Lukaku to Score Again
Best Bets:
1 Pt on Score/Win double: Sanchez to score/Arsenal to win @ Hull (12/5 Ladbrokes)
1.5 Pts on Romelu Lukaku anytime scorer in Everton v Middlesbrough (7/5 Betfair)
0.5 Pts on Stoke to win @ Palace (16/5 Bet Victor & Betfred)
This week looks a tough one for value in our opinion, with many teams well favoured over their opponents. Manchester City are rightly strong favourites over Bournemouth, with their handicap market widely set at a standard of -2. While this is quite possible given their great form to start the season, needing a 3 goal victory is not worth a play. Manchester United away at Watford is also worth a look, but with general odds of 4/7 we feel that Watford’s steady start leaves that bet not worth the risk of stake vs return. Spurs at home to Sunderland with odds of 10/29 just doesn’t have the value we want to find for you. Chelsea at home over evens is good value, but again the risk is too great as the unpredictability of Liverpool wouldn’t cause any real surprise, whether the outcome was a walkover for either team or an extremely tight encounter. As this is a tough week on the standard win markets, we have looked deeper into the matches and are happy to go with a few that we think should bring in a return, as well as some good value and fortune to not only this weekend’s tips, but will push our season long tips in the right direction.
1 Pt on Score/Win double: Sanchez to score/Arsenal to win @ Hull (12/5 Ladbrokes)
Hull started the season in brilliant form which was probably a shock to many who thought they would be relegation candidates. While they still find themselves in the dizzy heights of 7th in the league, the last couple of weeks have shown spirited performances but seen them come up just short in a loss to Manchester United and a draw with Burnley. Arsenal still aren’t firing as they would like to and there is still a lot of unrest among sections of the fans who are disappointed not to have made marquee signings like Manchester United did with Pogba and Ibrahimovic. However, the form is coming back for Sanchez and as one of our top scorer tips we very much want to see this continue with his performances turning into goals. He did that midweek in the Champions League and he has an opportunity to build on that against Hull. The equaliser away at Paris could be a momentum builder for Arsenal and see them start to click in the league, but in order for them to do this, Sanchez needs to become the Gunner they need and start to frequently find the net.
1.5 Pts on Romelu Lukaku anytime scorer in Everton v Middlesbrough (7/5 Betfair)
This seems crazy that they are giving Lukaku odds over evens to score at any point in a game against one of the newly promoted teams in the league. While Boro have started the season brightly and Lukaku was in a bit of a dry spell for Everton, we have just seen the international break end with him bagging a couple for Belgium before returning to the Premier League to stick 3 past another of the North East teams, Sunderland. That game saw him face a tough battle against 2 strong centre backs who were trying to give him no space or time, yet Lukaku used his own strength, skill and speed to twist, turn and outrun them as he stuck 3 in the net within a 12-minute period. As a streaky striker we wouldn’t be surprised to see him bag another 2 or 3 this weekend at Goodison and we cannot turn down the value for him to get just 1 within 90 minutes.
0.5 Pts on Stoke to win @ Palace (16/5 Bet Victor & Betfred)
Stoke have had a horrid start to the season and our tip for them to finish inside the top 10 is clearly struggling as their only point has come away at Middlesbrough. However, this can be explained in so much as Boro’s first Premier League game at home was always going to be a difficult one for any team to face them in. Stoke’s other 3 games that have ended in defeat have been against Everton, Man City and Spurs, 3 teams we expect to be inside the top 8 come the end of the season. Although they were destroyed by City and Spurs, they were very unfortunate against Everton, but for our tip to come good those aren’t necessarily the games that they need to take points in. This one away at Palace is though, and we hope this is where they find a bit of form.
Hughes will not be happy at seeing them perform so badly and he will appreciate that a defeat here will leave them early contenders for relegation rather than top half hopefuls. He won’t want them to drop significantly from what was a promising season last year and while Palace do pose a threat having made some impressive signings, Stoke will still believe that man for man they will have enough to go to Selhurst Park and leave with all the points. The odds at over 3/1 are very generous here.