Two sides who will be looking upwards in the Championship table rather than down it meet in the final match of the weekend when QPR host Brentford in a London derby on Monday night, with quite a reward available to the home side.
QPR will move up to second in the table should they come out on top in the match but Brentford are quietly improving to the tune of them moving into the top half if they avoid defeat at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium.
QPR
I don’t think it is doing anyone a disservice to suggest that QPR are the surprise packages in the Championship this season. They have been struggling to remain in the division in recent times but have taken it by storm this time around under the wonderful tutelage of Mark Warburton, a man who comes up against his former club here. He has introduced a wonderful attacking brand of football to Rangers and it is really working.
Although I like to focus on the positives when I preview football matches, we can’t ignore the negative around Rangers as it is significant here. That comes in the form of their defence which is far too open and as a result only Luton and the bottom two have conceded more goals than them and they’ve obviously played a game more. That needs patching up if Rangers are to go anywhere this term but they are more than capable of doing things if that does happen.
Brentford
One of the surprises of the early part of the season was the struggle of Brentford. Obviously losing Neal Maupay as late in the window as they did was a blow but I still expected more of them to begin with. Often in sport it isn’t how you start but how you finish and the Bees look like they have recovered from that slow beginning and are starting to warm up nicely. They have won three of their last five and drawn another.
One area where Brentford have been strong has been defensively where they have only conceded 11 goals in their 13 matches despite five defeats. They have only scored 15 though and Ollie Watkins has eight of them so they need to find other goal options to support him but they play a nice brand of football and you would think that will happen naturally sooner rather than later.
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Team News
QPR will be forced into a change from the 2-2 draw with Reading last week. Jordan Hugill picked up a fifth booking of the campaign in that match so he is suspended for this one. Bright Osayi-Samuel is expected to be the man to replace him.
Brentford may well select from an unchanged side after successive victories, with this match being on the Monday night meaning that Thomas Frank doesn’t have to worry about any fitness issues like those who played on Saturday did.
Betting
This is a derby type match so it will be interesting to see who comes out on top especially with both sides having a lot of foreign players in their ranks who might not get the meaning of the match but I’m not too worried about picking the winner because the better bet here comes in the goals rather than the match outcome.
Nine of the last 10 QPR matches have covered 2.5 goals and the one that didn’t against West Brom did everything but cover it. Three of the last five Brentford games have also contained more than three goals. Only three sides have leaked more goals than QPR this season but only the top two have scored more than them. Brentford are starting to find a groove in front of goal so I like over 2.5 goals in this one.
Tips
WON – Back Over 2.5 goals for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Betway
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