I've decided I don't like Meydan and preferred the old Nad Al Sheba. I backed two De Kock horses that both got placed, but didn't win. Frosty Secret's third place in the opener netted me a £40 profit, while Imbongi's second place a few hours later netted me another £20. What's he moaning about I hear you say? Well, Zirconeum looked like a De Kock good thing in the 5.45pm race and I thought I was nicking £180 by buying £10 at 32 on the index. In fact it turned out that I was losing £320 as it failed to make the frame.

Things got worse in the next when Calming Influence was also run out of the frame having looked booked for a place at worse, while Swinging Sixties ran a very similar race in the finale. It had all gone horribly wrong. Sheikh Mohammed may be £1 billion down on his Meydan project, but I'm over £500 down on mine.

Onto the Huddersfield v Bradford game and things did improve as my £20 buy of the hosts' supremacy at 6 never really looked in danger as they quickly raced into a 12-0 lead. They eventually held on to win by that very margin and I managed to salvage back £120 before a very busy weekend.

What have Anak, Tchico Polos, Erzen and Exmoor Ranger all got in common? The answer is they all ran at Sandown, they all came second and more importantly, they were all backed by yours truly! Luckily, when you are buying horses on the spreads that aren't hot favourites, you can still make a decent profit even if they don't win. I still made £120 buying all the beasts above which was good news… if only Doncaster had been abandoned for a second successive week, I'd have ended the day up!

Iolith was expected to go 'very close' in their opener and I duly bought £10 at 18. Sadly, finishing a remote ninth beaten over 35 lengths wasn't as close as I (or my bank manager) had hoped. Bedlam Boy ran its heart out in the next but found Tazbar too good – no real damage done though.

Then came disaster! They say that you should never believe what you read in the papers and 'they' are right. I really fancied backing Kalahari King to win the feature, but was put off by Ferdy Murphy saying the 'jockey wouldn't be hard on him' and 'they'd be delighted if he finished fifth or sixth'. As a result I sided with Leo's Lucky Star and the rest, as 'they' say is history. Kalahari King bolted up, Leo's Lucky Star tipped up and I now have to cough up!

The one place you don't want to go after being thumped at home by Manchester United is Stamford Bridge, but unfortunately for Arsenal, that's where the fixture list sent them. I fancied selling Chelsea supremacy, but wasn't feeling that confident after a few disappointments over at Leopardstown. Weapon's Amnesty, my big Cheltenham Festival fancy, ran alright in the Novice Chase without setting the world alight. Anyway, his big day is the RSA Chase on Wednesday 17th March… put that in your betting diary!

However, the big disappointment was Money Trix in the Hennessy who was never really given a chance. I thought Davy Russell should have gone on when it was clear they were going no pace as he was one of the only runners with no stamina worries. Anyway, he didn't and he couldn't quicken in the straight and finished sixth. It cost me £260!

The Hennessy finished only a few minutes before the Arsenal game started and I was still deciding on whether to sell Chelsea supremacy when Drogba gave them a 7th minute lead! In fact, when he doubled their lead shortly afterwards, I stepped in and sold total goals in the game at 4.1 for £100. What was the worse that could happen… 5-0?

I didn't watch the rest of the game and I must have been the only Arsenal fan relatively pleased to switch on with a handful of minutes left and see the score still 2-0. It would have been a strange feeling if Arsenal had been 4-2 in front a la Bolton!

The first three hours of Monday 8th February were spent watching the Super Bowl. It was an epic contest and seemed to fly by. The benefit of having loads of rushing and receiving match bets is that you are gripped by every play – the bad thing about the game being played at such a horrendous hour is that it gets harder and harder to remember what's good and what's bad.

I sold £5 of Garcon/Henderson at 10 in a receiving yards match bet and my man Henderson was up by about 70 yards moving late into the third quarter. Sadly, Manning started to find Garcon and they finished in front by three yards and in so doing, turned a £300+ profit into a £35 one. I had more joy selling Wade over Colston at 5 for the same stake. Wade had only received one pass for 5 yards deep into the second half and even though he rallied, he still lost out by 37 yards and I made £210.

The most frustrating bet of the whole night for me was I had a decent fixed-odds crack on Thomas to rush over 85.5 yards… he finished the game on exactly 85 yards! I was literally this.................................................. far away from winning a fortune.

I came out of retirement and played 5-a-side football in the evening. I can confirm that I have lost the 5 yards of pace that I never had…. but still enjoyed it. I was blowing like Thomas The Tank Engine after about 10 minutes… I don't want to know what my player performance make-up would have been – I cannot remember many successful completed passes to a team mate in the opposition half!

Over Sixty nearly won by over sixty lengths at Market Rasen but even I wasn't going to be buying horses in their forties on a spread index! In fact, I didn't have a bet on any of the football action in the evening either… like the Chester team, I decided not to get aboard the 'punting' team bus!

Everyone expects a high scorer at the Emirates, but I'm convinced it will be a tight affair and have sold £150 of goals at 2.5. Yes, previous games against Liverpool have seen plenty of goals (you may not hear from me again if tonight's game finishes 4-4), but both teams have struggled in front of goal of late. Famous last words...