Subscribers to Lap of the Odds were celebrating when Ollie Watkins scored for Aston Villa at Anfield on Saturday, as tipped, and there are four more games to enjoy Sunday.
The highlight is the Mourinho derby, as Tottenham host Manchester United in the late afternoon game.
Tottenham are seeking a league double over Manchester United for the first time since the 1989-90 season, and wouldn’t manager Joe Mourinho just love to put one over his former club. Spurs won 6-1 at Old Trafford in October, and have won three of their last five home clashes against today’s opponent. That said, United are unbeaten in 22 Premier League away games.
A draw is not much good to Tottenham in their battle for a top four spot after they dropped points against Newcastle last week, and that could leave them open to the counter attack.
With this in mind, we’re going to side with Bruno Fernandes to open the scoring, at 6/1. The Portuguese midfielder has been one of the stars of the season, and takes penalties and freekicks.
The early game sees Burnley take on Newcastle, with both sides looking for three points to ease their relegation concerns.
The Magpies were decent in their draw with Tottenham last weekend but Burnley will be very difficult to beat at Turf Moor – they could draw six consecutive home league games for the first time since 1936.
We think this will be a tight affair, and a draw at around 2/1 does appeal, but we note that Chris Wood, the Burnley striker, has been on a scoring run. He could score in four consecutive Premier League appearances for only the second time for the Clarets, and take him to open the scoring, at 9/2.
One of the day’s highlights will be the clash between West Ham and Leicester at the London Stadium.
Both sides are tantalisingly close to Champions League qualification, and are likely to come out all guns blazing this afternoon. The Hammers need a win to climb into fourth place and come into the game on the back of a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Wolves. That win came at a cost with Michail Antonio limping off, joining Declan Rice on the sidelines.
By contrast, Leicester welcome back James Maddison from injury, and will hope he can provide the ammunition so star striker Jamie Vardy can end a nine-game goal drought. Only Manchester City have a better away record this season, while just two sides have scored more on their travels.
However, we have been very impressed with the form of Jesse Lingard since he arrived at West Ham on loan from Manchester United, with the England winger having scored three goals in his last four games. In Antonio’s absence he will be expected to pick up the goal-scoring slack, and we take him to score first, at 17/2.
The late game sees Sheffield United take on Arsenal at Bramall Lane, the first home game for the Blades since the departure of former manager Chris Wilder.
United are heading back to the Championship, have lost all three of their games since Wilder’s sacking and are struggling to score goals. This all would suggest an easy victory for the Gunners, but they have not kept a clean sheet since their goalless draw with Manchester United in January, and were absolutely dreadful for long spells in their last two Premier League games against West Ham and Liverpool.
We are unsure about how this game will progress, but we note that Nicolas Pepe has scored in four of his last five Premier League away starts. We’ll take him to open the scoring tonight, at 6/1.
Recommendations:
Fernandes (Man United), Wood (Burnley), Lingard (West Ham) and Pepe (Arsenal) to all score first as a Yankee. (Prices from bet365)
