Arsenal out to win one for Ramsey

Soccer Betting Lines

03/05/2010 - London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The injury suffered by Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey is still fresh in the mind of many of his teammates, who are getting set to host Burnley at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

The promising teenager had his season cut short last weekend when he suffered a horrific broken leg against Stoke City after a late challenge from Ryan Shawcross, and now the rest of the Gunners are using the incident as motivation.

"After the Stoke game we didn't see Aaron because he went straight to the hospital," midfielder Emmanuel Eboue told the league's official website. "I am so, so disappointed about what happened.

"Sometimes in football these things happen but we want always to play for him.

"Burnley is a very difficult game for us, we know that. But we will try our best to win it for Aaron Ramsey."

In addition to winning the game for Ramsey, a victory would also pull Arsenal level on 61 points with league-leaders Chelsea, who will be in action in the FA Cup this weekend.

Arsenal has won three straight games in the league since losing back-to-back contests to Manchester United and Chelsea, and with a favorable schedule the rest of the way, Arsene Wenger's side is confident that they can provide a serious challenge for the title.

Burnley is hoping to just survive relegation over the remainder of the season as the club sits in 19th place, but just one point from safety.

A disappointing home loss to last-placed Portsmouth last time out didn't help the cause, and making matters even worse is the fact that Saturday's game is away from Turf Moor, where the club has earned just one point from 14 away contests.

However, Burnley's Leon Cort feels that his side is capable of taking points away from its trip to London if they go into the match with the belief that they can do it.

"The whole country believes we're going to go there and get wiped clean," Cort told the club's official website. "But if we go there and believe, do what we can do and stay strong as a team, I believe we can cause an upset.

"You can't go there and roll over because they will punish you. Obviously it's going to be a very tough game and our away form isn't great, but we have to go there and keep believing."

With many other Premiership clubs taking part in FA Cup play this weekend, there are only three other matches on the fixture list.

One features second-placed Manchester United visiting Molineux Stadium to face relegation-battling Wolverhampton, with United moving to the top of the league with a win, while bottom-half sides West Ham and Bolton square off at Upton Park, and Everton goes for its third win in four games when they entertain Hull City on Sunday.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.