The plethora of European action in midweek means there are just six matches in the Premier League on Saturday but with both Manchester clubs in action it is still another important day in the competition.
The six games begin with the early kick off which sees Norwich hosting Everton at Carrow Road. Four 3pm matches see Man City facing managerless Swansea, Crystal Palace taking on Southampton at Selhurst Park, Stoke travelling to West Ham and Sunderland going up against Watford. The day concludes with Bournemouth welcoming Man Utd to town.
I actually like a bet in the early match and I’m going to take the home side on. Norwich are just starting to fade a little bit and will be eager to get to January where they can reinforce.
Everton’s results probably aren’t worthy of what they have deserved all told in recent times. They should have beaten Bournemouth a couple of weeks ago and how they didn’t beat Crystal Palace only they will know but they are looking really good going forward and I think they will have too much for Norwich in this one.
In truth I can’t find a lot I like in the matches between Palace and Southampton as well as Sunderland against Watford so I’m going to leave them alone and focus on the other two matches which begin at 3pm.
Man City will be buoyed by their Champions League result in midweek and have the ideal chance to follow that up against a woefully out of form and low in confidence Swansea side.
Swansea finally relieved Garry Monk of his duties in midweek but they haven’t got a new manager in at the time of writing so I’m not sure a huge amount will change this weekend. Even if it does they need such an improvement that it might be too much for them anyway.
City are still troubled by injuries but Kevin de Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Yaya Toure are fit and three of the better players in the league and that trio can have too much for a Swansea side who are getting opened up much more and much easier than we have become accustomed too in recent times.
Another side who are troubled by injuries are West Ham and unlike Man City I’m not sure the Hammers will cope with them.
Dimitri Payet and Diafra Sakho’s injuries were unfortunate but now Manuel Lanzini, Victor Moses and Winston Reid have joined the injured list so that is a good number of first teamers West Ham will be without.
They take on a Stoke side who should be buzzing after their win over Man City last week and with the front three of Arnautovic, Bojan and Shaqiri beginning to show us all their technical skills I’m liking the Potters here.
Stoke are usually pretty strong defensively which is a massive bonus and I’m not sure they should be such clear outsiders in this match. On the draw no bet line they look a really tasty bet given the men missing for their opponents.
I’m going to leave the final game of the day alone. I find United games hard to call at the best of times and with them under huge pressure after their Champions League exit in midweek this doesn’t feel like the time to get involved in their game.
Back Everton (0AH) to beat Norwich for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
Back Man City (-1.5AH) to beat Swansea for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with Bet365
Back Stoke (0AH) to beat West Ham for a 4/10 stake at 2.12 with BetVictor
Blog football YTD: -42.87pts
