No doubt like me, you read the Sunday Mail story last week and were sure that at least one person would have gone from the SFA set up by the time we arrived at this weekend’s fixtures.  Perhaps the fact that none of them have illustrates the complete arrogance all involved have.  As we all know there are three sides to every story, yours, mine and the truth which is somewhere between the two, but it is quite clear that this matter has been dealt with abysmally, with a concerted effort by the SFA in the early part to lay the blame at our door and in the process besmirch the name of you, me and every Celtic fan.  How embarrassing for the Scottish media that they have been played in this whole process.  How typical that we see no apologies for the made up stories about what Celtic fans did or didn’t do to Steven Craven and his family.

With regards to Dougie Dougie, we all have mortgages to pay and in these hard financial times it would take a brave man to walk away from a job.  But this is not his main profession and his career is far nearer the end than the beginning and the proximity to the end may be nearer than you think.  I understand that Dougie Dougie comes off the FIFA list at the turn of the year and has his final European game in the Europa League over the next few weeks.  I’m sure neither he nor the SFA want Celtic to “win.”  Wouldn’t it be convenient to get a couple of SFL and SPL games involving neither us nor Rangers.  Get the Europa game, come off the FIFA list and then have a “I’ve been at the pinnacle etc” resignation?

We shall see on this, but this is a betting piece so let’s look at the odds and stats.

SPL

Scottish Div One

The least numbers of goals we’ve scored against the Dandy Dons in the past 6 games is two goals with only two occasions when we haven’t conceded and in 44 SPL games Aberdeen have kept just one clean sheet– but then again they’ve lost Ricky Foster.

It will be interesting to see whether we get a pen this weekend.

So there have been more away wins this season than home wins AND 13.3% of all results have been 2-1 to the away team.  So here goes.

The EPL

After a shaky start to their league campaign, Roy Hodgson's team have managed to achieve back-to-back wins in the Premier League for the 1st time this season. Last week's impressive away win at Bolton has managed to leap frog them into 13th place in the league table.

While Chelsea's away form has been subject to some criticism in the past, they managed to dig out a hard fought win against the stubborn Blackburn side last week.   However, with Fernando Torres showing glimpses of what he has been capable of in the past, it should prove to be quite a spectacle!

PADDY POWER MONEY-BACK SPECIAL

Liverpool v Chelsea – Stevie Glee

If Steven Gerrard scores at anytime Paddy Power will refund losing first/last goalscorer, correct score & scorecast singles on the game.

Terms & Conditions: Applies to 1^st/last goalscorer, correct score and scorecast singles placed before kick-off only. Max Refund €/£100 per customer/bet. Paddy Power football rules apply.

PADDY POWER WEEKEND SPECIALS

FA Cup Specials – Phoenix From The Flames

200/1   FC United to meet Man Utd in 3^rd round

66/1     AFC Wimbledon to meet MK Dons in FA Cup

Fireworks Specials

Prem Fireworks - How many red cards in the Premier League this weekend

7/1       None

9/4       Exactly 1

2/1       Exactly 2

3/1       Exactly 3

11/2      4 or more

PREMIER LEAGUE

Hopefully we can continue with some of the sparkling football we’ve seen this season with the exception of the Rangers game and I'm sure those like John Kelly who disagree with the culture of enforced poppy wearing will allow those of us who do wear the poppy to show our respects.  We shall see.