Premier League 15/16 Final Week Preview
Best Bets:
1.5 Pts on West Ham to win @ Stoke (6/5 Will Hill)
1.5 Pts on Chelsea to win vs Leicester (13/10 General)
1 Pt Alexis Sanchez to score 2 or more vs Aston Villa (19/5 Ladbrokes)
And so here we are, the final weekend of the season and surprisingly there is nothing to play for at the very top or very bottom of the table. We’ve known Leicester are Champions for just over a week now and Sunderland’s midweek win secured their Premier League status for another season as Big Sam worked his magic to survive the drop once more, confirming Newcastle and Norwich will join Villa in the Championship next season. The final Champions and Europa League places can still change but the tightest part of the league is between 11th and 16th.
So, as it is the final set of fixtures we are going to go fairly big on tips, with a quick thought first on what we expect from the games we aren’t tipping.
We’d expect Spurs to win at Newcastle and see the season out in 2nd, with both Manchester teams taking wins (City at Swansea, United home to Bournemouth) resulting in a City 4th, United 5th finish. Southampton could pip West Ham to 6th by defeating Palace at home, but that will depend on the Hammers’ result as Liverpool should end their season with 3 points and 7th place. Sunderland will look to continue their good run to the end of the season and finish strongly perhaps even looking fairly comfortable in their safety by defeating a lacklustre Watford side.
1.5 Pts on West Ham to win @ Stoke (6/5 Will Hill)
After closing out their time at the Boleyn Ground with a dramatic win against Manchester United, the Irons not only gave themselves a wonderful story to end on, but also gave themselves a realistic shot at ending the season in a European position. It would be well earned by West Ham and after coming up short in the FA Cup despite declaring that as their priority in the later rounds, they will now want to take European football to the Olympic Stadium next season. On the other hand Stoke have struggled for consistency the past few months and after looking like contenders for a top 6/7 position themselves, they are now seeing the season out in mid-table. West Ham have it all to play for while Stoke could be going through the motions to see out their final game, so an away win is a big possibility here.
1.5 Pts on Chelsea to win vs Leicester (13/10 General)
Although Chelsea haven’t got a great deal to play for, they have recently decided that pride means something to them and turned up for strong performances against Spurs and Liverpool. Although they lost at Sunderland, this weekend sees the Champions from last season end their poor defence of the title at home against the new, shock Champions of England and that is something that likely won’t sit well with Chelsea. Expect them to at least put some effort in to end the season at Stamford Bridge showing that this season was a blip and trying to make a point that next season they will be looking to overthrow Leicester and claim back their championship.
1 Pt Alexis Sanchez to score 2 or more vs Aston Villa (19/5 Ladbrokes)
Sanchez appears to have found some form again after shaking off the rust from his long injury stint and to put it simply, he is facing Aston Villa who have long given up hope of pleasing their fans. The odds aren’t the most generous that you will see, but he always wants to play 90 minutes and with Welbeck out and Ozil struggling for form and fitness of late, the chances are quite good that he will have at least 80 minutes in which to terrorise the dispirited Villa backline.