The Weekend Preview – Value Bets in the Premier League and Beyond (Part 2)

*All odds courtesy of William Hill and Sporting Bet*

Saturday, August 25 (Kick Off 3PM)

Southampton v Wigan

Southampton will be absolutely buzzing after last Sunday’s encounter with Manchester City. Admittedly, the result wasn’t quite what they were after, but the performance did more than enough to suggest the Saints are going to feel right at home in the big league.

They’ll be looking to open their account at St Mary’s with a win, and standing in their way is a Wigan side that dies little to inspire confidence.  If their main man Victor Moses joins Chelsea in the coming days, then Roberto Martinez’s men will be right up against it.

The Verdict: We really fancy Southampton here, so the 21/20 represents a great addition to an accumulator. And whilst he didn’t start against Citeh, expect Rickie Lambert to get the nod to lead the Saints’ line, and 9/2 for him to be First Goalscorer is unmissable value.

Sunderland v Reading

Sunderland put in a ‘backs to the wall’ performance last time out against Arsenal, and secured a decent point. They’ll need to do better though if they are to see off a resistant Reading side playing their third game of the week, and one that is well marshalled by Brian McDermott.

The Black Cats will probably start with Steven Fletcher, and the Scot is capable of finding the net when given an opportunity. As is Pavel Pogrebnyak, who has already opened his account for the campaign.

The Verdict: This will be a good scrap we reckon. Both Teams to Score is a great shout if you’re working on a Goals Galore coupon (10/11), and what about this: Ian Harte to Score Anytime, 7/1. The lad still hits a mean dead-ball you know.

Tottenham v West Brom

Old Andre Villas-Boas will be hoping that the signing of Emmanuel Adebayor can rejuvenate his Spurs, who frankly looked distinctly average against Newcastle on Sunday. Another week of blending together in AVB’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation in training should have worked wonders.

West Brom sprung a bit of a shock in turning over Liverpool last weekend, but it has to be said they were good value for it. Steve Clarke has seemingly moulded them into a decent outfit – and with Romelu Lukaku leading the line, they have a real cutting edge in front of goal.

The Verdict: The bookies really don’t fancy West Brom to score first in this one. In fact, Peter Odemwingie is out as long as 9/1 - worth a flutter. And the draw price of 3/1 looks tempting too.

Saturday, August 25 (Kick Off 5:30PM)

Chelsea v Newcastle

Chelsea have got off to a flying start this season, although they were given a bit of a scare by Reading on Wednesday night. One of the components of their lively start has been Eden Hazard, who has assisted in five of his side’s six goals (two of which were penalties).

Newcastle boast the African goalscoring duo of Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse, as well as a revitalised Hatem Ben Arfa. So they are more than capable of troubling the scorer themselves. But stopping the attacking jewels in Chelsea’s crown could be a tough task.

The Verdict: We can certainly see both team’s scoring in this one, so Goals Galore exponents think on. But we’re going to be mischievous and say that Chelsea will win another penalty in this game (11/4), and that it will be converted by Frank Lampard either first (6/1) or anytime (7/4).

The Route One Home Banker Treble

We are backing Middlesbrough (Crystal Palace), Notts County (Walsall) and Morecambe (Port Vale). A £10 stake returns £70.

The Route One Away Day Double

We are backing Cardiff (at Bristol City), and Yeovil (at Scunthorpe). A £10 stake returns £75.

The Weekend Preview – Value Bets in the Premier League and Beyond (Part 1)

*All odds courtesy of William Hill and Sporting Bet*

Saturday, August 25 (Kick Off 12:45PM)

Swansea v West Ham

Swansea will be looking to build on their 5-0 demolition of QPR in Gameweek 1 as they take their season’s bow at the Liberty Stadium. They will be hoping for a repeat performance of last weekend, where the midfield guild of Michu and Jonathan De Guzman combined with the pace and trickery of Nathan Dyer and Wayne Routledge.

Expect West Ham to put up a better fight than their London counterparts though. Last season they were better on their travels than on home turf, and the Hammers are – technically - unbeaten in 10 games. They are compact, hard to break down, and will play mostly on the counter attack against the Swans.

The Verdict: We fancy Swansea will sneak a narrow win (21/10), and the odds for Under 1.5 Goals (23/10) look great value. This looks like a coupon buster though, so steer clear if you are plotting an accumulator.

Saturday, August 25 (Kick Off 3PM)

Aston Villa v Everton

Already there are grumbles of discontent at Villa Park, with a seeming lack of transfer activity thus far, as well as a poor run of form spanning back to the end of last season. The Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert will be pinning his hopes on fit again striker Darren Bent to fire his side into some kind of form.

Everton meanwhile will be on Cloud Nine following their hard-fought 1-0 win over Manchester United on Monday night. David Moyes has done what David Moyes always does – put together a squad that is tough, battle-hardened and hard to beat. They now have a potent goal threat too, in the shape of gangly Croat Nikica Jelavic.

The Verdict: We can imagine this game following a very similar pattern to the Swansea v West Ham game earlier in the day. This time though, we’re predicting an away win (29/20) but again we’re looking at a low-scoring affair, with Under 1.5 Goals priced at 21/10 with Sporting Bet.

Man Utd v Fulham 

Sir Alex Ferguson was left to rue his side’s lack of attacking threat in the loss at Goodison Park, which is ironic considering the wealth of attacking options at his disposal. Another concern is in defence, where injury continues to plague his side. 

Fortunately, his side have an exceptional record against Fulham at Old Trafford, who usually get a good spanking there. Martin Jol’s men come into this game though full of confidence, following their 5-0 rout of Norwich last time out.

The Verdict: United will be looking to bounce back from their Evertonian humbling, and with Sir Alex expected to pick both Wayne Rooney and Robin Van Persie in his starting eleven, things could get messy.

We really liked the look of Shinji Kagawa last week, the Japanese international looks tailor-made for the Premiership. He is 2/1 to Score Anytime with William Hill, and a final score of 3-1 is nicely priced at 10/1, which is worth a cheap single bet in its own right.

Norwich v QPR

What an interesting encounter this could be. Both teams got thumped 5-0 last week, so will have been working hard in training on tightening up their back lines (oooh matron!). QPR have had all hands on deck this week bringing in defensive reinforcements too, although at the time of writing only Ricardo Carvalho looks likely to be signed in time.

We do worry for Norwich a bit. They are a decent side at Carrow Road, which is probably due to the 20,000 East Anglians’ vocal support. But Second Season Syndrome can hit hard, particularly when a lack of fresh faces have been brought in.

The Verdict: We are backing an Away Win for Mark Hughes’s men, which is generously priced at 2/1 with SB. Whatever your predilection you can expect goals – and the 4-5 Goal Band (13/5) looks as enticing as a night on the tiles with Beyonce.

Stay tuned for Part 2 for our look at the best football betting value this weekend.