Wesley Sneijder has maintained his belief that Inter Milan are still in with a very good chance of challenging for this season’s Scudetto title, despite the club sitting fourth in the Serie A table – five points behind leaders Juventus.

The midfielder, who has once again in for speculation linking him with a move to the Premiership, believes that Inter’s recent 2-1 victory against Lazio was a sign that the club are capable of mounting a second-half of the season push for the title anyone looking at the Betfair Serie A Betting Odds should bear this in mind.

“If we continue to play like we are then we can target the Scudetto. The win against Lazio means a lot. They were a difficult opponent to face, especially after our derby tie against Milan,” he said.

Sneijder only recently returned to action following his knee injury and has already regained the form he showed before his enforced spell on the sidelines. If Inter do indeed have a chance of winning the league this year, then it’s almost certain that the playmaker will be integral to those targets.

The Nerazzurri were last week dumped out of the Coppa Italia at the hands of Napoli; although, the defeat could yet be a blessing in disguise should it inspire the club to pile more focus on clawing back the Serie A frontrunners. With the season only half way done, there is still plenty of time left for the league to go through some dramatic changes between now and the end of the current campaign and those following betfair.com need to remember this.

The club have been going through some tough times since their double-winning season of 2009/10 under Jose Mourniho. The club’s current position in the league is quite an achievement in itself, following a start to the season that saw them down in the relegation zone as recently as November.
Winning the title seems an extremely tough ask at the moment, however, Claudio Ranieri has installed a confidence in this squad that could well see them surprise a few people during the second half of the season.

Wesley Sneijder has maintained his belief that Inter Milan are still in with a very good chance of challenging for this season

Roberto Mancini has signalled the end for Carlos Tevez as a Manchester City player by admitting it is “important” the Argentina striker is sold.

The 27-year-old has not played for the Premier League leaders after refusing to warm up in City’s 2-0 defeat by Bayern Munich in the Champions League at the Allianz Arena at the end of September.

The former Manchester United livewire is currently AWOL in Argentina after refusing to return to training following an internal club suspension and his future remains the subject of intense speculation. Those looking at the Premier League odds will know the side haven’t let this distracted them.

Mancini’s admission comes on the same day AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani revealed he had been given permission to speak to the Premier League and Champions League winner.

“Tevez is a City player. The English club has authorised us to speak to his agent but we haven’t spoken directly to City yet,” Galliani told Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.

“We don’t know what City want.

“I prefer not to speak too much about Tevez, otherwise his price will go up and this is not good.”

The Serie A giants have made no secret of their desire to take Tevez on loan to help cover for Antonio Cassano but an agreement to buy next summer could also be made part of the deal.

Mancini said former Boca Juniors favourite Tevez would never play for City again in the wake of his snub in Germany and the Italian is keen for the matter to be resolves so he and the rest of the squad can move on. Anyone placing football bets will be keeping a close eye on things.

“I don’t know what the situation is with Carlos at this moment,” Mancini said ahead of Wednesday’s final Group A Uefa Champions League clash against the already-qualified Bundesliga title-chasers.

“I think that for us it is important to sell him. We can do this for him and for the club. If he has the chance to go to Italy, I am happy for him.”

Andre Villas-Boas insists he has a perfectly harmonious working relationship with owner Roman Abramovich and is confident he can lead Chelsea out of their current slump.

The west London club on Sunday denied reports of a rift between the pair as “total nonsense” but a 2-1 home defeat by top-four rivals Liverpool later the same day did little to lighten the mood at Stamford Bridge.

“He [Abramovich] didn’t pay 15m euros (£13.2m) to get me out of Porto and another fortune to get me out of Chelsea,” he said.

“It is not a question of the owner having patience. I have said we have set out to build something new at this club and the club is committed to what we are building for the future.”

Defeat to the Merseysiders was the club’s second successive Premier League home defeat and third in five in the top flight. People who bet football online may have been shocked by this.

It means the Blues now trail early-season pace-setters and big-spenders Manchester City by a massive 12 points.

Villas-Boas, who arrived in the summer after guiding FC Porto to a Europa League, Primeira Liga and Portuguese Cup treble, said he would not be rushing for the panic button and insisted Chelsea were a work in progress.

Another concern for the young coach is Chelsea’s high-profile meetings with Manchester United, Arsenal and now Liverpool have all ended in defeat. The Premier League odds show how much work they have to do.

A solid, if not spectacular, start to the season has been quickly forgotten about but Villas-Boas insisted he was committed to the club.

“Our commitment is to the club and to what we are doing in the future and we have enough talent to compete in all competitions. This is our perspective at the moment,” he added.

In all of the leagues across Europe you see the usual suspects. Those of the superpowers such as Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Juventus. But then you have a bunch of other names. Names of teams who haven’t had much to cheer in recent times.

The most notable would be Manchester City. For a while, they have been busy assembling somewhat of a dream team, but 2011 would appear to be the year that it has all clicked. The high point was obviously a 6-1 demolition of Manchester United at Old Trafford. With the likes of David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri and Mario Balotelli they have a squad which is the envy of many others. City haven’t won the league since 1968 and it would be a long celebration should they break the drought.

In Italy, you have Udinese in Serie A who have never won the league. They are currently in second place and starting to think big. Antonio Di Natale is their star player and even more so after the summer selling of Alexis Sanchez, Gokhan Inler and Cristian Zapata. You would have received some great football odds on the them at the start of the year. Odds that have since dramatically shortened.

Schalke 04 haven’t claimed the Bundesliga since 1958. They are currently in second place on the ladder, four points behind Bayern Munich. The team is a mixture of imports and locals. Raul, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Jermaine Jones and Kyriakos Papadopoulos lead the former while Christoph Metzelder, Lewis Holtby and Tim Hoogland the latter.

In Spain you have Barcelona and Real Madrid filling the top two stops but right behind them is Levante. The big question is if they have the depth to maintain this great form and get through a very long season.

Montpellier HSC is second in La Ligue. The side from the south of France has never won La Ligue and are right begin PSG in the chase for the championship. Should they win it would be amazing for the sides who have given up hope to the likes of Lyon, Lille, Marseille and PSG.

Having sides of this ilk do well is great for the sport. It creates a unique feel to it and provides an extra dimension as opposed to it being the same teams time after time. Then there is the aspect of the underdog being able to take it to the superstar team.

Levante have defeated Real Madrid. Imagine the impact if it could also defeat Barcelona. Levante visits the Camp Nou is early December.

It also creates an uncertainty in betting. Will the pedigree hold true or can the upstart continue its good form and buck the trend of history?

Ryan Giggs, described as “ageless” and “evergreen” by the official UEFA Champions League website, has broken a football record already in this year’s edition of the tournament.

The Manchester United midfielder, who is 37-years-old, is not only the oldest player to ever score in the Champions League, a record he set prior to this year’s campaign, but the Welshman is now the only footballer in history to have scored goals in 16 different instalments of the competition.

“I’m lucky enough to play with good players”, Giggs said, in September. “Over the last few years we’ve had a good record in Europe, especially away from home.”

Giggs’ achievement was part of a showcase on the UEFA website, which lists interesting facts about the group stage, so far – and, while most of the anecdotes revolve around teams with ideas above their station (APOEL FC topping Group G), some are genuine landmarks in football history.

In keeping with the theme of ‘Manchester United players’, Wayne Rooney has also broken a record in the Champions League. The striker has scored more goals in Europe than any other English player, with 25, across several tournaments, two of which were scored against Romanian minnows, Otelul Galati, last week.

Despite having two record-breakers in the side, Manchester United have endured an awkward start to the 2011/12 Champions League, recording a win and two draws, against, Galati (2-0), Benfica (1-1), and Basel (3-3), respectively. However, the Red Devils have an opportunity to bolster their points tally, when they play Otelul for the second time, next week. The betting suggests it should be an easy win.

Other points of interest in Champions League games, to date, include Alexandre Pato’s goal for AC Milan against Barcelona, scored after just 25 seconds of play. The strike was the first goal scored in the 2011/12 campaign, and the fifth-fastest in Champions League history.

One final record, from Pato’s goal; Barcelona had never conceded the first goal in the campaign as a whole, until they played Milan, on September 13.