If It's Thursday, It Must Be Helsingborg

Thursday evenings are now becoming synonymous with the Europa League, which has now got to the stage where I recognise the names of most of the teams left in it, although I've got to be honest and admit I know nothing about Qarabagh Agdam of Azerbaijan.

I know a little about Swedish football and I would imagine that current Allsvenskan leaders Helsingborgs would rather qualify for next season's Champions League rather than what used to the UEFA Cup. The club - know locally as the Milk Cows - can take a big step towards achieving that when they play Djurgardens tomorrow evening.

Helsingborgs' perfect home record this season probably won't be threatened by Djurgardens - who are currently just above the relegation zone - but as they only have to play one of the current top five clubs in their last seven home games (against Gefle on September 11th) there's a chance they may remain unbeaten. Djurgardens don't have a bad record at Helsingborgs (two wins in the last three league games) but given the hosts form I'd be surprised if the visitors get anything from the game.

The strategy I'm advocating won't be a huge surprise, although I'm currently thinking of a name to describe dutching the home team to either be winning or drawing at half time so I can have a snappy way to refer to it. Whatever it ends up being called, almost 80% of games in the Allsvenskan this season have seen the home team unbeaten at half time and I'm also going to recommend a Helsingborgs win, but goals may be few or far between in this game - on average there have been 2.27 goals per game in the Allsvenskan so far and neither of these teams have particularly prolific strikers at their disposal. Goal hotspots seem likely between 30 minutes and half plus the last ten minutes of the game so I'm tempted to try a couple of 'ten minute' cycles immediately after kick off. And if anyone's interested, my stopwatch is in the kitchen ;-)

Not sure how many articles I'll be able to post over the weekend as my mum is visiting, I'm going to see David James' first appearance for Bristol City on Saturday afternoon and Sunday is my wedding anniversary!