While most of us have lost track of the days over the Christmas period, New Year’s Eve falls on a Saturday this year, and as such there is a bumper day of Premier League action to look forward to. We look at the three best bets that could have you cracking open the champagne a bit before midnight.

Saturday sees the final round of Championship matches of 2011 and the sides jostling for position at the top of the table will all be desperate to end the year on a high. We’ll take a look at four key games and try to pick a winner or two (West Ham 6/4 – Championship Outright).

Now that the Indianapolis Colts have got their first win of the NFL season under the belts they will be looking to taste victory once again when they host the playoff-bound Houston Texans on Thursday (Texans 4/11, Colts 11/5 Match Betting).

Tuesday night marks the start of the cliché-ridden ‘busy festive period’ as four sets of Premier League players put aside wrapping presents to concentrate on more important matters. The big game takes place at Ewood Park as Blackburn entertain Bolton, while Wolves host Norwich in the night’s other fixture.

Darts fans are treated to eight live matches from the Alexandra Palace on day three of the World Darts Championship with Ronnie Baxter and Paul Nicholson both in action in London.

Tottenham Hotspur could have a thankless night ahead of them when travel across the Irish Sea to take on Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League on Thursday (Shamrock 6/1, draw 7/2, Spurs 4/9 in the match betting).

After their superb El Clasico victory over Real Madrid on Saturday, Barcelona has flown to Japan to take part in the Club World Cup and face an opening semi-final against a talented Al-Sadd side (Barcelona 1/33 in the match betting).

A sprinkling of players from the European Tour will join up with their counterparts from Asia this week at the Thailand Golf Championship. A few star names are missing but Lee Westwood is favourite and will be looking to end his season on a high (Westwood 9/2 Tournament Outright).

Stoke City are to be joined by Manchester City and Manchester United in the Uefa Europa League round of 32, but 19 other teams will compete for the remaining nine places on Wednesday and Thursday.

Manchester City face their next big test in the Premier League campaign this season when they travel to Stamford Bridge on Monday evening to take on Chelsea.