The Premier League rolls on into another exciting game week after a thrilling opening weekend!
Friday 18 August
Nottingham Forest 87/100 | Draw 12/5 | Sheffield United 10/3
Forest fans will be grateful they are at home this weekend. Steve Cooper’s men continued their disastrous form on the road last weekend, losing 2-1 to Arsenal. They are much better at home and will want to get some points on the board here. I worry for Sheffield; they’ve lost some of their best and most prolific players since returning to the league and losing to Palace wouldn’t have been the start they wanted! Back the home win here.
Saturday 19 August
Liverpool 23/100 | Draw 11/2 | Bournemouth 10/1
I’m intrigued to see the approach Bournemouth employ against a side like Liverpool. Andoni Iraola is known for his aggressive approach, and for the most part we saw that against West Ham last time out…Liverpool aren’t West Ham though.
The Reds will no doubt be disappointed with the start against Chelsea, for the first 25 minutes they looked unstoppable but sort of just fizzled out. I think I’m going to go to the goal markets. Nothing to write home about, but with two aggressive managers, I think it’s a banker.
Wolves 29/10 | Draw 11/4 | Brighton 17/20
Brighton started the way they ended last season, aggressive and uncompromising insofar as their approach to football is concerned. Enough has already been made of Wolves (I’m not going to jump on the bandwagon, but I will say that I think Brighton will have too much for them.
Fulham 13/8 | Draw 9/4 | Brentford 6/4
Brentford are a rather irritating and awkward football side to play. They showed against Spurs that they still have the players to hurt you even without Ivan Toney, but if ever there was a side comfortable making the most of set-pieces and breaking play – it’s the Bees.
Fulham earned a commendable win over Everton, even amidst the uncertainty surrounding the team and Aleksandar Mitrovic, I think they are a well-drilled side, but I don’t think they can remain competitive for extended periods. Back the draw here.
Tottenham 17/10 | Draw 11/4 | Manchester United 27/20
Please follow link to see featured game.
Manchester City 4/6 | Draw 3/1 | Newcastle 15/4
If (like me) you allowed doubt to creep into your estimation of Manchester City, that game on Friday night would have reminded you that this is still a world class football team.
Newcastle was brilliant against Villa, I mean, they blew their opponents out of the water! A lot has been said about the expectation around Newcastle and whether they are going to juggle the league and Champions League…but that hasn’t started and right now why wouldn’t they focus on the league? I think this is going to be an incredible game of football, and both teams scoring has my attention.
Sunday 20 August
Aston Villa 4/6 | Draw 14/5 | Everton 15/4
Aston Villa were outplayed last time out against Newcastle, but they still have reason to be optimistic about a positive season this year. Everton are somewhat under the radar at the moment, but with their season seemingly dependent on a few players – I can’t justify any sort of belief in them. Back the home win.
West Ham 13/5 | Draw 12/5 | Chelsea 20/21
I must be honest and say, I was mightily impressed by the Chelsea performance against Liverpool. The Blues showed a whole lot of character and fought hard to earn themselves a point. The young talent at the Bridge is surely enough to pique the interest of the Chelsea faithful – and why not?
It’s certainly not the side Mauricio Pochettino would have expected to field – but he would have surely been impressed with what he saw. I feel for West Ham a little bit, their Declan Rice replacements have been a staggered and I don’t think it’s entirely fair on David Moyes. Chelsea for me is a banker here.
Monday 21 August
Crystal Palace 9/2 | Draw 29/10 | Arsenal 11/20
I know that Palace aren’t going to be the goalscoring machine they once were, but I was quite impressed with Eberechi Eze and Odsonne Edouard upfront. I still think they will find themselves in a relegation scrap, but there is some sort of silver lining, I guess.
Arsenal wasn’t as devastating as they can be, but I think Forest looking to defend as deep as they did have something to do with it. They win this, but I wouldn’t get dizzy about the goal line.
