WGM’S Best Weekend Bets: 16 January to 18 January

The Asian Cup continues tonight with big guns Japan looking to book their place in the quarter-finals with a win over Iraq in Brisbane. We’re pretty confident they’ll succeed in that quest – so much so we like them with a one goal handicap. The Japanese put four goals past Palestine in their opener and although Iraq scored a narrow 1-0 win against lowly Jordan it was only their second win in their past 12 matches.

Saturday sees another important round of the Premier League and we’ve taken a liking to league leaders Chelsea as they travel to Swansea. The home side have proven extremely difficult to beat this season but having lost Wilfried Bony to Manchester City only a few days ago as well as Ki Sung-yeung on international duty and Jonjo Shelvy to suspension they face a tough task here. Chelsea have won their past four against Swansea in all competitions and should win this one.

Sunday will be a huge day for American Football fans as this year’s Super Bowl teams are decided. The NFL Conference Championship games see the defending champions Seattle host the Green Bay Packers in a mouth-watering clash while the other game sees Tom Brady’s Patriots hosting the Indianapolis Colts. Our pick of the weekend is the Patriots. Among the strongest teams all year, they overcame a slow start against Baltimore last week to extend their season record to 13-4. The Colts are a little more enigmatic and after a superb performance at Denver last week it’s yet to be seen whether they can lift to those levels for a second week in a row. We like the Patriots at the line.