Here we go! Saturday sees the real business of the Premier League back on the agenda with two classic confrontations. The £30million Dimitar Berbatov makes his debut for Manchester United at, of all places, Anfield against Liverpool. And if that is not enough the late kick off sees Chelsea travelling to Manchester City to face the Brazilian who eluded them in Robinho who cost a cool £32million paired with old boy Shaun Wright-Phillips. How will Big Phil Scolari respond? How will Mark Hughes line up his team?

The two managerless teams Newcastle and West Ham face promoted Hull and West Bromwich Albion respectively. Interesting stuff. Banana skins all round?

Get the latest Premier League odds here

Yankee is one of those legendary complex bets that can magically work out like a royal flush in poker, but has a certain caution to it at the same time. The odds may be long but the stakes can be low. In reality it is four bets in 11 combinations. That is six doubles, four trebles and one accumulator for four correct results. Just pick four teams to win on the multiple bets column and the option appears underneath on the right hand column.

Wednesday’s World Cup qualifiers is a good example of how it can work. Say you fancy a bet on Russia, Azerbaijan, Northern Ireland and England all to win. If they all come up then £1 pays 26.50. But you can hedge your bets with a Yankee so an £11 bet pays £118.57. You win more money, but your risks is also contained. Or

Try a Home Countries Yankee - £11 pays a possible £876

Hartlepool’s Dave Foley secores his side’s second goal against West Bromwich Albion. The Carling Cup is good hunting ground for gamblers. The odds are as long as the form suggests they ought to be, but as this week’s results showed even Premier League opposition can be humbled. West Ham and Sunderland both needed extra time. Bolton could not get that far and went out. Fulham went to injury time before beating Leicester. The omens are there for the next round

The new England captain John Terry is 22/1 to score the first goal in his first match as international captain against the Czech Republic at Wembley tonight. Up to last season when injuries and perhaps the fact that opposing sides knew about his propensity to score goals from set pieces saw the goals drying up, he was ratching in the goals at a lot better ratio than 22:1, so he could be an interesting bet in the coming months, especially while England’s goal scoring options seem to be limited in other directions.

Get all the first day betting here

It is always a greater risk betting on the first Saturday of the season. There is no guide to who gets out of the starting blocks quickly or whether this will be a high sdcoring season but there are a few interesting bets.

The games to avoid are probably Hull against Fulham which has draw written on it or maybe Fulham will have the firepower. People have been writing them off as potential relegation candidates but I am a fan of Roy Hodgson. On the other hand I wouldn’t mind betting this could be Hull’s only win for a long time.  It is a hard call at West Ham where Wigan who finished strongly last year are not going to play the kind of football the east Londoners like. It is a tough call to see if either Spurs or Liverpool can win away in the north east at Middlesbrough and Sunderland respectively, Maybe, maybe not.

The first four games alphabetically look home wins:

Arsenal should beat newly promoted West Brom, perhaps not without a scare or two

Aston Villa should be too strong for Mark Hughes Manchester City who will have £18 million Brazilian striker Jo upfront, but £18million is not enough to buy a place in the Olympic team and with ructions backstage cannot be a help. Some smart money says Hughes will be a shoe in at the first Premiership side in enough trouble to sack their manager. That’s Newcastle then.

Bolton should take care of newly promoted Stoke who can start their freefall back to the Championship.

And Everton will not allow Paul Ince’s Blackburn much space.

£10 on those four pays £83.

Compare that to the obvious banker that Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United are all at home and all win - £10 would pay £19.

There is a free £10 bet for new members at BetClick - win and you keep the money, lose and, well, you don’t. They pay it.

The new soccer season is upon us and already the friendly matches are flying through the diary. Over the summer we have been cogitating a new kind of bet. It is a very low stake, but very high return. Statistically the odds are a lot better than the National Lottery - well what is not? Depending how you pitch it, the odds in reality are only 10-1 up to 20/1 and with a little bit of basic football knowledge, they are possibly better than that.

The idea is to bet on the correct scores of a football match. Not just once. But two as doubles.

Take a look at this week’s matches and see how that configures

If Arsenal and Liverpool were both to win 2-0 on Wednesday night £10 would pay out £990

By the same token Barcelona to win 2-0 against Fiorentina and Jose Mourninhos Inter Milan to win 2-0 at home against Seville £10 would pay out £680. These are far better odds than a slot machine for example.

Make that a triple with the same bet on Marseille at home to Toulouse on Saturday and the pay out potential is £4,420.

There is a free £10 bet for new members at BetClick if you open an account

Bet Liverpool

Even girlfriend Alex Curran is having some diffiuclty keeping a straight face as Liverpool midfield maestro Steven Gerrard is awarded a degree by his home city university. The citation says, in case you wondered, ” Steven epitomises the university philosophy of Dream, Plan, Achieve,” said vice chancellor John Moores. “As a young boy he excelled in the sport he loves and ensured his talent was recognised, looking upon challenges as opportunities and pursuing each available avenue”.

 Oh, so that is ok, drop out of school, play footie and you still get a degree anyway. Great role model.

MARSEILLE,  Daniel scored three goals to help Brazil beat Russia 6-4 and go through to the semi finals of the Fifa official beach soccer World Cup. They play Portugal in the semi finals. Spain beat hosts France 5-2 to secure a palce against Italy in the other semi finals. England were again notable by their absence.

The official FiFa web site though is enthusiastic about the participation of the dancing girls in beach soccer.It says: ”

Beach soccer and beautiful girls have walked hand in hand since the inauguration of the discipline, and built up a relationship that has evolved into an everlasting love story. Be it cheering on the stands or lighting up the intermissions with their routines, the gorgeous entertainers are an important part of the sport’s exhilarating ambience. Besides the display of bicycle kicks and flying headers exectued by the players, the girls perform a crucial role in making beach soccer one of the fastest-growing spectator sports. ” So now you know boys.

Bet WBA

West Bromwich Albion are an astonishing 4999/1 not to win the Premiership, as are the other two promoted clubs which just shows the statistics are against them. But they are evens to go down. But the boing boing Brummies could surprise a few teams with the kind of attacking flair they showed last season and in getting to the semi finals of the FA Cup. All it takes is Alex Ferguson to have a nervous breakdown, Felipe Scolari to play overly pretty football, Arsene Wenger to sell his whole midfield and Rafa Benitez to buy in all team of plodders. At those odds an Abramovich could snap them up, buy a couple of extra players and clean up with a £1million on the nose.

THE odds for next season’s football leagues across Europe are all up and they make for pretty interesting reading. Betting on your team to win is a bit of an act of loyalty. You can also get some even better odds by betting as doubles and trebles with who will win La Liga aswell as the Premiership for example. The book says that Manchester United will win in England, Inter Milan are short odds for Serie A, and Real Madrid in Spain. A treble on those three would give you a return of £91 on £10. Go for Ar