It’s FA Cup weekend, meaning there’s only four Premier League games but for five of the eight teams involved these could be crucial in the race for survival.
Ahead of this weekend’s Premier League games, our football betting expert has taken a look through the best bets.
Palace to close the gap on Terriers
It’s been a weird season for Crystal Palace, who find themselves in the bottom three, despite arguably having the strongest team in the bottom half.
Long-term injuries to key men such as Wilfried Zaha, Yohan Cabaye, Mamadou Sakho, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Scott Dann have hampered their attempts to drag themselves away from the relegation scrap.
Many laughed at Roy Hodgson’s appointment, but the former England man has steadied the ship for a side who lost their first eight games on the season without scoring a single goal.
Palace are 33/20 to claim victory here.
Huddersfield, on the other hand, have performed admirably in their debut Premier League campaign, but I still feel they’re overrated and in big trouble.
Last Saturday, they had the perfect opportunity to pick up three points when their relegation rivals Swansea had a man sent off inside 15 minutes.
Despite their best attempts, David Wagner’s side failed to find a killer touch and were held to a bitterly disappointing 0-0 draw. Games like this are where survival is won and lost.
The Terriers are 19/10 to win this one – with another draw available at 21/20 with Grosvenorsport.com.
With Zaha making his return last week and Loftus-Cheek, Sakho and Cabaye all poised to return to the starting line-up on Saturday, I’m expecting them to pick up a valuable three points away from home.
Palace are 33/20 to grab a crucial win and heap the misery on Huddersfield.
I also like the look of Palace’s new No 9 Alexander Sørloth, who I think will break his duck on Saturday and the big striker is 9/4 to score anytime.
Cherries to pick off hapless West Brom
There’s not a lot to say about West Brom, other than they’re devoid of quality and are all-but certain to go down. The appointment of Alan Pardew hasn’t worked and it’s a miracle he’s still at the helm.
The Baggies have won just three times all season – and are 18/5 to add a fourth here.
For Bournemouth, this is the perfect opportunity to close in on survival, with a victory taking them up to 36 points with seven games remaining.
They were comfortably beaten by Tottenham in the end, but not without giving them a scare early on.
With players such as Josh King, Callum Wilson and Junior Stanislas, the Cherries should have enough about them to comfortably see of the Baggies.
A Bournemouth win is 5/6.
I do, however, think West Brom will score. When Bournemouth signed Asmir Begovic, many expected him to help fix their goalkeeping issues.
But the Bosnian’s season has been littered with mistakes and you never feel as if he’ll keep a clean sheet.
If Salomon Rondon is up for it, he can be a real handful, so could cause the Bournemouth defence some problems.
For this reason, I’d advise backing Bournemouth to win and both teams to score at 29/10.
Everton’s poor away from to continue
One win in 22 Premier League away games for Everton, that’s just not good enough for a team who spent £45million on Gylfi Sigurdsson and £27m on Cenk Tosun.
Toffees fans can’t wait for this season to be over but it remains to be seen if the unpopular Sam Allardyce will remain in charge.
In the meantime, Everton have nothing to play for, which will play in Stoke’s hands. The Potters sit second bottom and relegation to the Championship is edging closer and closer.
Paul Lambert, who took over from Mark Hughes, has seen improvements from his side but not enough to keep them up at present.
However, at home, they are a lot tougher to beat and if Xherdan Shaqiri is on form, then they have a chance.
I can see it being a scrappy affair and not one for the neutral, but will be backing Stoke to pick up a crucial three points.
The home side are 7/5 with Grosvenorsport.com.
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