Premier League Betting Tips October 30/November 1
Arsenal caused the biggest upset last weekend when they beat Manchester City 3-0. OK, they had an extra man for nearly the full 90 minutes. And yes, that did make a difference. Birmingham City and Manchester United both won as predicted, while City’s defeat saw Chelsea extend their lead at the top of the Premier League to 5 points. At the other end of the table, Liverpool picked up a valuable 3 points over Blackburn Rovers. Moving on to this weekend, here are my 3 favourite bets for the weekend:
Arsenal to beat West Ham -1.5 1/2
There’s little value in betting on Arsenal to win this match at 1/5 unless you have a big bank to play with. Which may be the case after our successive 100% weeks all throughout October. Arsenal’s attack looked good playing against 10 men and a defence that was on the back foot after 5 minutes when Dedryck Boyata. Manchester City never organised their defence after that and Arsenal took them apart. West Ham’s defence is bottom of the Premier League and Arsenal can enjoy similar success. Samir Nasri is in fine form, Cesc Fabregas is back and Marouane Chamakh has caused better defenders problems in his debut season. Defensively, I am still not impressed by West Ham this season, as you can tell. Their midfield is doing a lot of work for the team. They do have a good midfield. Unfortunately they’re going to be outclassed at the Emirates on Saturday. I expect a comfortable win for this Arsenal side, and therefore the -1.5 asian handicap should cover easily.
Chelsea to beat Blackburn 1/2
Carlo Ancelotti admitted after last weekend’s 2-0 victory over Wolves that his side were not at their best. He was right. Petr Cech made a number of saves to prevent Wolves from taking the lead and equalising at different points in the game. The 2 goal victory was hard work in the end and Chelsea fans were grateful when super sub Salomon Kalou came off the bench once again to score late on. That result came after a trip to Moscow in the Champions League. Chelsea have not been in action during the week, so they’re fresh for their trip to Ewood Park on Saturday. Didier Drogba is looking to return to goalscoring form, while his quick, nifty team mate Nicolas Anelka may enjoy success too. And Ashley Cole. I would like to add Florent Malouda to this list, but he has yet to score on the road so far this season. Blackburn took a point from this fixture last season, but they’ve made a poor start to this campaign, losing to Liverpool last weekend saw Blackburn drop to 17th. Expect Chelsea to pile numbers forward in attack during this game as they penetrate the Blackburn defence.
Manchester City to beat Wolves 8/11
Dedryck Boyata’s 5th minute red card last weekend prevented Manchester City beating Arsenal as they eventually went down 3-0. They failed to reorganise their defence after that, which should see them add more focus to defending this weekend. Quite a defensive side already, they will be looking to Carlos Tevez, David Silva and James Milner as ever to break the opposition down. And if need be, they have the creative Adam Johnson to bring on along with the goalscoring Emmanuel Adebayor (provided neither start). An injury to Jody Craddock in defence is a massive blow to Wolves. Jelle van Damme, Richard Stearman, Stephen Ward and Christophe Berra doesn’t appear to be a promising match up against Tevez, Silva, Milner and co. City players won’t like Wolves’ tough-tackling approach, so expect the Citizens to win a number of free kicks in this games, from which they have a number of excellent takers and plenty of large targets to aim for in the penalty area. I see Manchester City rebounding from last weekend’s defeat to take 3 points off a Wolves side who were put on the back foot Tuesday night when they lost late on to Manchester United in the Carling Cup.
