Tag: Soccer tips

Premier League Preview Nov 1st – 3rd

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

Betcirca followers made a small profit last week from our Premier League bets but it could have been so much better! Eden Hazard looked certain to score when clean through on goal against Manchester United but uncharacteristically fired straight at the keeper. The Belgian magician had tormented Maribor’s defence earlier in the week and he is worth another chance to find the killer touch against QPR on Saturday.

Chelsea fielded some of their lesser lights at Shrewsbury in the Capital One Cup but Jose Mourinho was not impressed by their scrappy 2-1 win. I expect a nearly full-strength side to line up against Harry Redknapp’s side and run out convincing winners.

Wilfried Bony did us a good turn when scoring last weekend and his Swansea side now travel to Goodison Park to play Everton. This is one of several intriguing games this weekend. Everton seem to be back to their best with Lukaku back among the goals but the Swans were very unlucky not to win at Anfield in the Cup in midweek. I think there will be goals in this match with Everton possibly just sneaking it.

The Manchester derby is a difficult one with City having hit an unexpected dip in form and United gradually improving. City’s troubles began when they allowed a two-goal lead to disappear in Moscow and they have since lost to West Ham and Newcastle. United were let off the hook by Chelsea last week but did not really do enough to convince me that they can win this one.

Diafra Sakho was highlighted in this column a couple of weeks ago and his incredible scoring streak now runs to seven consecutive matches. The world and his dog will be hoping that he can make it eight when the Hammers travel to Stoke and why shouldn’t it? Stoke will be in low spirits after losing twice to Southampton in a week and Sam Allardyce will have his tactics mapped out as usual.

Alexis Sanchez is the player in form at Arsenal and he is taken to get on the score sheet at home to Burnley with a big home win likely. Saido Berahino is another playing with his shooting boots on and he can continue the good work for West Brom this weekend at Leicester.

Newcastle stunned Tottenham last week and followed up by winning at Man City in the Capital One Cup. I don’t know how close Alan Pardew came to the sack but you have to admire his guts in toughing out. They now host a ragged Liverpool side who somehow escaped with a win over Swansea in the Cup but still look vulnerable in defence. Both sides can score in this one but the result could go either way.

Newcastle v Liverpool Both sides to score@4-6 BetVictor

Alexis Sanchez to score and Arsenal beat Burnley @11-10 Boyle Sports

Eden Hazard to score and Chelsea beat QPR @11-10 Paddy Power

Wilfried Bony to score for Swansea v Everton @5-2 Totesport

Everton v Swansea more than 2.5 goals @5-6 BetVictor

Saido Berahino to score and West Brom beat Leicester @6-1 BWin

Diafra Sakho to score and West Ham beat Stoke @6-1 BWin

Premier League Preview Oct 25th – 27th

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

The highlight of this weekend’s Premier League action has to be Sunday’s game at Old Trafford between Manchester United and Chelsea.

The Blues start the weekend five points clear at the top of the table but United are potentially dangerous rivals with their summer influx of stars. They have improved offensively but their defence is another matter and Jose Mourinho will be looking to exploit this with the pace of Hazard and Willian.

At the time of writing, Costa’s availability is unknown but Loic Remy is definitely out. That could leave Didier Drogba as the only realistic option at centre-forward. He has looked a long way short of his best but Hazard was brilliant against Maribor in midweek and Chelsea can create goals from almost anywhere on the pitch. Take Hazard to score in another victory for the Blues.

Man City blew a two-goal lead in Moscow and that will have made it a miserable journey home. They now play a confident West Ham who have found a new scoring machine in Diafra Sakho. He gave us a 5-1 winner last week when scoring for his sixth consecutive game. Sam Allardyce patted himself on the back for working out how to beat Everton after their Europa League match and will have a similar plan for the champions. The Hammers might be worth supporting on the handicap.

Southampton were superb last week in demolishing Sunderland 8-0 and will be full of confidence for the visit of Stoke. You can’t help but think that Ronald Koeman’s side have to slip up sooner or later but I would be surprised if it is on Saturday. Take Pelle to score in a Saints win.

Another man in form is Wilfried Bony of Swansea and he can get on the score sheet at home to Leicester. The Swans were hard done by at Stoke last week and should be able to grab all three points here. Arsenal are not the ideal opponents for Sunderland after last week’s humiliation at St Mary’s and it is difficult to see any other result than a win for the Gunners. It should be routine win for Everton at struggling Burnley and Tottenham can put the pressure back on Alan Pardew by defeating Newcastle.

Monday night’s game is QPR versus Aston Villa. Harry Redknapp’s side fought manfully at home to Liverpool last week but somehow managed to lose 3-2 after twice appearing to have salvaged a point. Villa are not the most reliable of teams but this game could be draw material along with Saturday’s game between West Brom and Crystal Palace.

West Ham (+1 handicap) to beat Man City @6-4 Bet365

Graziano Pelle to score and Southampton to win @17-10 Ladbrokes

Arsenal to beat Sunderland @4-5 Stan James

Wilfried Bony to score and Swansea win @9-4 Paddy Power

Eden Hazard to score and Chelsea win @5-1 Coral

QPR v Aston Villa DRAW @9-4 Bet365

Premier League Preview Oct 18 – 20th

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

The Premier League makes a welcome return on Saturday after the International break. First up are champions Manchester City who host Tottenham in the lunchtime kick-off.

Spurs have been down this route before, arriving here in buoyant mood last year to be thumped 6-0. They also suffered similar humiliation at home, conceding a further five as City waltzed through their non-existent defence. Will Tottenham make a game of it under Mauricio Pochettino?

Although Spurs trail City by just three points, this is really a match that the Champions should win if they are to keep tabs on Chelsea. Sergio Aguero scored three times against Spurs last year and is back to something like his best. He looks a decent bet to score in a home win.

Arsenal are currently residing in eighth place and they need a confidence booster at home to Hull. The dust has now settled on another defeat for the Gunners at Stamford Bridge and Arsene Wenger has begrudgingly apologised for shoving Jose Mourinho. There should not be too much to get fired up about in this one, although Hull may feel that they have a score to settle from last season’s FA Cup disappointment.

Burnley are starting to look like good things for relegation and a defeat at home to West Ham on Saturday would confirm that view. Sam Allardyce has pulled a rabbit out of the hat with Diafra Sakho who has scored in all five games so far for the Hammers. He could be worth combining with a Hammers victory, especially with Stewart Downing relishing his new role as midfield provider.

League leaders Chelsea travel to Crystal Palace for a game that they should win in a canter. Somehow they contrived to lose this match last year and it provides an opportunity to measure their progress since. Three points against Palace counts just as much as three against Arsenal and that is a lesson that they should have learned from last year. The bookmakers are growing to hate Diego Costa as he keeps coming up with the goods. He even scored for Spain in midweek and the omens are not good for Palace.

Everton must be scratching their heads when they look at the league table and see themselves one point above the drop zone. They have played some good football this season but their defence has been woeful. They need to tighten up against a slightly unpredictable Aston Villa side but should just edge it.

I would normally skip past Newcastle v Leicester but the Alan Pardew show re-starts at 3pm with more trials and tribulations expected. Papiss Cisse is the only man keeping Pardew in a job at the moment and he will be the key player again on Saturday. Don’t put it past him to pop up and save his boss for the third time in little over a month.

Southampton continue to astound and sit proudly in third position. They are at home to Sunderland but you get the feeling that the pressure will start to tell sooner or later. They needed a world class goal from Pelle to beat QPR and Sunderland returned to winning form last week. It may be worth taking the Black Cats to steal a point on Saturday.

QPR look as weak as Burnley at present and should provide Liverpool with a much-needed three points on Sunday while Stoke and Swansea has “draw” written all over it. The mega-bucks spent at Old Trafford have started to pay off and they can continue their upward climb by winning at the Hawthorns on Monday. Di Maria continues to impress and can get on the score sheet for the Red Devils.

Sergio Aguero to score and Man City win @11-8 Coral

Arsenal to win by one goal @11-4 Skybet

Diafra Sakho to score and West Ham win @5-1 Bwin

Diego Costa to score and Chelsea win @6-5 Ladbrokes

Everton to win by one goal @11-4 Skybet

Papiss Cisse to score and Newcastle win @15-4 Bwin

Southampton v Sunderland DRAW @3-1 Bet365

Liverpool to win by three or more goals @4-1 Skybet

Stoke v Swansea DRAW @21-10 Bet365

Angel Di Maria to score and Man Utd win @3-1 Paddy Power

Premier League Preview Sep 27

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

This weekend’s Premiership action gets off to a cracking start with Liverpool playing Everton in the Merseyside derby.

Both teams are struggling to find any consistency this season and arrive here in desperate need of a good result. Liverpool have survived Champions League and Capital One Cup games by the skin of their teeth and lost 3-1 to West Ham in between.

Everton were thrashed 6-3 by Chelsea but bounced back to beat West Brom and Wolfsburg. Progress came to a shuddering halt against Crystal Palace last weekend and they were then dumped out of the Capital One Cup by Swansea. Both sides are leaking goals at the moment and this has the makings of another thrilling encounter.

A repeat of the 3-3 draw at Goodison Park in November is not out of the question but I think Liverpool could just shade it, particularly if Sturridge is fit to play a part.

League leaders Chelsea lost their 100% record last weekend when Frank Lampard struck late on for Manchester City. That sentence still does not read true for Blues supporters and Lampard’s double-strike in midweek suggests that Chelsea were negligent in not offering the midfield player a one-year extension.

They play host to Aston Villa on Saturday, a side that have sometimes caused problems in the past. Villa made a flying start to the season before being brushed aside 3-0 by Arsenal. If you ignore that poor performance and judge them on their victory at Anfield, they look seriously overpriced at 16-1. Cynics may point to Chelsea’s 8-0 win in 2012/13 but Villa are a lot stronger now and Chelsea’s two draws and a scrappy 2-1 win over Bolton are a warning not to expect too much.

Crystal Palace and Leicester looks like a draw banker. The Foxes have not won in London in any of their last 15 Premier League visits but they look good enough to battle for a point. Hull play host to Champions Manchester City who look to have turned a corner this week. Lampard’s previously mentioned intervention rescued a priceless point against Chelsea and they then proceeded to blast seven goals past Sheffield Wednesday in midweek. With confidence on the up and Dzeko back in scoring mode, this should be another three points.

Perhaps the most intriguing fixture of the week is Manchester United versus West Ham. The Red Devils are brilliant going forward but leaking like a sieve in defence. They probably need to score at least three to be sure of a point! Angel Di Maria has been very impressive and he can be backed to score again with both sides finding the target. West Ham pulled off a great win over Liverpool last week and will approach this game with some optimism. Expect another feast of goals.

Southampton continue to confound their critics. Not only are they flying in the Premier League, they also knocked Arsenal out of the Capital One Cup in midweek and will be expected to see off QPR at St Mary’s. Ronald Koeman’s summer signings are all punching above their weight and they can continue their unlikely charge towards the top.

The late kick-off is the North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham. Rather like Liverpool and Everton, these two sides are having a topsy-turvy start to the season in Cup and League. Arsenal’s defeat against Southampton underlines a lack of depth in their squad while Tottenham still have two ways of playing. In recent seasons, Tottenham have disappointed in these types of fixtures and Wenger can recall Wojciech Szczesny, Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny, Mikel Arteta, Mesut Ozil and Danny Welbeck on Saturday.

Liverpool 3 Everton 2 (correct score) @22-1 Bet365

Liverpool v Everton over 3.5 goals @6-4 Coral

Chelsea 2 Aston Villa 1 (correct score) @11-1 BetVictor

Crystal Palace v Leicester DRAW @19-5 BetVictor

Edin Dzeko to score first @5-1 Paddy Power

Man City to win by 3 or more goals @4-1 Skybet

Man United to win by 2 goals @100-30 Bet365

Angel Di Maria to score first @7-1 Bet365

Southampton 3 QPR 0 (correct score) @10-1 BetVictor

Arsenal to win by 2 goals @4-1 Stan James

Premier League Preview Sep 20th – 21st

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

After a busy week in Europe, it will be interesting to see how the top teams cope with a return to PremierLeague action.

Probably the poorest showing by a Premiership side was Arsenal’s disappointing 2-0 defeat against Borussia Dortmund. They are really struggling to live up to the pre-season hype and face a very tricky game at a revitalised Aston Villa.

Paul Lambert managed to engineer a victory at Anfield last weekend and Villa fans must be getting dizzy after three victories that have left them in second place in the table. They are only two points behind leaders Chelsea who travel to Man City on Sunday so Villa could top the league on Saturday night!

Arsenal fans will point to their incredible record at Villa Park where they have not list in their last fifteen league visits. They ought to have beaten Man City last week but had to settle for a draw and they will be looking to Danny Welbeck to provide the goals. Arsene Wenger’s team are difficult to predict at the moment but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them come away with a draw at least.

The early kick-off sees QPR welcome Stoke after Harry Redknapp’s team were totally outclassed by Man United’s new-look side. Rangers did manage to beat Sunderland in their previous game but they have generally looked like a side we can expect to see in the thick of the relegation battle this season. Stoke beat Man City and then lost at home to Leicester and I am expecting Mark Hughes to galvanise them for a victory here.

Alan Pardew is surely on borrowed time at Newcastle. He has even had the dreaded vote of confidence from his employers, usually the kiss of death. The Magpies are bottom of the league and were slaughtered by Southampton last week. Hull are in buoyant mood after a successful venture into the transfer market and played well in a 2-2 draw with West Ham on Monday night. It may be worth supporting The Tigers to deal the hammer blow to Pardew, ironically the same clash that saw the infamous head-butting incident last season.

Swansea versus Southampton is an intriguing contest with the home side dropping their first points at Stamford Bridge and the Saints flying after thumping Newcastle. Ronald Koeman seems to be working a kind of mini-miracle at St Mary’s and Southampton beat Swansea twice last season. I thought that Swansea played well against Chelsea and a draw could be on the agenda here.

West Ham play Liverpool in the late kick-off and must fancy their chances of getting a result. The Reds were very poor in their return to the Champions League against a well-organised but moderate side. They needed an injury-time penalty to scrape a win and were beaten by Villa last week. Liverpool have won seven of the last meetings here but the Hammers showed plenty of resolve against Hull on Monday. I think it might be a struggle but Liverpool can take the points.

The big match on Sunday is the clash between champions Man City and high-flying Chelsea. The Blues had the wind taken out of their sails a bit in midweek when only managing a draw against Schalke 04. If nothing else, that game underlined just how important Diego Costa is to the team.  He will doubtless prove a handful for City and can get on the scoresheet.

City were unlucky to concede a late goal against Bayern Munich although they had been hanging on in that game. A draw would end Chelsea’s 100% record but would have to be seen as a decent result.

Man United’s huge investment finally brought a dividend last week against QPR and Leicester should go the same way while Everton brushed aside Wolfsburg in the Europa League and can see off Crystal Palace.

Stoke to beat QPR @9-5 Bet365

Aston Villa v Arsenal DRAW @14-5 Boyle Sports

Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 1 @7-1 BetVictor

Hull to beat Newcastle @11-4 Coral

Swansea v Southampton DRAW @12-5 Bet365

Swansea 2 Southampton 2 @16-1 BetVictor

West Ham 1 Liverpool 3 @14-1 Bet365

Man United to beat Leicester by 2 or more goals @7-2 Stan James

Everton to beat Crystal Palace by 2 or more goals @12-5 Stan James

Man City v Chelsea DRAW @12-5 William Hill

Diego Costa to score at any time @13-8 Ladbrokes

Premier League Preview Sep 13th -14th

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

The Premier League returns after the International break and it is back with a bang! Arsenal host Manchester City in the early kick-off in an early clash of the title contenders.

Arsenal fans will be hoping that their side can repeat their comprehensive 3-0 win in the Community Shield but City fielded a weakened team that day and are a much stiffer proposition on Saturday. Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey faces a late fitness test but Wenger has options with Arteta and Ozil back in action.

Arsenal were hammered away by Liverpool, Chelsea and City last season, defeats that ultimately cost them their title chance. Their side remains much the same although they are missing the injured Giroud and relying on new-boy Danny Welbeck to fill the void. They drew with City and Chelsea at home and beat Liverpool so will be looking for at least a point. A 1-1 draw seems a likely outcome here and is worth a bet at 13-2 with BetVictor. The draw is also tempting at 5-2 with the same firm.

If anyone doubted Chelsea’s Premiership credentials, they must have been convinced by their astonishing 6-3 win at Goodison Park. They now face the only other team with a 100% record in the Premier League, Swansea City.

Garry Monk’s team have impressed in their early matches and look good enough to hold the Blues for long periods. The result could hinge on whether or not Diego Costa is fit to start for the Blues after a sensational start for his new club. An ageing Didier Drogba and a late replacement for Torres in the form of Loic Remy are the alternatives to lead Chelsea’s attack. I think that Chelsea will edge this one by a single goal.

Crystal Palace versus Burnley looks like draw material to me. Neither side have claimed a victory so far this season and Burnley have faced the tougher opposition including Chelsea and Man United. Palace were unlucky against Arsenal on the opening day but grabbed a late equaliser at Newcastle.

Southampton have been one of the surprise packages so far this season. Many pundits felt that they would suffer badly from their summer clear out of star players but they seem to have found the secret to an instant rebuild! Perhaps they should give a lesson to Louis Van Gaal and save Manchester United a few million in the process?

Saints welcome Newcastle to St Mary’s with Magpies’ boss Alan Pardew right in the firing line. A 3-1 win at West Ham was a terrific result for Southampton who deserved something from Anfield at the start of the season. Southampton look a solid bet to come out on top here against a nervy Newcastle side.

Stoke v Leicester also fits into the draw category with neither side setting the league on fire in their early matches. The home side are tough to break down at home but Leicester can be pretty resilient as they showed at Stamford Bridge.

Sunderland versus Spurs is an interesting one with the visitors having already shown both sides of their character. They thrashed QPR 4-0 to the delight of their supporters but looked as if they had not improved at all from last season when crumbling pathetically at Liverpool. Sunderland have under-performed so far this season and Gus Poyet will be looking for improvement on Saturday. This could be the upset of the weekend.

The late kick-off sees Liverpool host Aston Villa. The Reds bounced back from a 3-0 defeat at Man City to dish out a similar beating to Tottenham and will be looking to build on that with another victory on Saturday. The jury is out on the signing of Mario Balotelli but he will undoubtedly have good days and bad at Anfield. With Sturridge and Sterling on a high after England’s win in Switzerland, this looks like a comfortable home win.

Man United will surely have too much fire power for QPR in Sunday’s game and anything less than a comfortable victory would set alarm bells ringing at Old Trafford. Go for goals in this one.

Arsenal v Man City DRAW @5-2 BetVictor

Arsenal 1 Man City 1 correct score @13-1 BetVictor

Chelsea to beat Swansea by one goal @11-4 Ladbrokes

Crystal Palace v Burnley DRAW @14-5 Ladbrokes

Southampton to beat Newcastle @5-6 William Hill

Stoke v Leicester DRAW @3-1 Bet365

Sunderland to beat Tottenham @11-4 BetVictor

Liverpool to beat Aston Villa by three or more goals @15-8 Skybet

Mario Balotelli to score at anytime @20-21 Bet365

Man United to beat QPR by three or more goals @15-8 Skybet