The latest round of matches in the Premier League kicked off on Friday night but another six fixtures take place on the final day of action in 2022 on Saturday on a day where the title race and the scrap to avoid the drop is in the spotlight.
As ever on a Saturday we have two TV matches to enjoy across the three kick off times and there are all the usual ways of keeping up to date with the other games at 3pm which aren’t available to watch on UK TV.
Early Kick Off
The action begins at Molineux where Julen Lopategui has his first home Premier League match as Wolverhampton Wanderers manager when he looks to build on the Boxing Day victory over Everton. They host a Manchester United side who resumed their season in good touch with a comfortable 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Tuesday evening and who will be looking to back that up and close in on the top four ahead of the break for the FA Cup third round next weekend.
3pm Matches
We have four matches in the traditional 3pm slot and the focus of attention will be on the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City look to move to within two points of leaders Arsenal for a few hours at least when they welcome troubled Everton to the home of the champions. While they are battling it out, Newcastle United will be looking to stay up with the pace. They finish 2022 at home to a Leeds United side who haven’t been helped out by the schedule at all this week.
Two other matches take place in this kick off slot and it is a big one for Southampton when Nathan Jones takes his Southampton side to Craven Cottage hoping to make a much better fist of things than his last trip there when his Luton Town side were beaten 7-0 by Fulham. Fulham could move up to seventh with a win for a few hours at least. The other match comes from the Vitality Stadium where Bournemouth and Crystal Palace will go in search of first wins since the restart.
Late Game
The action for 2022 concludes at the Amex Stadium where Brighton and Hove Albion will look to make it two from two since the World Cup break when they play host to the leaders Arsenal in what should be a really entertaining game given the way the two sides play. Arsenal are guaranteed to go into 2023 on top of the table and their lead at the top will be at least five points with a win here. Brighton will hope to keep on the tails of the top six with a win of their own though.
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Betting
I’ll chance my arm with three bets over the course of Saturday and they all come in those 3pm matches. Firstly I’ll take an outrageous stab at Everton to beat Manchester City. I’ll be honest, I think Everton will either get stuffed or they’ll nick a win and I’ll put the case forward for the latter at a massive 25/1. Firstly, no team had more players at the World Cup than Man City and a good portion of those made the quarter finals and beyond. Secondly, Everton played at 3pm on Boxing Day and City, who were involved in cup action last Thursday, played on Wednesday night some 53 hours later. That is a big recovery advantage for Everton. It could be argued that they need it but I’ve had a look at the City record on a short turnaround this season. They have played five matches on a Wednesday to Saturday turnaround and their Saturday results were 1-1 at Villa, 3-0 at Wolves, 4-0 at home to Southampton, 2-1 vs Fulham and a 2-1 home defeat to Brentford. So 10 points from 15 which isn’t drastic but the win against Fulham needed an injury time penalty winner while Wolves shot themselves in the foot after a minute and Southampton were behind inside 20 minutes. Clearly City are going to have to make changes here, even more so with an eye on a huge league game at Chelsea on Thursday night, so if Everton, who have Conor Coady back for this one and who I expect to defend deep and sit tight, can get to the half hour mark on level terms they might find a way of hurting City with the pace on the counter as City start to get frustrated. If we think back to last season Everton would have held Pep’s men at Goodison Park but for a ridiculous VAR decision and so with City not altogether convincing off the back of these games in quick succession I’ll pay to see if Frank Lampard can come up with the plan to deliver the goods against his old club.
The other two bets are much stronger fancies where I’ll take on the other team who are massively inconvenienced by that Wednesday night game. That is Leeds United, who like City have a 53 hour recovery disadvantage on their opponents here. That opponent is Newcastle United who have won eight of their last nine in the Premier League with a draw at Old Trafford the one game they didn’t win. Unlike City, Leeds don’t have the luxury of rotating too many of their squad, not without severely weakening the side anyway. The other issue Leeds have is they spent 95 minutes chasing City around Elland Road so they are entitled to be a jaded side here. This Newcastle team don’t concede many goals and Leeds can’t seem to stop conceding chances. To be fair, chances come regularly enough for Newcastle anyway. They average more than 17 shots per game at home and pierced the Manchester City defence three times here earlier in the season. Leeds did go to Liverpool and pull off a real shock prior to the World Cup but the lack of recovery time they have had and the quality Newcastle are playing with I see only a comfortable home win here.
I also can’t ignore the even money on Fulham to beat Southampton. Nathan Jones has got a real job on his hands to turn Southampton around who if we are being honest were pathetic against Brighton on Boxing Day. There are already rumours of a rift in the camp and I don’t see the former Luton boss turning things around until we get to January. The big problem for Southampton this season has been keeping goals out of their net with only the promoted duo of AFC Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest conceding more than their 30 this season. To be fair, Fulham aren’t exactly watertight having leaked 26 goals themselves but they have kept three clean sheets in their last six with the three teams to score against them in that time being the free scoring Leeds United, Manchester City and Manchester United. Southampton aren’t in that league going forward or even close to it. Aleksandar Mitrovic and co should be licking their lips going up against this Saints defence while Jones knows the last time he managed on this ground he lost 7-0. I doubt he’ll lose 7-0 here but I do expect him to come away empty handed again.
Tips
Back Everton to beat Manchester City for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with BetVictor
Back them here:
Back Newcastle (-1.25AH) to beat Leeds United for a 3/10 stake at 1.98 with Bet365
Back Fulham (-0.5AH) to beat Southampton for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
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