This Weekend’s Best Football Bets
25/4/2008
Author: John Beith
There are a lot of important games affecting promotion and relegation up and down the country this weekend and here at FootballBetting.net we’ve studied the weekend fixtures and picked out some bets that we think provide good value for punters.
The big game in the Premiership is the Chelsea v Manchester United match at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea know a win will draw them level with United on points at the top of the table, while a victory for United would see them seal the title due to their superior goal difference. It’s a hard match to call but with Chelsea being unbeaten in the league at home for over four years it’s hard to back against them. Manchester United haven’t scored a goal in their last five league visits to Chelsea and are looking for their first win in six at Stamford Bridge. Despite all the negatives United have a far better record coming off a Champions League midweek fixture winning eight, than Chelsea who have only managed two wins. We predict a draw 9/4 (VCBet) as the most likely outcome.
Everton are at home to Aston Villa on Sunday in the battle for a European place and with Villa seemingly back in their excellent early season form an away win at 9/4 (Bet365) looks tempting. Everton have a good home record and will be looking to maintain the three point gap between themselves and Villa, but with Villa having scored 15 goals in their last three matches they may have too much firepower for Everton.
Bolton are still involved in the battle for survival but they’ve given themselves a good chance of avoiding relegation with two wins recently. They travel to Tottenham on Saturday and with Spurs showing their inconsistency again in recent matches and the 7/2 on offer with VCbet for a Bolton win looks good value.
In League One Bournemouth looked dead and buried a couple of months ago but they have won their last five matches and are the league’s in form team. They are still in the bottom four but they know wins in their last two games could see them pull off what looked like an improbable escape and they must be favourites to beat Crewe who are only six points ahead of them in the table. The 11/10 (Bet365) looks a banker bet and should be taken.
Up in Scotland it’s the second Old Firm Derby to be played at Parkhead within eleven days. Celtic scored a last gasp winner to keep their slim title hopes alive in the last meeting and have now moved two points clear at the top of the SPL although Rangers have three games in hand. Another win for Celtic would put pressure on Rangers who are still involved in Europe and have a backlog of fixtures left to play in a short period of time.
It’s unlikely that Rangers will go undefeated from now till the end of the season given the amount of games they have left to play and with the number of injuries they have picked up lately, so a Celtic win could blow the title race wide open again. Derby games are always difficult to predict but with Rangers missing a number of key players for the match due to injury and suspension we predict a narrow home win for Celtic 11/10 (Bodog.)