The Premier League weekend gets underway on Saturday when we have just over half of the division on show on a day where the leaders Liverpool look to have the chance to put even more pressure on their title rivals.
This is a usual Saturday where we have two TV matches to enjoy in the UK. Those matches bookend the day with four games at the traditional time also taking place. The non-televised matches will have updates in all the usual places.
Early Kick Off
The action begins at the City Ground where Nottingham Forest will look to bounce back from their horrendous result last week when they host a Brighton and Hove Albion side who will be aiming to show that they haven’t been distracted by the ongoing transfer saga with Kaoru Mitoma. Forest still sit third in the table but a bunch of teams have closed up on them in the race for Champions League football next season so the Tricky Trees will be eyeing up a win here against a Brighton outfit who are still in the top half of the table despite their loss to Everton last week.
3pm Matches
We have four matches taking place at 3pm on Saturday afternoon and it is here where the leaders Liverpool will look to put nine points between themselves and the chasing pack for 24 hours at least when they make the journey to the Vitality Stadium to take on the biggest surprise package of the season so far in AFC Bournemouth, the form team in the league outside of the Reds. Newcastle United begin the day in fifth place but depending on what happens in the early game they could end it in third if they can come out on top against a Fulham side who have suddenly won just one of their last five in the Premier League.
The other two matches are going to have big implications on the bottom end of the Premier League table as the bottom two meet when Ipswich Town host Southampton. We are getting to the stage where Southampton have to win matches and anything else is no use to them. Ipswich aren’t there yet but they will recognise that this is a huge chance for three points. The two sides immediately above the drop zone also meet on Saturday when Everton will look to pull further clear of trouble when they host Leicester City, who will be looking to show that their win at Tottenham last weekend was no fluke.
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Late Game
We close out a decent day of football at Molineux where the two midlands clubs in the top flight battle it out when Wolverhampton Wanderers will aim to come out of the bottom three having dropped into it again last week. They host Aston Villa who will be out to show that there is life without Jhon Duran and pick up a three points which would catapult them right back into the deep end of the race for Champions League football next season. With the local derby vibes around this one we should be in for a competitive conclusion to the day.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of Saturday with the first one coming in the game which will get plenty of attention down at the Vitality Stadium where AFC Bournemouth take on Liverpool in a match I expect to be full of shots. These two sides are among the highest in the league for shots. When they met at Anfield in a 3-0 win for Liverpool there were 38 shots combined and with the way Bournemouth are playing right now we should see a 29.5 shots line covered here. Bournemouth are getting plenty of plaudits for their attacking play but they give up a lot of shots at the other end. Nottingham Forest had 18 shots against them last week and while game state was responsible for much of that, Forest aren’t the most attacking side in the world. Prior to that Bournemouth conceded 13 to Newcastle and 26 to Chelsea. Liverpool create chances by the bucket load but they too can be got at and with the style that these two adopt I expect shots to be flying in from all over the place and pretty regularly.
Sometimes there is a price you can’t ignore even though the side you are backing aren’t the best team in the world and that is the case for me with Ipswich Town this week. They are odds against to be a terrible Southampton side who are terrible in both boxes. Southampton have six points all season and while they have shown better things under the new boss they haven’t got rid of the ability to beat themselves and we saw that perfectly against Manchester United and Newcastle recently. Ipswich come into the match off the back of a couple of tonkings but Liverpool and Manchester City are the two best teams in the country when they are on it so I’m not going to hold that against them. With a full week to prepare for this one I expect Ipswich, who did the double over Southampton in the Championship last season, to show that they are the better team and come out on top here.
Tips
Back Bournemouth vs Liverpool – Over 29.5 match shots for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back Ipswich Town to beat Southampton for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with Coral
