Are Arsenal A Good Bet For The Title?

For most of this season Arsenal have looked more like troubling the Europa League than the trophy engravers - yet after winning five on the trot, Arsene Wenger's men may just be in with a sniff of the title.

In the 3-0 win against West Ham the Gunners looked fluid and like they could destroy a robust team from any angle in a way that we haven't seen for a long time. With Walcott now fit, Welbeck, Ozil, Ramsey, Cazorla, Sanchez and Giroud all beginning to look like they might click, it's not impossible to imagine the Gunners continuing their run for a while yet.

They're now just six points behind Chelsea, albeit with the blues having two games in hand. However one of those is tomorrow against Champions League chasing Southampton, who no one has found an easy prospect all season.

They certainly look a better bet than Manchester City, whose title charge appears to have got stuck in the Lancashire hills this evening.

The Gunners also have to face Chelsea - normally as source of grief for Arsene Wenger's men, but with the blues not quite looking the side that cruised through the autumn now, with a few more wins it could take on an entirely different complexion, if Arsenal can remain in touch. Could Arsenal finally shed the hoodoo Jose Mourinho teams have had over them? If it were a dead game you'd say almost certainly not, but if the pressure were entirely on a Chelsea team that have long been penciled in as champions, it might be a different matter.

There are just enough 'competitive' fixtures for a turn round to be a possibility, as both Arsenal and Chelsea will have to face Liverpool and Manchester United teams embroiled in a brutal scrap for fourth. In addition Chelsea have to go to Loftus Road - a gimme for other teams, but sure to be a West London war if QPR can bring cheer to a misreable season by ending their hated neighbours title hopes.

Could it be a turn round akin to the  great run-ins of 1997/98 and 2001/02. Almost certainly not - but at a best price of 40-1 on Oddschecker, they may well be worth a punt even if that price drops slightly, especially before Chelsea-Southampton.

An Idiot's Guide To Tipping A Grand National Winner

 Mon Mome - You beauty

The Grand National has always been good to me, at 16 Amberleigh House manaaged to give me a win just before I went on holiday. The year after I was on a stag do, watching Morecambe versus Woking and on the advice of others I went for Hedgehunter (winnings were quickly spent in a Lancaster bar called Toast).

Since then I've had a rather more systematic approach to the greatest race of them all - bet on relative outsiders who more than one tipster fancies. It worked, for a few years spectaculary. Silver Birch did it's job, as did Comply Or Die and bizarrely I stuck a fiver on Mon Mome at 100-1 appropos "fuck it, I've got a spare fiver and I've heard it might do alright". Cue champagne, an impromptu open top bus tour round Liverpool and a happy NatWest student loan manager. A more arrogant individual would've assumed he was that Mr Spearfish chap from Jonathan Creek.

Yes Mon Mome you beauty!

Gladly my record in other races scuppered any idea that I was some sort of tipster, the closest I got to another big win being when I drunkenly put £20 on Sheffield Wednesday to win the derby 3-0 at Hillsborough. Three words: Leon fucking Clarke. An open goal miss cost me that little moment of glory and £600.

Since then understandably my record has regressed to the mean, with only Ballabriggs and an e/w bet on Sunnyhillboy offering the solace of a big win (in the same race).

However, I feel that the general rules for the unwary punter on The National for me is simple - don't just stick a pin in it, or bet on Shakalakaboomboom (a name so good his price is appalling), but spend half an hour reading through the various tipsters available and gradually get an uniformed opinion on who you fancy due to who convinces you and how many times outsiders' names come up - if you win you're a sage, if you don't journalism is once more in crisis. Secondly, split your bet - get three or four horses on, some each-way. Chances are one or two of your picks will be a faller or miles off the pace, but picking a few horses at least gives you a decent chance that you'll have one in the mix and give you something to cheer for. Lastly don't go on a famous jockey - inevitably a big name will have shortened the price. This policy cost me in 2010, when AP McCoy finally won the race, but it did me ok in the years before when his short-priced horse inevitably came-a-cropper.

Two Headed Sex Beast.

I'm fully expecting another year of hurt, so these will probably end up under a sheet being pored over by Alan Partridge, but my own bets are:

The Rainbow Hunter (e/w) 33-1
Mountainous (e/w) 40-1
Pineau De Re (w) 20-1
Big Shu (w) 25-1

Happy Grand National!