There are six matches in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday with the televised action coming from St Mary’s where Southampton host Everton in the lunchtime kick off.
The 3pm kickoffs see Sunderland hosting Norwich at the Stadium of Light. Swansea play Newcastle at the Liberty Stadium, Tottenham’s first home game of the season is against Stoke, Watford’s first home game back in the top flight sees them hosting West Brom and West Ham take on Leicester at Upton Park.
I don’t see a huge amount of value in the TV game if I’m honest. I might have taken Southampton if they were odds against but odds on does nothing for me this early in the season even though they are the more likely winners in my eyes. Both sides drew 2-2 last week which shows they both have frailties at the minute.
Swansea are another side who are odds on and again that is a little short for me at this stage of the campaign. In fairness they played well against Chelsea last week but they’re in the favourites role here and it will be interesting to see if they have the same freedom. I’m not sure what to make of Newcastle yet so I’ll leave that game alone.
Norwich could easily be considered value to beat a rotten looking Sunderland side based on last week’s evidence. Sunderland were well and truly seen off by Leicester while Norwich could easily have got a result out of Crystal Palace but for a controversial disallowed goal but you would think Sunderland would be up for this being their first home game of the season and I’ll tentatively swerve the Canaries in that one.
Spurs didn’t do much to impress me last week and neither did Stoke so they look like two sides who need some time to find their feet in the campaign. In fairness that one would look close even if both were up to speed so I’ll pass that one over although under 2.5 goals did tempt me but not enough to pull the trigger on.
It remains to be seen how West Brom will approach their game at Watford after Tony Pulis admitted he got it wrong against Man City on Monday night. Watford picked up a good point at Everton on the opening day and will be looking to build on that here. They might find West Brom hard to break down but this is another game where I’ve not really got a confident opinion.
I am confident on the other game though and I like West Ham to win this one. I think the Hammers have the makings of a good side these days. They were going well last season until injuries killed them but they already look capable of improving on that. They were excellent against Arsenal last week. They defended very well and attacked with pace and purpose through the excellent Dimitri Payet.
Leicester had a great win over Sunderland last week but Sunderland looked abject in that game and I can’t believe the Foxes won’t have been flattered by that result. It might be that over the course of the season they back that up but I fancy West Ham here. The Hammers boss Bilic has confirmed Diafra Sakho is good to lead his line and they have Carl Jenkinson available here too.
West Ham have a good record against Leicester having lost just one of their last eight meetings with them and that was back in April when the Hammers were already on the beach mentally. I fancy them to extend that good record with a win here but as ever this early in the season I’ll play safely and take some draw cover on the Asian markets.
Back West Ham (-0.25AH) to beat Leicester for a 4/10 stake at 1.97 with Bet365
