After the first ever Friday Night Football to kick off the Premier League weekend it is back to the usual three kick off times on Saturday as seven more matches take place in the top flight with the 14 sides looking to strengthen their positions in the early league table.
The opening weekend contained relatively few shocks and surprises with the title contenders all picking up results apart from Arsenal who were facing fellow title contenders and it will be interesting to see if they can all continue their good starts.
Early Kick Off
The opening game of the day comes from the Britannia Stadium where Stoke face Manchester City. Historically this hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for Man City with just one win in eight attempts in the Premier League.
City began life under Pep Guardiola with a win last week which they will aim to build on here while Stoke were held by Middlesbrough and get their home campaign underway in this match.
3pm Matches
There are five matches in the traditional 3pm slot. They are Burnley vs Liverpool in a match which should have been at Anfield but because of the refurbishment going on there had to be switched, Watford vs Chelsea in the second London derby in as many matches for Antonio Conte’s charges, Tottenham against Crystal Palace in the other match between two sides from the capital, West Brom vs Everton and Swansea vs Hull.
Late Game
The late game this week sees last season’s top two meeting when Leicester face Arsenal at the King Power. Leicester began their title defence with a defeat last week and will want to get off the mark here while Arsenal lost at home six days ago and they too will be looking to avoid back to back defeats. All eyes will be on Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy, supposed Arsenal targets throughout the summer.
Betting
With the big sides all being away from home and short prices apart from Tottenham who are in a derby this isn’t the easiest round to bet on. I’m not a backer of away sides at odds on so the match betting doesn’t really interest me. A couple of goals markets do though.
The first comes at Turf Moor where Burnley host a Liverpool side who looked dynamite going forward at Arsenal last week but shaky as anything when they were attacked themselves. Burnley didn’t have the start to the season they would like but I can let them have that. First games in a higher division than the season before are always big things.
I expect Burnley to be much better going forward here but with the best will in the world I’m not convinced they keep the back door shut against a very good attacking unit that Liverpool have. All of that suggests that over 2.5 goals is a strong runner in this one.
The other bet is in the Leicester vs Arsenal game where again I’m expecting goals. That looks pretty obvious given how awful Arsenal looked defensively last week but there is nothing wrong with an obvious bet now and again.
We know all about Leicester as an attacking threat but surprisingly their defence looked absolutely awful last week and if that continues then this could be one of those crazy high scoring matches. That was the case last season when the fixture ended 5-2 to Arsenal and while I’m not suggesting we’ll get anything like that number of goals here I do believe we’ll get three goals which would give us half a win and quite possibly a fourth to scoop the complete loot.
Tips
Back Burnley vs Liverpool – Over 2.5 goals for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfred
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Back Leicester vs Arsenal – Over 2.75 goals for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with 188bet
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