafa Benitez is only expected to amplify this feature. The odds of 19/5 for both teams to end this match as a score draw look extremely favourable. Three points are essential for both teams, as they remain favourites for the relegation with eight matches left in the campaign. Sunderland are at 4/7 to get relegated while Newcastle are slightly poorer with odds of 4/6. Newcastle had defender Fabricio Coloccini sent off in the previous meeting between the two teams.

Promotion to the Premier League will undoubtedly be the biggest prize on the minds of Derby County supporters, but they will just hope to get past Manchester United by creating a major upset in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Hosting United gives the Championship outfit a great opportunity to take advantage of the recent shortcomings shown by Louis Van Gaal’s team. United recently suffered a 1-0 loss against Southampton. This was the second consecutive season in which Southampton have been able to get a victory at Old Trafford. More importantly, United were extremely poor in an attacking sense and this has always been not the case.

Van Gaal is under tremendous pressure not just to improve results but to also play attractive football. Derby can take advantage of the problems at United to sneak into the fifth round. Derby were looking certainties to achieve promotion a few months ago, but they have dropped far behind the top of the table in recent weeks. The team has failed to achieve even a single league victory in the last five games. Prior to this run, they had been beaten only once in the last 10 games. Due to the dip in form, Derby at 11/4 to win against United.

Even though United are on a bad run of form, their undoubted quality sees them backed at 21/20 by several popular bookmakers. Several recent reports suggest that Van Gaal may be gone even before the start of the game against Derby since the club are thought to be extremely concerned about the recent run. The Dutchman’s contract runs out in the summer of 2017, but the club have already been linked with the likes of Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. They are candidates who can easily replace Van Gaal almost immediately.

Arsenal have a great opportunity of building momentum in the title race when they host Manchester City at the Etihad stadium in the midweek match.

This fixture comes just a week ahead of the Boxing Day fixtures. Traditionally, this is a busy period for English clubs. Titles have often been won and lost during this period since the weak teams have been unable to cope with the never-ending run of games around this time. This has also been one of the weak spots for Arsenal in the last decade. However, the team got into the Christmas schedule with a real opportunity of becoming winter champions.

A surprise factor is that Arsenal are the favourites for a win due to their recent form. The gunners have won the last four league encounters and they could close the gap on Leicester City to just two points with a win. City have failed to convince this season and their form has been exemplified by the last five matches. Just two wins and two defeats from the last five games is not Championship winning form and Manuel Pellegrini faces a question mark over his job security. There have been reports of Pep Guardiola coming in to replace the Chilean after having recently confirmed his departure from Bayern Munich.

“Of course it is good for English football. Not only for English football, it’s good for everybody in football all over the world to see teams who are not on the biggest budget at the start, that they can compete as well. There’s always a way to be successful when you’re intelligent and competent. Of course that’s very positive and they’ve shown another fantastic performance on Monday night. I always took them seriously as title contenders,” said Arsene Wenger ahead of the match on Monday night.

Stoke City have an opportunity to inflict more misery on Chelsea when they take on the blues at the Britannia stadium on Saturday. It was only recently that the team knocked out the League Cup champions from the competition at the third round on penalties.

The match had finished as a 1-1 draw, but Chelsea had the better of opportunities through the 120 minutes. If there was a repeat of the same, Jose Mourinho will have faith that his team will come out victorious. The Chelsea manager will not be in the dugout to witness the action since he will serve his one-match stadium ban.

After the recent 2-1 victory over Dynamo Kiev a few days ago, Chelsea will be looking to make it two wins on the bounce. This will be extremely important for a team that has been woefully short of confidence since pre-season. The blues have already suffered six defeats in the league while managing to win only three in return. As a result, they sit near the drop zone with even the talk of qualifying for the Champions League next season fading away. Mourinho’s team have struggled to score goals this season and it is one of the main reasons behind bookmakers backing this to be a low scoring game.

Diego Costa has scored only a handful of goals in all competitions this season. His goal drought stretches to almost 450 minutes and it is one of the worst amongst the Premier League strikers. This poor form sees him backed at only 31/20 in the odds. The odds of scoring in a Chelsea victory is 11/4. There is still opportunity for Chelsea to rise rapidly in the league table, but they must get the crucial victory sooner rather than later. The blues could potentially be close to the top half of the table by the end of this weekend.