The middle set of matches over the festive period in the Sky Bet Championship concludes on Friday evening when the remaining four games take place on another night where the table might have plenty of change over the course of it.
All four matches are live on the red button on Sky for those who have that service so those who aren’t going to one of the games will still be able to follow their bet should they have one over the course of the evening.
Friday’s fixtures are as follows: (All 7.45pm UK time)
Birmingham City v Hull City
Norwich City v Reading
Stoke City v Burnley
Swansea City v Watford
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Preview
It could be a big night at the top of the table on Friday evening. The leaders Burnley will look to restore their three point advantage at the summit and open up at least a 13 point gap on third place when they make the trip to the Bet365 Stadium to take on a Stoke City team who continue to edge closer to the relegation zone. Watford have the chance to move into third in the table but they will need to win on their travels as well. They take on Swansea City who will be hoping for a win to arrest a poor run of form.
Norwich City begin life without Dean Smith on Friday night and we might see just what the dressing room thought of him when they welcome a Reading team to Carrow Road who aren’t the best on their travels but might be catching the Canaries at the right time. The other match will see Birmingham City looking to bounce back from their defeat to the leaders Burnley on Tuesday evening when they host a Hull City team who are just two points above the drop now.
Betting
There was a feeling going around that Burnley were vulnerable to physical sides and while I wouldn’t say that their convincing win over Birmingham earlier in the week has put that to bed, it certainly shows that teams are going to offer more than just physicality against them and I’m not sure Stoke City have a huge amount more to bring to the party on Friday night so I fancy the best team in the division to continue to show why that is the case.
Burnley have enough squad depth to make changes to their side and not weaken it too much and they had a comfortable enough win on Tuesday that they could hook some players and keep them fresh for this one. Stoke aren’t performing great at home at the minute with their only win in their last five on their own patch coming against a Luton side who were distracted by the impending departure of their manager. Burnley have only lost two games all season and they were to Sheffield United and Watford who might yet be the two teams who follow them up to the Premier League. Stoke aren’t in that class so with the draw cover available on the leaders I’ll side with them here.
Tips
Back Burnley (-0.25AH) to beat Stoke City for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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