It was a pretty average week for the self-proclaimed ‘best league in the world’ in Europe so the Premier League could do with a decent weekend of exciting football to regain its credibility for such statements.
With that in mind there are seven matches in the English top flight on Saturday starting off at Stamford Bridge for the early kick off and finishing at the Etihad Stadium for the evening game. In between there are matches at Villa Park, the Goldsands Stadium, St James’ Park, Britannia Stadium and the Liberty Stadium.
The big match of the day sees Chelsea taking on Arsenal in the early kick off. Chelsea have started the season abysmally and desperately need a win to get their season back on track.
Arsenal haven’t been fantastic by any means this season but they have a couple of wins to their name and a platform to build on but this is their acid test because the thing that has held them back in the past has been their results in the matches against their fellow top sides.
Arsene Wenger has a horrendous record against Jose Mourinho. This time last week I’d have said he would never have had a better chance to get a win over the ‘Special One’ but Chelsea’s win in midweek might just have come at the right time for them and given them the confidence and belief to take that into the league.
Belief is very much the word for Arsenal. I don’t think they’ve believed they can win these big matches so that is their first step before they even think about actually winning. That won’t be easy though because they were away in Croatia in the Champions League on Wednesday night so preparation time has been limited.
I wasn’t going to bet on this game but Chelsea’s win in midweek was of an emphatic enough nature to tempt me in here especially with the price big enough to be able to take the draw no bet option on the Asian lines.
In the 3pm matches there isn’t a lot which takes my fancy. In fact of the five matches I’m only going to take one bet which is Leicester away at Stoke.
Stoke have begun the season pretty poorly and are still looking for a first league win. They are likely to have Bojan available for them here but Charlie Adam and Ibrahim Affelay remain suspended which isn’t ideal.
Leicester have been a breath of fresh air so far this season and in Riyad Mahrez have probably the player of the season so far. His trickery, attacking intent and goal threat have carried Leicester up the pitch and Stoke’s defence could crumble in the face of it.
Leicester are the outsiders for the match which is fair enough as they are on the road but they are playing with a freedom and purpose that I like and I’m happy to take them, again on the attractive Asian lines.
The late kick off sees Man City taking on West Ham. If I was going to bet it would be on goals but the line is rightly quite high and after City had a tough game in midweek and West Ham only played on Monday night the line is high enough to sway me from betting so I’ll stick with the two for Saturday.
Back Chelsea (0AH) to beat Arsenal for a 4/10 stake at 1.78 with BetVictor
Back Leicester (+0.25AH) to beat Stoke for a 4/10 stake at 1.88 with BetVictor
Blog football YTD: -24.58pts
