Premier League Betting Tips April 24/25
Hull City were poor in their home game with Aston Villa midweek, creating more chances for their opponents than themselves. Anything but a win here and will be down, baring a surprise home loss by West Ham. The Tigers will not win their last two games. Sunderland have got some good form going of late, despite losing their last two away from home. They have won only once on their travels too but they can’t have been much more confident of an away win than this weekend. Hull are desperate, playing poorly and not defending well either. Darren Bent will be hungry to net as many as he can between now and the end of the season to increase his chances of booking a place on the plane to South Africa. Facing this defence he has a good chance to do so. Sunderland +0.5 is a good selection for Saturday.
One of the most intriguing matches of the weekend comes at the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal host Manchester City in Saturday’s evening kickoff. Arsenal have nothing to play for while Manchester City, in form are fighting to finish directly below them in the league. And City have a good chance to put pressure on Spurs here by picking up 3 points. Arsenal have several key injuries in their team, most notable their two centre backs which will likely leave Sol Campbell and Mikael Silvestre to deal with the likes of Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor and co. To counter Manchester City’s attacks with their own, Arsenal are without Cesc Fabregas, Alex Song and likely Andrei Arshavin too. Robin van Persie isn’t fully fit which may give Theo Walcott another run out. Manchester City’s defence has been a bit shaky this season, but should fare well against this understrength Arsenal side. Expect Arsenal fans to give Adebayor a loud welcoming, but not a welcome one. Can Roberto Mancini really risk Patrick Vieira in this game? An Arsenal legend, but not fit enough for the Premier League any more. He may be risking points by playing the former Arsenal captain here. Otherwise, 16/5 on City to win is fantastic value, as is the +0.5 handicap. A more popular bet will be both teams to score.
On Sunday, Aston Villa host Birmingham City in their big Birmingham derby. A midday kickoff, similar to all of Villa’s rival games this season. They drew both against Wolves, but Gabriel Agbonlahor struck a late winner at St Andrews back in September. Birmingham have a top half finish to seal in their final three games, while Aston Villa will feel they’ll need to win all three of their remaining games to have a chance of finishing 4th. With Manchester City and Tottenham facing tough away games the day before, Martin O’Neill will know in advance how many points his team will enter this game behind the team in 4th place. Regardless, it won’t change his intent for this game as they go for 3 points. On a bit of a roll at the moment, the face a tough defence. While I am edging Aston Villa to win this, the odds don’t represent value, so I am tipping under 2.5 goals for this derby game.
The bookmakers have been clever in shortening Everton’s odds to below halves for their home game with Fulham on Sunday. The Toffees are in good form as they look to qualify for Europe next season, aided by Manchester United’s Carling Cup win and Portsmouth’s inability to play in the Europa League next season. More importantly, Fulham are coming back from a tough goalless draw against Hamburg in the first leg of their Europa League semi final in Germany. That after a long coach journey that included training on the autobahn during a traffic jam. Surely that’s taken too much energy out of them, perhaps enough to persuade Roy Hodgson to rest most, if not all of his first team. With all that in mind, Everton are a good bet to pick up another 3 points on Sunday.