After a wonderful Good Friday of EFL action, the attention turns to the Premier League on Saturday when the competition returns from the international break with eight matches over the course of an extended day of football.
Usually we would have two TV matches on a Saturday but with this being a bank holiday weekend and with a midweek fixture list to come we have a third one on what is one of the busier days of Premier League action of the campaign.
Early Kick Off
We do still have an early kick off on Saturday and that comes from St James’ Park where West Ham United have the incredibly long journey for the lunchtime date with Newcastle United. All eyes will be on West Ham in this match to see where their focus lies as they probably aren’t going to force their way into the major European places and they have what they would consider a derby against Tottenham on Tuesday night and a huge Europa League clash with Bayer Leverkusen on the horizon. Newcastle aren’t playing for anything now either and have plenty of injuries to deal with so this is an intriguing opener to the day.
3pm Matches
We have five matches taking place at the traditional 3pm slot on Saturday and it is Tottenham Hotspur who are the highest placed side on show. They will be looking to move into the top four for a few hours at least when they host Luton Town, who came out of the bottom three when Nottingham Forest picked up their point deduction in the international break. Forest will be looking to get three of those four points back when they entertain Crystal Palace in another of the 3pm matches.
That leaves us with three other games and in terms of the bottom of the table there is interest in all three. Everton have a charge which could lead to another point deduction hanging over them so they will be looking for points from their trip to AFC Bournemouth while Burnley are suddenly back in the survival picture. They head to the capital for a clash with Chelsea, with bottom of the table Sheffield United hosting Fulham in the other game.
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Late Games
This is where the day looks a bit different as we have a couple of late matches on Saturday evening. The first one comes from Villa Park where Aston Villa will look to keep hold of their top four spot when they host a Wolverhampton Wanderers side who will have plenty of attention on them to see how they bounce back from that devastating cup defeat to Coventry prior to the international break. The last match of the day takes us back to the capital for the clash between Brentford and Manchester United. The home side will be looking to ease their relegation concerns while the visitors will be looking to launch a push for the top four.
Betting
This is one of those cards which you looked at and thought there might be a few bets that materialised but then when the odds and the lines came out there is only really one which interests me and we have to wait until right at the end of the day for it to come along as Brentford host Manchester United in a match where I am expecting to see the goal line of three comfortably covered inside the 90 minutes.
I have mentioned before the struggles that Brentford are having to keep the ball out of the back of their net and in 11 of their last 13 matches they have conceded two or more, including to Burnley before the international break and if there was any composure about Burnley at all in the penalty box they could have had a lot more. I’ve never thought things were as doom and gloom with United as was made out but they haven’t kept a clean sheet in six away games, which includes trips to Nottingham Forest and Luton, and they might not have Harry Maguire for this one. Brentford are without Ethan Pinnock and Sergio Reguilon for this one so this feels like a match where the offensive players will shine. There have been three or more goals in four of the five Premier League matches between these two so we would have got a push in 80% of the games and I’m expecting at least that here but I fancy more goals to give us a full win.
Tips
Back Brentford vs Man Utd – Over 3 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
