We’re approaching the end of the first quarter of the Premier League season with the 20 sides in the division all playing their ninth matches over the weekend as another round of fixtures are played out.
Eight of those matches come on a rare bumper Saturday of football, a Saturday which sees the three sides immediately chasing leaders Man City in action while the bottom of the table could also take shape over the course of the day.
Early Kick Off
The action begins down in the south as Spurs look to move to the top of the table when they head to Bournemouth to face Eddie Howe’s inconsistent side. That said Bournemouth won 6-1 last time out so if they don’t carry confidence into this game then they never will.
3pm Matches
We have six matches kicking off at the traditional time this week with Arsenal hosting Middlesbrough at the Emirates, Burnley welcoming Everton to Turf Moor, Hull and Stoke meeting at the KC, champions Leicester facing Crystal Palace at the King Power along with Swansea playing Watford in Bob Bradley’s first home game in charge and West Ham playing Sunderland at the London Stadium.
Late Game
As ever we have won late game in the Premier League on Saturday and it sees Liverpool looking to make up for Monday night’s disappointment when they take on a West Brom side who are on a run of three 1-1 draws in a row.
Betting
I’ve settled for two bets in this set of matches although I was tempted by Leicester and West Ham but having looked at it they are both a little short given their recent form so I have passed them over for two what I believe are safer picks.
The first one is Arsenal who look set to cover a 1.5 handicap against Middlesbrough. I wondered if Middlesbrough would be able to cut it at this level when they came up and the evidence suggests that they have been found out and on the road they look particularly at sea. In four away games, including trips to West Ham and Sunderland, they have mustered a paltry eight shots on target so Arsenal might not be tested too much defensively.
Arsenal are in the middle of an excellent run of form at the minute which has seen them win their last seven matches in all competitions. Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Theo Walcott are all in excellent form and I’m expecting this to be a tough afternoon for the Boro defence.
The other match I like is the Burnley vs Everton match. This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned how tight Burnley matches are at Turf Moor and how hard they are to beat here. The bare statistics have them 2-1-2 but realistically they could easily have been 3-1-1 as Hull scored in the 95th minute to equalise there and Arsenal scored a 93rd minute winner which had so much wrong with it that Burnley were hard done by.
Everton’s season has currently hit the skids with a defeat and two draws in their last three matches but they have retained their solid defensive record and even free scoring Man City could only find the net once against them last week. Everton have the second best defence in the league while Burney have only conceded three times in five matches. Under 2.5 goals looks a particularly likely chance here.
Tips
Back Arsenal (-1.5AH) to beat Middlesbrough for a 4/10 stake at 1.78 with 188bet
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Back Burnley vs Everton – Under 2.5 goals for a 4/10 stake at 1.81 with Unibet
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