Sunday January 11th #1

I have sent subscribers to the newsletter service three English football previews for this afternoon and one La Liga selection, which you can read below. It is not lunchtime yet in my part of the world, but we are already 2 from 2 on the day, with a couple of J-League winners at odds of 2.24 and 2.62 in notes which were sent out Friday afternoon.

I feel we will see some considerable improvement from Granada this season, owned along with Udinese and Watford by the Pozzo family, they have managed to stabilize in the top flight after two seasons and can start to kick on. Their summer signings of defensive midfielder Manuel Iturra from Malaga with the Champions League experience he brings, Algerian international midfielder Yacine Brahimi, plus veteran strikers Riki and Piti (with 31 top flight goals between them last season) looks really good business. Unfortunately Riki cannot play today.

The final Champions League place now looks to be a straight race between Valencia and Real Sociedad and Los Che can go above Real and put huge pressure on them ahead of their midweek match with relegation haunted Granada, by winning this lunchtime kick off.

Serie A:

On the road, Genoa are 2-2-6, but have only conceded 13 goals, just one less than 3rd placed Lazio, they are well organised, disciplined and keep their shape well, they have performed well against the top clubs conceding just two goals and collecting five points from visits to Lazio, Udinese, Milan and Inter.

No Andrea Pirlo or Giorgio Chielleni for Juventus, who even given their resources, face a daunting 17 days with Serie A matches against Chievo and Fiorentina, a Champions League trip to Glasgow and Coppa Italia semi final against Lazio.