The biggest weekend of the Premier League season so far begins on Saturday when a total of eight matches take place up and down the country on a day where we might get a clearer picture for a number of sides.
We are back to a normal Saturday over here in the UK with the day bookended by the two TV matches. There are six other games in the traditional 3pm slot and as people will know by now they are updated in the usual places.
Early Kick Off
We have a London derby to kick off the action on Saturday as West Ham United welcome Chelsea to the London Stadium. West Ham look to be improving and will want to offer their best showing of the season so far in this match while Chelsea will be looking to get another three points on their total ahead of some of the trickier matches coming along and before they begin playing Thursday and Sunday once their Europa Conference League campaign gets underway. Throw in the dislike these two sets of fans have for each other and we should get a competitive game.
3pm Matches
There are six matches in total in the 3pm matches on Saturday and the highest placed team on show are Newcastle United. They can actually go top of the table for just over 24 hours if they can go to Craven Cottage and beat a Fulham side who could do with a morale boosting win. Liverpool are the other team who are likely to be pushing for a Champions League space this season playing in this time slot. AFC Bournemouth are the visitors to Anfield.
Aston Villa are on the crest of a wave at the minute and they will be looking to build on that when Wolverhampton Wanderers are the visitors to Villa Park while elsewhere, Tottenham Hotspur will look to quieten down the doubters when they host Brentford while four relegation favourites meet with Leicester City hosting an Everton side who can’t seem to keep hold of a 2-0 lead at the King Power Stadium. Southampton host Ipswich Town in a huge game for both sides at St Mary’s.
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Late Game
We head back to the capital for the final match of the day as Selhurst Park welcomes the TV cameras when Crystal Palace, who have heavily flattered to deceive coming out of the traps this season, host a Manchester United side who aren’t as bad as the hype makes them out to be but who have a shocking performance never a million miles away. Palace probably need a win for their own confidence while United can never afford a defeat so we should get a decent finish to what looks to be a good day of football.
Betting
I like a couple of bets over the course of the day in the Premier League with both of them coming in the 3pm matches. The first one is for Aston Villa to cover a -1 Asian handicap against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Wolves were a bit unlucky against Newcastle last week when the Magpies scored a pair of worldies to beat them but the problem they have here is Villa have the players who can score great goals. They also have a front line which looks in imperious form at the minute and if there is another issue regarding Wolves it is that they are struggling to create big chances. Their xG in their opening four games this season is just 4.4 according to Fotmob and almost half of that came in that crazy game against Chelsea last month. The big positive for Villa is that if Ollie Watkins doesn’t get you Jhon Duran can and between them I expect them to have too much for Wolves.
The other bet I like is over 2.5 goals in the match between the two promoted sides Southampton and Ipswich Town. Southampton ended up being resoundingly beaten by Manchester United last weekend but the opening half an hour was pretty much one-way traffic in their direction but they failed to put the ball in the back of the net. They will be without Jack Stephens for this one too so they are going to need to rotate their defensive personnel. Southampton do have big chances in them and when you consider that no team have coughed up a worse xGA than Ipswich this season, albeit they have played Liverpool and Man City, you’ve got to think Southampton will threaten here. The Tractor Boys did a bit of a bus parking job on Brighton last week but I doubt they can approach this one in the same fashion because this is a genuine chance of three points and there aren’t many of those for newly promoted sides in this league these days. Ipswich have a decent forward line when you consider they scored for fun in the Championship last season and have added the top scorer from that division to their ranks in Sammie Szmodics and with Championship no better than a Championship side defensively I think the goals can flow in this one.
Tips
Back Aston Villa (-1AH) to beat Wolverhampton Wanderers for a 3/10 stake at 1.93 with Bet365
Back Southampton vs Ipswich Town – Over 2.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.86 with Bet365
