Its been a baptism of fire for Boro manager Gareth Southgate. After going 2-0 within 20 minutes at Reading on the weekend he must have thought being a Premiership manager was an easy ride! However his Boro team ended up losing 3-2, and their defensive frailties were exposed, in particular the void left by the manager himself that has not yet been filled at the back. Chelsea won relatively easily on the weekend against  a poor Man City team. they created a lot of chances and really the game was not a contest.

Boro are another one of those teams that if things dont go right at the beginning of their Premiership campaign, then it could be a very long season. Gareth Southgate has left the playing side and is now the manager, but of course he has no or very little experience managing a team, even a Premiership side.

The visit of the Champions Chelsea is not what he would have wanted, and I feel they should too strong for Middlesbrough today. The Boro do have some great attacking players in Stuart Downing on the left and Yakubu and Viduka up front, but at the back they have all sorts of defensive problems. They are desperately trying to bring central defender Sylvain Distin from Man City, but so far had no luck. At 1/2 on a Chelsea away win, however, I feel that price is too short, even for the Champions. A better bet would be to go for the anytime goalscorer market.

Andriy Shevchenko looks a nice bet to score @ 6/5 with Coral. He looked very eager and sharp against Man City and looked like he wanted to kick off his Chelsea scoring tally as quickly as possible. It wont take long for him to get off the mark, and I think he can take advantage of Middlesbrough's defensive weeknesses. Go for the Ukranian!