The two teams who are a game behind everyone else in the Premier League catch up with the rest on Tuesday evening when Luton Town play host to Burnley at Kenilworth Road in a game which was postponed earlier in the season.
Luton picked up their first win in the Premier League at the weekend, something which Burnley are still looking for. Both sides played in the Championship last term and their meetings were competitive so this should be a good one but sadly there is no UK TV coverage.
Luton Town
Despite being ridiculed and written off by the outside world this season, Luton Town have improved with every match they have played in their first Premier League campaign and finally got the elusive win they had been craving at Goodison Park on Saturday afternoon. They could very easily have won the two matches prior to that so despite the last coverage of the Hatters from sound bite sharks, the Hatters are going along fine.
A win here would put four points between them and the relegation places which would be fairly significant. In their rise through the leagues Luton have always used Kenilworth Road to their advantage, especially under the floodlights, and they will be looking to do that in this match. The environment allows them to intimidate opponents with an athletic and direct style of play and if they can come out on top here they would be nicely set up.
Burnley
There was a lot of optimism and positive expectations from the wider world around Championship winners Burnley heading into this season but that hasn’t translated into results just yet with the Clarets picking up just one point from their opening six matches. That doesn’t look good but their five losses have come against Manchester United, Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Newcastle United – all top eight sides last season.
This would be an easier looking assignment on paper for Burnley but it comes with plenty of pressure on it because with Chelsea at the weekend, were they to lose this the Clarets could easily still be looking for their first win and eight games would have gone by. The big problem Burnley have had is how many goals they have conceded. They have conceded 15 goals in six matches which clearly isn’t a recipe for success.
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Team News
Rob Edwards has confirmed that Reece Burke and Tom Lockyer are available despite exiting the win over Everton prematurely at the weekend. The match is expected to come too soon for Ross Barkley while Albert Sambi Lokonga, Dan Potts, Gabe Osho and Jordan Clark are all injured.
Burnley will have centre-forward Lyle Foster back for this match after he has completed his three-match ban for his red card at Nottingham Forest. Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Nathan Redmond are expected to miss out but Manuel Benson could be available.
Betting
We are still early in the Premier League season but this does feel like an important match for these two. I wouldn’t say that the losers of it will be relegated or anything like that but the team that wins will certainly be allowed the luxury of looking at what is ahead more positively. I’m a little surprised that Burnley are the favourites for this match but that might just be the emotional bias within me taking over. I’ll leave the match betting alone and go with one in the side markets.
You can get almost 5/1 on Alfie Doughty to assist a goal in this match and that just looks too big to me. He and Chieo Ogbene down the Luton left have combined well recently and while teams are scared of the pace of the Ireland international it means he gets more attention than Doughty, who creates more chances than anyone in the Premier League per game this season according to the statistics. Burnley have conceded three goals from set plays this season and Doughty will be on all of those for Luton, who bagged from two of them at Everton at the weekend. A couple of other goals Burnley have conceded have been via crosses from the left so that 19/5 that Doughty delivers another assist feels too big to me.
Tips
Back A.Doughty 1+ Assist for a 1/10 stake at 5.75 with BetVictor
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